History of Preble County, Ohio, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches, Part 35

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

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Mr. Tizzard located on a small farm about six miles from Chillicothe, in the beautiful and fertile valley of the Scioto, and lived there about six years-a portion of the time working his farm and the remainder setting type in the office of one of the Chillicothe newspapers.

In the fall of 1819, Mr. Tizzard was chosen repre- sentative of Ross county in the State legislature. While serving in that capacity he met Cornelius Van Ausdal, who had been elected the same year to represent the people of Preble county, in the same body. Circum- stances conspired to bring them together as roommates during the session of 1819-20, and their acquaintance ripened into friendship. On the adjournment of the legislature in the spring of 1820, Mr. Van Ausdal invit- ed his friend to visit Eaton, with a view of examining into its suitability as a place for establishing and con- ducting a weekly paper. A press and printing material had been brought to the village about 1816 by a Mr. Blackburn, but the paper which had been brought into existence had led only a weak, sickly life, and after many viscissitudes the press had passed into Mr. Van Ausdal's hands.

The subject of this sketch was so well satisfied with the general appearance of Eaton, and so confident that he could make a success of publishing a newspaper here, that he returned home, and moved his family to the town which was to be his future home, as early as was possible. That was some time in the spring of 1820, and in the early part of the summer following he issued the first number of The Eaton Weekly Register, his sole assistant being a young man named John Scott, whom he brought with him.

"Mr. Tizzard continued to publish the Register until the year 1827, when he, in connection with Dr. D. D. Hall and the Rev. Jonathan Kidwell, commenced the publication of The Star in the West, a religious paper which proved a permanent institution, became a Uni- versalist organ, and is now published in Cincinnati.

The publication of both papers was continued by Mr. Tizzard from the same office until 1830, when he sold the Register and removed the Star in the West to Cin- cinnati.

The subject of our sketch remained in Cincinnati only about three years, and then removed to Philomath,

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Union county, Indiana. He remained there several years, and after making several other changes of location and disposing of his interest in the religious paper, re- turned to Eaton in 1839, and again became proprietor of the Register, which he continued to publish until a short time before his death, when he was compelled by the infirmities of old age to give up active occupation. As the editor for many years of the Register, Mr. Tizzard exerted a potent political influence, and assisted in ad- vancing nearly all of the wise and beneficent measures undertaken in his time. He enjoyed the utmost respect of the people of Eaton and Preble county, both as a man and journalist. At the session of the legislature during 1827-28 he was appointed one of the associate judges for Preble, and faithfully and creditably served in that capacity until his removal from the county. He was an admirable man in all of the walks of life, active, earnest and conscientious. In early life he was an Episcopalian, and in his later years a Universalist. He was a very zealous champion of this faith, and sought by every means in his power to bring it before men for their care- ful consideration and adoption. It was chiefly for the more effectual propagation of Universalism with which he hoped to benefit as many of his fellow-men as his in- fluence could reach, that the publication of the Star in the West was undertaken.

Judge Tizzard departed this life on the nineteenth day of May, 1844, and his remains were buried in Mound Hill cemetery.

He was the father of a large family of children, of whom four attained or approximated maturity, viz .: William B., James, Samuel, and Jane. Of these two only are living, the first and the last named, the former in Eaton and the latter in Camden. James removed to Burlington, Iowa, and was postmaster there, and pub- lisher for several years of the Hawkeye. Samuel died while the family was resident in Wayne county, Indiana.

William B. Tizzard, the well known citizen of Eaton, and eldest son of Judge Samuel Tizzard, was born in Philadelphia, December 6, 1813. He was between seven and eight years of age when he came with his parents to Eaton.

He has been a resident of the village ever since except during the years, when the family was in Cincinnati and Indiana. He obtained a common school education, and at proper age, learned the ·printer's trade, which he has ever since followed until 1873. After the decease of his father he became the editor and proprietor of the Register, and maintained in his management of the paper its former high standard. In 1850 he took as a partner, William F. Albright, and from 1860 to 1873 J. S. Morris was associated with him in the proprietorship of the Journal. In the year 1873 he sold out and purchased an interest in the Preble county bank, in the business of which he has since then taken an active part.

Mr. Tizzard, following in the footsteps of his father, is an Universalist in religion, and a Republican in politics, having been connected with the party from its organiza- tion, and previous to its formation being a Whig. He takes only such interest in politics as is consistent with

good, intelligent citizenship, and has always shunned rather that sought political preferment.

He was married in 1844, to Amelia, daughter of Henry and Huldah Hice, of Preble county. She is still living, and the mother of five children, three of whom have several years since reached maturity, and gone forth into the world-Samuel B., the eldest, and William E., the third son, are both dentists and graduates of the Phila- delphia college; the first located at Dayton, and the lat- ter at Minneapolis, Kansas. James H. is at Portland, Indiana, and Benjamin F. and Emma Elizabeth are at home.

JUDGE WILLIAM CURRY.

The venerable Judge William Curry has been a resi- dent of Preble county since 1808, and of Eaton since 1824. He was the son of Matthew Curry, of Scotch- Irish descent, and was born in Bedford county, Pennsyl- vania, May 9, 1792. His father removed to Campbell county, Kentucky, in the spring of 1796, and died in Cincinnati two years later, at the age of thirty-three years, leaving a widow and two children, of whom the subject of this biography was the eldest. When sixteen years of age young Curry removed to Butler county, Ohio, and there learned the tanner's trade, which he carried on for thirty-six years. Very soon afteward he removed to Preble county, and located in Jackson township, where he entered a piece of land. He was a soldier in the War of 1812, and served a portion of his time under General William Henry Harrison. In June, 1813, he married Sarah Van Ausdal, a sister of Cornelius Van Ausdal, and began housekeeping in the rude cabin which he had erected on his land, moving into it when it had no chim- ney or door, a blanket being hung up in the door space, and another over the window opening. In the spring of 1824 he removed to Eaton and erected a tannery, which he operated until 1844, when he sold out. He was also engaged for several years in the pork trade in Hamilton, but retained his residence in Eaton. In addition to vari- ous local offices which he filled, such as justice of the peace, mayor of Eaton, etc., Judge Curry was one of the petitioners for the charter of the Eaton & Hamilton rail- road, and after the organization served as one of the di- rectors, and also as treasurer. From 1836 to 1844 he was one of the associate or "side" judges for the court of common pleas of Preble county. He was chosen to the general assembly of the State of Ohio in 1845 and represented the county in that body for one term. In 1850 he was appointed a deputy marshal of Ohio, and filled that office for several years.

Judge Curry has been a consistent member of the Presbyterian church for a great number of years, and for more than a quarter of a century has been honored with the office of elder. He has been twice elected a dele- gate to the general assembly of the denomination he is connected with-in 1855 to Nashville, and in 1866 to St. Louis. Politically, Judge Curry's affiliations were with the Whig party, and when the Republican organiza- tion was ushered into being he became naturally one of

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its warm adherents, and has ever since taken a keen in- terest in its progress, though engaging in no active work as a politician. Judge Curry is now in his eighty-ninth year, and has been for seventy-two years a resident of Preble county, and for fifty-six a citizen of Eaton. Few men in the county are more widely known in this part of the State, and none more favorably. His long life shows a record without stain. His character is absolutely un- blemished; and ignoring the fact that he has not been lavishly favored by fortune, that he has not attained great fame so eagerly sought for by men, and too often reck- lessly, and without a proper regard for higher things, ignoring these facts we can say what is obvious to all who know the man, that his career, viewed in the best light, has been a true success. Beginning life as a poor, father- less boy, he pushed ahead fearlessly, always obeying the call of duty, in little things as well as large, laboring earnestly and conscientiously at whatever his hand found to do, "running with patience the race set before him." His sterling qualities have made him hosts of friends; in fact converted every acquaintance into an admirer, and even those who may have differed with him in matters of opinion could not fail to accord him respect for his always evident sincerity and the positiveness of his char- acter, which sometimes has made him seem severe, though it has only been the complement of a complete and catholic charity. Judge Curry's wife died April 29, 1870. Their children are Mrs. Josiah Campbell and Mrs. Maria Smith, of Eaton, and James H. Curry, of Alexandria, Preble county.

LEVIN T. McCABE.

The man whose name heads this sketch, has been one of the most active of Eaton's merchants, and as promi- nent a promoter of public improvements and the inter- ests of his fellow men, as the county affords. He was the son of Amos and Zipporah (Jones), McCabe, who were respectively natives of Delaware and Maryland, and was born in the latter State, Worcester county, on the twenty-third of December, 1807. His father was a far- mer, a much respected citizen, and an exemplary mem- ber of the Methodist Episcopal church. He died at the early age of thirty-nine years. Of a family of two sons and four daughters, Levin T. was the eldest son. The first eighteen years of his life were spent upon his father's farm, and all of the schooling he ever had, amounting altogether to about three months, he obtained during such intervals as he could make in the hard work of farming. In the spring of 1826 he started for Ohio, and after nearly one month, reached his destination, having walked nearly all of the way from Maryland. He ar- rived in Eaton on the tenth of May and obtained a situ- ation as a farm laborer with William Bruce. Three years later he became the partner of Charles and George Bruce, sons of his first employer, in the business of buy- ing and fattening cattle for the eastern market. He be- gan his mercantile career in 1835, opening, in company with Mr. Henry Montfort, a "general store." He con-

tinued in this business, and with the same partner for six years, and then confining himself strictly to the grocery business carried that on until 1858. During the two subsequent years he dealt exclusively and extensively in grain, and in 1860 retired to private life. It is said of Mr. McCabe that so prudently and cautiously did he conduct his business that for thirty-seven years he never had a mortgage or incumbrance of any kind upon his property, and still he passed through some periods of severe vicissitude. With all of his conservatism and prudence Mr. McCabe was original and enterprising, and very cold whence he had once decided upon any line of action. He conducted business on a large scale, both in the grocery line and in his grain and provision buying. It may further be said that he was one of that class of men who kept abreast or even ahead of the times. That was a natural consequence of his pushing, energetic nature. He was the first merchant in Eaton who received a stock of goods over the Eaton & Hamil- ton railroad. He was one of the most highly esteemed merchants who ever lived in the county, and one of the most useful men. His prominent identification with public improvements is shown by the fact that he contributed more in donations, and subscribed more stock in rail- roads and turnpikes, in proportion to his means, than any other citizen of the county, though there were many who reaped greater advantage than he from those im- provements. Besides holding several other local offices Mr. McCabe was for nine years a member of the town council of Eaton, and from 1827 to 1853, in various ways connected with the old military organizations of the village and county. Politically he was a Whig until the formation of the Republican party. He was a warm supporter of the old organization, and of the one which grew out of it, and has always taken a keen, though en- tirely unselfish and non-politic interest in the success of the party with which he has been identified. He was married on the thirteenth of December, 1832, to Mrs. Polly Holliday, the widowed daughter of William Bruce. She died in 1873.

JOHN V. CAMPBELL, ESQ.

The subject of this sketch, and of the portrait which elsewhere appears, is a native of Preble county, and the representative of one of its. earliest pioneer families. His father, William Campbell, originally of Greenbrier county, Virginia, but ·reared to manhood and educated in Kentucky, came to Preble when it was still a portion of Montgomery county, in 1807. He settled in Lanier township, then unorganized and unnamed, and known simply as township five, range three. There he continu- ed to reside and carried on the tanner's trade, farming and stock dealing, the remainder of his days, known throughout the neighborhood and county as a man of substantial and sterling worth. In the War of 1812 he was captain of an infantry company. He died June 16, 1837, and as he was born July 27, 1780, was fifty-six years, ten months and nineteen days of age. His wife, Catharine Van Ausdal, whom he married in 1809, was a

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its warm adherents, and has ever since taken a keen in- terest in its progress, though engaging in no active work

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substantial and sterling worth. In the War of 1812 ne was captain of an infantry company. He died June 16, 1837, and as he was born July 27, 1780, was fifty-six years, ten months and nineteen days of age. His wife, Catharine Van Ausdal, whom he married in 1809, was a

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HISTORY OF PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO.

native of Berkeley county, Virginia, and sister of Eaton's pioneer merchant, Cornelius Van Ausdal. She outlived her husband many years, dying at the age of seventy. three years and nineteen days, upon the third of February, 1859. This worthy pair of pioneers were the par- ents of five children, who attained manhood or woman- hood, viz .: Maria, the widow of Francis A. Cunningham, esq., now a resident of Eaton and about seventy years of age; James, the present mayor of West Alexandria; John Isaac, who died in 1838, and William, who resides upon the Dayton turnpike, two miles east of West Alexandria.

John V. Campbell, our subject, was born December 27, 1815. In his childhood and early youth he attended the primitive schools of the neighborhood, held in log cabins, by poorly paid teachers, who did their best in spite of their lack of advantages, to give the young minds of the time the rudiments of an education. The light by which the boys and girls of sixty years ago con. ned their lessons did not fall through transparent glass as now, but struggled into the small, rudely furnished school-room through weather-stained greased paper win- dows, and there was a difference between the quantity and the quality of the intellectual light of those days and these, corresponding to the solar luminosity. As he grew older, young Campbell attended the Eaton school and others, and attained sufficient knowledge to enable him to hold the position of teacher when only sixteen years of age, at a school in Lexington. His brother-in- law, Francis A. Cunningham, being county clerk, he was, while yet a mere youth, employed as his deputy, and in that position began to obtain ideas of the practical affairs of life and of human nature. While in the county clerk's office, he began-such was his taste for study and im- provement-to read law in the office of Messrs. McNutt & Hawkins-the same office, by the way, which Judge Campbell now occupies.

Under the administration of President Tyler, in 1841 he was appointed postmaster at Eaton, an office which he held for about ten years. While serving in this capacity, he also attained to considerable legal business, such as conveyancing and collecting government claims for sol- diers of 1812 and the Mexican war. He was a busy man all through this period, for he kept a book store, and in addition to this business and the attention he gave to the mails and to the work of collecting and pre- paring legal papers, he had charge of the first express and first telegraph offices established in the town. During the Mexican war and the war of the Rebellion Judge Campbell served in the pay department, for considerable periods, both alone, and under his brother-in-law, Francis A. Cunningham. Although prepared to formally enter the list of attorneys many years, he did not seek admis- sion to the bar until 1852. Very soon after his admis- sion, he was elected probate judge-the first ever elected in the county. After serving one term, he was re-elected and acquitted himself with the highest credit. Although a young man for the position, he bought to it marked ability of exactly the kind that was needed in the place, and he has always been regarded as one of the best probate judges the county has had. His first election

was in opposition to the regularly nominated Whig candi- dats, and at a time when the Whig vote in the county had a majority of about nine hundred. Although Mr. Campbell was a Democrat, he not only overcame the Whig party's surplus of votes but was placed upon the bench by a majority of three hundred. In 1858 he ac- cepted the offer of a law partnership with Judge W. J. Gilmore, but the latter being elected to fill the vacancy in the common pleas court, Judge Campbell, in the fol- lowing November, formed a partnership with J. H. Foos, esq., which continued three years, when his association with Judge Gilmore was renewed, and continued until February, 1867, when a partnership with Judge James A. Gilmore was formed, which was terminated by the elec- tion of the latter to the common pleas bench in 1879. During the past twenty-five years Judge Campbell has followed without intermission the practice of his profes- sion. In 1873 he was elected county prosecuting at- torney, and served one term in that office. Outside of his strictly professional capacity Judge Campbell has been almost as active as within it. He has taken a deep inter- est in all movements for the public good, whether ma- terial or moral, educational or religious, and in most of them has been either a leader or a practical hard worker. Never shirking care or responsibility where it seemed to be his duty to bear them, yet never seeking self-advance- ment or popularity through his service.

He has been an efficient member of the Eaton school board for a long term of years; since 1841 secretary and treasurer of the Preble County Bible society, and always an active supporter of temperance organizations, and has wielded a valuable personal influence in the direction of reform of every nature. He is regarded as the father of Odd Fellowship in this county, having in 1842 become a member of the order, and in 1844, assisted by four others, organized the first lodge in Eaton, of which he was the presiding officer. Twelve more lodges have since come into being in the county, as the issue of this one. For a number of years the order has been represented in the grand lodge of Ohio by Judge Campbell. He has also been a member and earnest supporter of other benevolent societies, and much of the good he has accomplished, though by no means all, has been attained through these orders and organizations. The true conception of fraternity, the fellowship and brotherhood of man has been with him one of the main controlling motives of life. He believes that through the exercise of the spirit of forbearance, charity, good-will and practical assistance, which is incul- cated by close association, and intimate friendship, the greatest benefits have been secured and in future will accrue to humanity. Friendly feeling toward his fellow men, based upon the broadest kind of a foundation, has ever been a conspicuous trait in Judge Campbell's char- acter, and therein doubtless lies, in a large measure, the secret of the success he has achieved in life, and of his almost universal popularity. None who know him could doubt the perfect sincerity of his attachment to those who surround him, or fail to see that it was thoroughly spontaneous, general, and free from taint of selfishness.

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It is not going beyond the bounds of what we know to be true, to say that he had rather have a poor man for a friend than a rich man, and that because the outcome of his own feeling would be of greater value in the former than the latter.

Beginning life as a school teacher, Judge Campbell's love for children was early formed from practical knowl- edge of the purity and pathetic needs of their natures. He has ever been one of the warmest friends of the little folks, and in various ways through his official posi- tion in connection with the schools, and by private acts has done much to alleviate some of the asperities and increase the amenities of their lives.

Judge Campbell is a man of broad scholarship and catholic taste. One of the kind who are ever adding to their store of knowledge. He is at sixty-five not con- tent with subsisting upon what he has gained during his many years of reading and observation, but both in his profession and out is constantly acquiring that which is fresh and stimulating, and renewing his interest in the life and spirit of the time. Never having been con- fined intellectually to his profession, he has a strong taste for general literature and belles lettres, which is the result of many years of varied reading and thinking. With all of his love for literature and keen interest in affairs, he has not allowed his professional work to be slighted, and has never placed himself in such attitude as to deserve or obtain the reputation of being in any sense impracticable, as too many professional men do, who have aims to accomplish or tastes to gratify outside of their profession. The controlling characteristic of equipoise is very prominent in Judge Campbell's mental and moral constitution. He is in nothing extreme, vio- lent or illiberal, but on the other hand conservative, careful and thoroughly conscientious. Such being his mental and moral qualities, he holds the unqualified re- spect even of those who may differ with him in matters of opinion. Politically he has been a life-long Demo- crat. Religiously he is a firm adherent of the Christian faith, and is consistently controlled by it, as the writer has heard him express himself thus :

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History of Preble County, Ohio, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches, Part 35

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

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