USA > Ohio > History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I > Part 109
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He is a man of uncommon business and executive ability ; is ready for any emergency ; is remarkably clear-sighted ; is possessed of uncommon energy ; turns almost everything he touches to advantage; and is, emphatically, one of the most active and enterprising, public-spirited, successful, and valuable business men of Louisville. Dr. Standiford is attractive in manners, genial, and companionable; is over six feet in height, in the very prime of life, and is a splendid specimen of physical manhood."
Notwithstanding all his busy and seemingly absorbing vocations, the subject of this notice has found time to do the community service in still more public positions. He served faithfully and for several years upon the Louisville Board of Education; was sent by the suffrages of his fellow-citizens to the State Senate in 1868; was returned to the same body in 1872, and was there the main instrument in securing important legislation looking to the large and permanent benefit of the State. While serving this term
Grundiferd
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Dr. Standiford was chosen by the Democrats of the Louisville district to represent that constit- uency in Congress. He was elected, and entered the Federal House at the opening of the Forty- third Congress. Here, says our authority, "he was distinguished as an active worker and a de- bater of great ability; and was influential in the passage of the bill authorizing the Government to take possession of the Louisville & Portland canal, a measure greatly beneficial to the interests of commerce on the Ohio river, his speech on the subject exciting favorable comment through- out the country. He also appeared prominently in the debates opposing the reduction of wages for revenue agents, the reduction of certain tariffs, the repealing of the charter of the Freed- men's Savings and Trust Company, and in favor of granting a charter to the Iron Molders' Na- tional Union, making for himself an honorable and valuable Congressional record. At the close of his term he was tendered the renomination by both parties, which he declined, believing that in his large business and home interests he could better serve the people."
JAMES BRIDGEFORD.
Mr. James Bridgeford, President of the Second National Bank, and head of the great foundry firm of Bridgeford & Company, is a native of this region, born in Jefferson county, about twelve miles from the city of Louisville, Novem- ber 6, 1807. He had but limited facilities for edu- cation in his youth, and left the schools alto- gether when he was but thirteen years old. The main feature of his long business career then be- gan to be developed, in an apprenticeship under his brother-in-law, Mr. John B. Bland, of this city, in a copper, tin, and sheet-iron shop. He remained with Mr. Bland for five years, and closed his services an accomplished workman in all departments of the trade. He had now some ambition to see the world and familiarize him- self with methods of work elsewhere; and ac- cordingly traveled about four years through the South, laboring at his trade in St. Louis, Natchez, New Orleans, and other cities. In 1829, at the age of twenty-two, he had accumulated a con- siderable stock of practical knowledge of men and things, and the handsome amount, for a
young man in those days, of nearly a thousand dollars. With his skill, experience, and savings as his sole capital, he came back to Louisville and undertook independent business.
His first connection was with Mr. Cocks, in the firm of Cocks & Bridgeford, as dealers and workers in tin, copper, and sheet iron. Both partners were energetic, masters of their busi- ness, and faithful to it; and the new estab- lishment had soon a considerable reputation for the excellence of its work and wares. At the end of five years the firm was dissolved, and a new one formed, with the name and style of Bridgeford, Ricketts & Co., in which, as will be observed, Mr. Bridgeford was already senior part- ner, although not yet thirty years of age. An- other reconstruction occurred four years later, when the house of Wright & Bridgeford was or- ganized. This endured for about eighteen years, when, in 1856, our subject bought the entire in- terest of Mr. Wright in the business, and, sum- moning to his aid several of the more meritori- ous and promising young employes in the house, and admitting them to partnership, they formed the firm of Bridgeford and Company, which, with some changes in its component parts, has been maintained under that name to this day. Their foundry and workshops, and the volume of their general business, have steadily grown with the years, until they have become among the largest in this branch of industry existing anywhere in this country, occupying a great block of build- ings below Main street, between Sixth and Seventh, and employing at times more than two hundred men Three thousand tons of metal per year, on an average, are required in their manufacture of stoves, ranges, grates, and hol- low-ware. The manufacture of the first-named was begun as early as 1842, by Messrs. Wright & Bridgeford, and has been prosecuted for now forty years with great success,-so much so, in- deed, as to contribute very largely towards mak- ing it a leading industry in this city. Another very heavy branch of their business is the supply of steamboats with the large number of vessels and other articles in iron and copper required for their equipment. It is the heaviest house of the kind in the West or South, in this line of trade. The magnificent success achieved by Bridgeford & Company in this and other depart- ments of manufacture is the more memorable,
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from the prejudice which long existed against Southern manufactures, and the difficulty of meeting Northern competition with the limited means which the older firm was only able to command. The reputation of the wares turned out by this house is now quite too well assured to be shaken.
Mr. Bridgeford, like so many others of his class in Louisville, has manifested a public-spir- ited willingness to serve his day and generation, if called to do so, outside of the strictly business walks of life. He was for many years an ardent Whig of the Henry Clay school, but was never an office seeker, much less a professional politi- cian. In 1838, however, and again in 1851, he was a member of the board of councilmen, in the city government. He has been evermore ready to forward with puise and voice any enter- prise that promised well for the public good. His private means have generally been so invested as to give him a direct and personal interest in the growth of Louisville, showing a cordial disposi- tion to share her fortunes, whether for weal or woe. His superb business qualifications have often been called into requisition in the service of financial and other local corporations. For about sixteen years he has served most accept- ably as president of the Second National Bank, at the northwest corner of Main and Bullitt streets, and he has from time to time been called to the directory of many incorporated companies during his long business career in Louisville. Says the writer of Louisville Past and Present, in concluding a sketch of Mr. Bridgeford:
He has always displayed business qualifications of the first order. The secret of his marked success may perhaps be divined from the foregoing remarks; but we regard it to be his untiring industry and energy, his strict economy, his financial ability, and the rigid integrity that have character- ized his dealings with his fellow-men. No one is more em- phatically a self-made man, and no one more richly deserves the success that has thus far crowned his life labors. His quiet and unassuming manners, his goodness of heart, and soundness of judgment have won for him the esteem of all; and we can but hope that he may long enjoy the good things of life by which he is surrounded, and be a blessing still to the community for which he has done so much.
CHARLES TILDEN.
This gentleman, President of the venerable Bank of Louisville, was born on the 12th of November, 1810, in Kent county, Maryland.
His father, Edward Blay Tilden, and his grand- father, William Blay Tilden, were both born and reared in the same county and State. His ances- tors emigrated from Kent, England, before the Revolutionary War. The subject of this notice came from Baltimore, Maryland, to Louisville in October, 1833, and accepted a position as sales. man in a retail dry-goods store, where he remain- ed about two years, and then obtained a position as book-keeper in a wholesale grocery and com- mission house, filling the same place up to a short time after his marriage with Miss Sarah T. Dubberly, of this city, in May, 1842. He soon after commenced the grocery and commission business on his own account, and about three years thereafter he was compelled on account of ill health to quit the business, and by the ad- vice of his physician, he removed to the country. Regaining his health he entered the Bank of Louisville as book-keeper in February, 1851; in 1856 Mr. Alfred Thruston, the Cashier, resigned on the ist of November, 1856, Mr. Tilden was elected to fill the vacancy, which position he filled till May, 1868, when the President of the Bank, the late Joshua B. Bowles, retired, and Mr. Tilden was elected President, which position he still occupies, (April, 1882), having served the Bank of Louisville for thirty-one years.
HON. THOMAS LEWIS.JEFFERSON.
This distinguished gentleman, President of the Kentucky & Louisville Mutual Insurance Company, one of the most reputable and useful citizens of Louisville, was born in Baltimore, Maryland, February 15, 1826, the oldest son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Smallsread) Jefferson, who were both natives of that city, and were there united in marriage May 10, 1825. The elder Jefferson was born March 17, 1803, and is accordingly now in his eightieth year, a remark- ably hale and well-preserved old gentleman, still residing in Louisville. He was early left an orphan, his father dying at sea while master of a fine sailing vessel. His mother died in Balti- more a few years afterwards. He was appren- ticed in youth to Mr. Henry Winter, of that city, a blacksmith, and served out his term with the expiration of his twenty-first year. He contin- ued in this business prosperously, was married as
Esta. Odim
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above noted, in 1825, and lived happily with his worthy consort for nearly forty years. He re- mained a blacksmith for a quarter of a century, and then embarked in the grocery trade, as is more fully noted below. This he followed about twenty years longer, and then retired, from the infirmities of coming age, to enjoy his well- earned competency. He left a prosperous bus- iness to his sons, John F. and Henry T. Jeffer- son, who continued it at the old stand on the southeast corner of Brook and Market streets, until the year 1865, when they closed it to unite in business with their elder brother, Thomas L., the subject of this sketch.
Thomas Jefferson is now one of the oldest and best-known citizens of Louisville. His honesty, liberality, and benevolence are proverbial; and the poor and needy of the present and preceding generations, to whom he has extended a helping hand, may be well said to be almost innumera- ble. Elizabeth Jefferson, his mother, was born October 25, 1805. Her parents, Frederick and Catherine Smallsread, left their home near the city of Strasburg, in the French province of Alsace, and emigrated to America in 1803, locat- ing at Baltimore. Both have long since passed away, the death of the former occurring at Balti- more in 1810, and that of the latter in Louisville in 1856. Mrs. Jefferson was a remarkable woman. She was gifted with rare executive abil- ities, possessing great decision of character, and was eminently industrious and persevering. Whilst her husband was busily engaged in at- tending to the requirements of his trade, she found time, amid constantly increasing household duties, to open a store, with a small capital of her own. It was not long before this business grew to such proportions as to require the services of her son, Thomas L., the subject of this sketch, who was then attending school, and finally the personal supervision of her husband. For many years previous to her death she was a useful and consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and her husband has also been a valuable member of the same church for a period covering the greater part of his life. She died at Louisville May 8, 1864, in full hope of the Christian's glorious reward in Heaven. This notable pair had five children, all sons: Thomas Lewis, born in Baltimore, February 15, 1826; William Henry, born in Baltimore, August
16, 1829, deceased February 10, 1831; John Frederick, born in Louisville, September 9, 1833; William Franklin, born in Louisville Octo- ber 31, 1836, and died June 29, 1841; and Henry Theodore, also born in this city Novem- ber 8, 1840. Three of them are now living- Thomas L., John, and Henry, all residing in Louisville.
The family came from Baltimore to Louisville in 1831, where Thomas L. has been a continu- ous resident for more than half a century. He received but the ordinary English education, and left the schools at the age of sixteen, to aid his mother in the store. His last academic training, however, was under the remarkable corps of teachers of whom two were the renowned Noble Butler and J. H. Harney. Beginning his active business career as a grocery clerk in 1842, he re- mained with his parents for ten years, and then gave up his place to a younger brother, and formed a partnership with Mr. Charles Gallagher, in the wholesale grocery business. This connec- tion was brief, however, the partnership being dissolved at his request, January 1, 1853, when Mr. Jefferson undertook an independent venture as a wholesale and retail grocer on Market street, below First. In a short time thereafter he built a commodious business house on the southeast corner of Market and First streets, into which he moved, and very soon established the trade upon a satisfactory foundation, and maintained it successfully for twelve years, his business each year growing in size and profits. During this time he was for a number of years the sole agent for the Kenawha salt manufactories for the sale of their product in this city. The wholesale feature of his business having grown to such dimension as to require a much larger house, he then formed a partnership with his two surviving brothers and Mr. A. N. Jennison, un- der the name and style of T. L. Jefferson & Brothers, for the transaction of a general whole- sale commission business, with salt and flour as specialties, on the northwest corner of Main and First streets. Here, as elsewhere, he was emi- nently successful. A sketch of his life in the Kentucky Freeman for June, 1876, says:
He had the confidence of the public from the beginning, and has never sacrificed an iota of trust in his integrity throughout his continued successful career. He has engaged in no speculations, but by aregular business has accumulated a fortune of from [three to four hundred thousand] dollars.
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He is devout enough to attribute his success to the blessing of Divine Providence. His word to-day is as good as his bond. The dying desire him for an executor, and the living lean upon his promises with all the confidence possible to mankind. He is one of the solid Main-street business men of Louisville, who has done much, in a quiet way, by wise counsel and diligent attention to his own affairs and those matters which appealed to his judgment or enlisted his heart, to build up the material, mental, and moral interests of the city.
Having been appointed executor and trustee by the will of his friend Dr. John Bull, who died in the early part of the year 1875, and accepting the trust, which not only embraced settling up the affairs of the estate, but a continuation of the business, which was a very large one, he felt compelled, on account of the heavy demands upon his time in discharging his duties as ex- ecutor and trustee of Dr. Bull's will, to with- draw from the old established house of T. L. Jefferson & Brothers on January 1, 1877, giv- ing giving place to his eldest son, T. L. Jeffer- son, Jr., and John W. Day, who had been for many years a clerk and salesman in the house, and who, with his two former partners, H. T. Jefferson and A. N. Jennison, formed a partner- ship under the name of Jefferson & Co., and continue the business at the old stand. Finding a great difference in his views of the construction of Dr. Bull's will, under the best legal advice he could get, with the surviving members of the Doctor's family, he resigned that trust in Janu- ary, 1879, rather than continue it under such circumstances. The business of the estate, the manufacture and sale of proprietory medicines, during the continuation of his trust, was em- inently successful, producing very large net profits during the term, and the estate was very materially increased both in real estate and in- vestments. Since that time he has not been ac- tively engaged in business, devoting his time and attention mainly to his own estate and the edu- cation of his minor children. The different pub- lic institutions with which he remains connected also make very large demands upon his time and labor, all of which he cheerfully meets and satis- ñes.
With all his great personal interests, Mr. Jef- ferson has, like so many other public-spirited citizens of Louisville, but far more than most of them, been able to do large and wide service to his day and generation. As early as 1851, while yet a young man of twenty-five, he was
elected a member of the Common Council, to fill a vacancy, and served so acceptably that he was re-elected in each of the two following years, again in 1859, and in April, 1860, was chosen a member of the Board of Aldermen for two years. In 1867 he was sent to the lower House of the State Legislature, in which he served with credit for two sessions, and was promoted to the State Senate in November, 1873, with no opposition worth recording, and declined a re-election at the close of his term. He was chairman of the important Committee on Ways and Means in the House, and of the Committee on Finance in the Senate, where he was also a member of the Committee on Banks and Insurance. It may here be mentioned that the political connections of Mr. Jefferson have always been with the Democracy, although he has never been a pro- fessional politician, much less office-seeker. He has, however, done his party service as a member of the city Executive Committee, and for several years as a member of the State Central Commit- tee. He has been often a delegate to city, dis- trict, and State conventions, and was also a dele- gate to the National Democratic Convention of July, 1868, in New York City.
While in the City Council he was made chair- man of several of the more important committees, and was at the same period filling the responsi- ble positions of Trustee of the Louisville Marine Hospital, the Almshouse, the Workhouse, and the Pest-house. In May, 1870, he was chosen by the General Council a member of the Board of Directors of the House of Refuge for three years, and has served by successive re-elections to this date. He was Trustee for a series of years of the Louisville Female College, until its close through the death of its president, the Rev. S. S. Prettyman. In 1874 he was appointed by Governor Leslie a Trustee of the Kentucky In- stitute for the Blind, and continues in that office by the re-appointments of Governors McCreery and Blackburn.
He is an active, energetic, and very useful member of the board, and is one of the com- mittee for purchasing the supplies for that insti- tution. His work in that committee has always commanded the warm approval of the board of trustees and of the State authorities. He is also a prominent member of the board of trustees of the American Printing House for the Blind,
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which has become a national institution. All the members of that board bear cheerful testi- mony to the great excellence of his services in this board. He aided materially in organizing the method of keeping the accounts of this insti- tution, and under this method its affairs work smoothly and satisfactorily. His fellow-members in these two boards would scarcely know how to get along without him.
Mr. Jefferson was one of the incorporators of the Masonic Widows' and Orphans' Home, was elected a director at the organization under the charter February 1, 1867, and remains such, having been also president of the board since May 7, 1869. In 186r he took all the degrees of symbolic, and afterwards successively the degrees of capitular and the order of chivalric Masonry. His business has been of such a pressing character, and the Masonic Home has commanded so much of his time, that he has not sought but steadily declined the offices of the lodge, chapter, or commandery. He is at present a member of Excelsior lodge No. 258, Free and Accepted Masons, of King Solomon Royal Arch Chapter No. 18, and of De Molay Commandery No. 12, Knights Templar, of which he has been the treasurer since January, 1873. Whilst at times he has filled some subordinate offices in these respective bodies, he has felt, and his brethren have accepted his views, that his peculiar and especial work in Masonry has been with the Home. In this he has assisted in its organization, in building, establishing, and sustain- ing this great work of Kentucky Masonry.
The Masonic Widows' and Orphans' Home and Infirmary of the State of Kentucky, which to-day gives home and shelter to about one hun- dred and seventy-five widows and orphans of de- ceased Kentucky Masons, stands, and is acknowl- edged by Masons everywhere to be, the noblest monument of Masonic charity upon the conti- nent of America. There were no existing models after which to fashion it, and therefore it has required original and protracted thought and patient attention by those who have provided its fortunes and engineered it to its present grat- ifying success.
Mr. Jefferson was formerly an active member of the Sons of Temperance, and was for a time presiding officer of his Division and D. G. W. P. of the District. Having joined the Methodist
Episcopal Church South in 1848, he was made a member of the Board of Managers of the Mis- sionary Society of that body in 1854, and until the removal of its principal offices to Nash- ville. He was for a number of years Secretary of the Louisville City Missionary Society of the Church ; was Superintendent of the Bethel Sun- day school for fifteen years, which school he or- ganized ; and assisted in organizing the Sehon Chapel, Methodist Episcopal Church South, was member of its official board, Recording Steward, and Superintendent of the Sunday-school con- nected with it, which he also organized. Later he became a member of the Brook street Meth- odist Episcopal Church South, and a member of its official board also, filling at different times the place of Recording Steward, Treasurer, and class- leader. When this church changed its location and name to become the Broadway Methodist Episcopal Church South, he remained actively connected with it until 1871.
In business circles Mr. Jefferson's services have not been less in demand. Under different or- ganizations of the Board of Trade, of which he has long been a member, he has been a Director and Vice-President of that body, also serving on important committees. He was elected a Direc- tor of the Bank of Louisville about 1859, and has since served in that capacity, with brief in- termissions. He was a Director of the Louisville & Frankfort and the Lexington & Frankfort Railroad Companies from 1872 to 1874, when he declined further re-election. In January, 1878, he was chosen to the Directory of the Kentucky & Louisville Mutual Insurance Com- pany, one of the oldest and safest companies in the State, dating its existence from 1839. He has since his first election been continually on the Board, and in July, 1880, was elected Presi- dent of the company, to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of Mr. Joseph Monks, and has been retained in that position.
Mr. Jefferson has been actively identified with the charitable efforts of the city as well as with its charitable institutions. He was for many years an active member of the ward and city societies organized during the winter months for the relief of the poor, rendering valuable services as a collector of funds, as also upon committees to raise funds in behalf of sufferers by calamities in other cities. He was prominently identified
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with the organization and work of the South- western Relief Commission, an association formed in the fall and winter of 1866, to send supplies of food and raiment to the destitute places in the South, caused by the ravages of the war, associated successfully in this work with such men as James Trabue, H. D. Newcomb, R. A. Robinson, B. C. Levi, Arthur Peter, and others. A very large quantity of supplies was raised in Louisville and elsewhere in the State through the instrumentality of this commission and sent forward by it to the destitute, thus re- lieving and averting much distress and want. He was chairman of the committee appointed to receive and disburse the funds raised by the Masons of Kentucky to assist the sufferers by the great fire at Chicago on the 8th and 9th of October, 1871, and of the appropriation made by the Grand Lodge of Masons of Kentucky at their October session, 1871, to the sufferers by fire in Chicago, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
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