History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I, Part 110

Author: Williams, L.A., & Co., Cleveland
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : L. A. Williams & Co.
Number of Pages: 814

USA > Ohio > History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I > Part 110

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He, in company with his co-committee- men, C. H. Fricke, A. N. Gardner, and P. G. M. Charles Tilden, going promptly to Chicago, arrived there the night of the 12th instant with the offerings of their brethren, and also to offer by authority the Masonic Widows' and Orphans' Home building, one wing of which had just been completed and made ready for occupancy, to their Chicago brethren, as a temporary home for their suffering women and children. It may not be out of place here to remark that Kentucky ranked sixth in the list of States, in her amount of Masonic contributions.

Mr. Jefferson was married by the Rev. James Craik, D.D., of Christ church, May 28, 1846, in Louisville, to Elizabeth Ann, only surviving daughter of John and Ann (Humphrey) Creagh, with whom he has led a most happy wedded life for thirty-six years. They have had nine chil- dren-four daughters and five sons : Ann Eliza, Catherine, Mary Holman, Thomas Lewis, Jr., John Wesley, Lillie Emma, Henry Theodore, and Charles William. Ann Eliza was born on the 11th of August, 1847, and was married to Jabez Balmforth on the 25th of May, 1869; her husband is a successful merchant, being a mem- ber of the old successful and well established wholesale commission house of James Todd & Co. He is also one of the incorporators and treasurer of the Todd Donigan Iron Company.

Catherine Louisa was born on the 3d of Octo- ber, 1849, and married to J. W. Vancleave on the 22d of March, 1871. Mary Holman was born on the 26th of October, 1851, and died on the Ist of May, 1853. Thomas Lewis was born on the 16th of April, 1854, and was married to Miss Katie Welman on the 17th of February, 1878; he is a member of the firm of Jefferson & Wright, successors of the old established house of Heb- bit & Son on Market street near Third, and is doing a very large wholesale and retail grocery business. Son was born and died September 4, 1856. John Wesley was born July 20, 1857, and died July 6, 1864. Lillie Emma was born July 24, 1860. Henry Theodore was born Au- gust 4, 1864. Charles William was born Feb- ruary 8, 1866. The three younger children remain at home with their parents.

The parents of Mrs. Jefferson were natives of Ireland. Mr. Creagh was born near the city of Cork and Mrs. Creagh in the city of Cork, where they were united in marriage, shortly after which, in the year 1819, they emigrated to America, set- tling and residing some years in the city of Balti- more, Maryland, where their daughter Elizabeth Ann was born August 19, 1826, moving from thence to Madison, Indiana, a few years after- ward to Louisville, on the 19th of November, 1843. They were for many years devoted mem- bers of the Protestant Episcopal Church. They cach died in Louisville, Mrs. Creagh December 15, 1862, in the sixty-third year of her age, and Mr. Creagh on November 13, 1869, in the seventy-fourth year of his age, both dying, as they had lived for many years, in full exercise of faith in God and an assurance of an eternal rest in Heaven.

Mr. Jefferson is a man of about the average size, is in good health, and bears himself with the quiet ease of one who is conscious of power. His hair is black, his nose Roman, his cheek- bones high, and he is, altogether, rather prepos- sessing in appearance. He talks slowly, but with out redundancy of words. While he never seems to be in a hurry, he is seldom behind time. He is warm in his personal friendships, and is a reasonably good hater. He could hardly "take tea with a stratagem." While he has something of reserve in his manner, he is far from conceal- ment and totally void of hypocrisy. He is more swift to confess his own faults than to correct an-

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

other's. As a neighbor, he is considerate, peace- ful, and obliging. He is not insensible to ingrat- itude, meanness, and injury, yet he seldom speaks of those whom he most dislikes, and then only when he regards it essential to a prudent vindi- cation of himself or a maintenance of right. He will never purchase favor with unmeant compli- ments. In private converse, in committee or board councils, in drawing reports, he is a felt power. He sees the main point readily, and yet is not indifferent to the lesser details. As a busi- ness man he has been timid in speculation and cautious in execution, and, hence, he has mourned over but few financial losses. He is liberal and disinclined to lay burdens upon oth- ers which he is himself unwilling to bear, and he usually takes the lead in every enterprise for which he solicits subscriptions. We would not lift the veil to exhibit his private hours and his home-life, but we will say that we never looked in upon a more serene circle nor sat at a more hospitable board than in the house of our subject. His moral influence is good; his friends may be counted by hundreds, and his customers thoroughly respect him.

In all his various duties, in his business, in the church, in the varied public offices entrusted to him, Mr. Jefferson has always fulfilled the ex- pectations of his warmest personal friends. He has been actively engaged in business during the past forty-three years, yet his habits are so active and well ordered that each one of these multi- plied duties upon him is quietly met and well disposed of. His physical frame is well adapted to these varied works. He has great ease of manner, calm, quiet, and free from anything like bustle. He has an appearance and peculiar magnetic gifts which attach to himself all who know him. He has that marvelous power, un- hasting, unresting, by which he accomplishes a world of duty without ever seeming to be nervous or flurried. He has great frankness of manner, by which he wins warm friendships, and holds them with tenacity. He has come through the wielding of immense interests, through a long life, and never had his good name stained with even the suspicion of a blemish. In his public work he is everywhere respected and honored, and he turns from these toward his happy home, confident that he will find there that bliss with- out which all other things are void of pleasure.

MR. JOSEPH J. FISCHER.

Few of the younger business men of Louis- ville have made more steady and substantial business advancement than has Mr. Joseph J. Fischer. Mr. Fischer was born at Biebrich, Nassau, Germany, December 6, 1842. In 1854 he came with his parents to Louisville, and almost immediately became an apprentice in the composing room of the Anzieger. As ap- prentice and compositor he remained in the Anzieger office for four years, when he began to study at Myers's Commercial College in Louis- ville. In 1862 he entered the German Insur- ance Bank as messenger. Rising gradually he was, upon the reorganization of the bank in 1872, appointed its cashier, and was, in 1878, elected a director. In 1865 he was elected Secretary of the German Insurance Company, then identical with the banking corporation, and, in December, 1878, became one of its directors. All these offices he now holds. Mr. Fischer has always been prominent among his fellow-Ger- mans. He was, for a number of years, presi- dent of the Louisville Liederkranz Society, and has been an officer and director of many social and benevolent societies.

GENERAL E. P. ALEXANDER.

General Alexander, First Vice-President of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, was born in Washington county, Georgia, May 26, 1835, son of Adam and Sarah (Hillhouse) Alexander. After acquiring a good elementary education, he received an appointment to the West Point Mil- itary Academy, where he graduated, the third in his class, in 1857. He was at once appointed a Second Lieutenant in the United States En- gineer Corps, and put on duty as Instructor in Engineering at the Academy. He also served with the engineers accompanying the army in the Utah campaign of 1858, and was assistant to Signal Officer A. J. Myers in developing the system of military signals adopted by the United States Army in 1860. In 1860-61, he was on duty with the Engineer Corps in Washington Territory; but, upon the outbreak of the civil war, he promptly decided to rest his fortunes with the Southern cause. He entered the Con- federate Army as Captain of Engineers on

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

General Beauregard's staff, and after the first battle of Bull Run was made Chief of Ord- nance to the Army of Virginia, serving in that capacity on the staffs of General Joseph E. Johnston and Robert E. Lee, until November, 1862. He had developed special talents as an artillerist, and was now promoted to the colonelcy of the Alexander Battalion, comprising six bat- teries, and won the compliment from General Lee of being the best officer in that arm of the service in the Confederate army. He was but a stripling in years and stature, and yet was placcd in personal direction of all the guns of Long- street's corps, in the Army of Virginia, whenever an important action was pending. A writer from Atlanta to the Courier-Journal, at the time of his removal to Louisville, says :

He was advanced over superior and favorite officers at the battle of Gettysburg, and was in absolute charge of the artillery of [Longstreet's corps] Lee's army during that pivotal and terrible fight, known as the most tremendous artillery duel ever fought on this continent. It was he who handled the batteries, under cover of whose fire Pickett made his furious charge on July 3d; and in this and other supreme tests he so demonstrated his ability and gallantry that, until the close of the war, he had charge of the artillery of this grand old army. [This is rather too strong. General Alex- ander was subsequently, in February, 1864, promoted to Brigadier-General, and placed permanently in charge of all the artillery of the corps, General Longstreet's]. No officer in his branch of the service, on either side of the war, emerged from the struggle with a more illustrious reputation.

General Alexander's services were much in re- quest by the commanders of the different armies. The following is an extract from a letter written by General J. E. Johnston, February 27, 1864, while preparing for the eventful Atlanta campaign:

The artillery also wants organization, and especially a competent commander. 1 therefore respectfully urge that such a one be sent me. I have applied for Colonel Alex- ander [also recommending his promotion]; but General Lee objects that he is too valuable in his present position to be taken from it. His value to the country would be more than doubled, I think, by the promotion and assignment I recom- mend.

He also received complimentary notice in the reply of General Bragg to this letter, dated March 4th, as follows :

Colonel Alexander, applied for by you as Chief of Artillery, is deemed necessary by General Lee in his present position. · . It is more than probable that such a junc- tion may soon be made as to place Colonel Alexander under your command.

In 1865, when the conflict was over, the Gen- eral, like most of his comrades, found himself totally impoverished. He first accepted the po-

sition of Professor of Mathematics and Engineer- ing in the University of South Carolina, which he held from 1866 to 1869. In the latter year, on the reconstruction of the State of South Caro- lina, the University was practically broken up by the carpet-bag party, when he resigned, and till 1871 was President of the Columbia Oil Com- pany, engaged in manufacturing oil from cotton seed, at Columbia, in that State.

In that year he received an offer from the Khedive of Egypt, of the distinguished position of Chief Engineer of the Egyptian army, which he accepted and was about to depart, when he was induced to alter his plans and enter railway business as Superintendent of the Charlotte, Columbia and Augusta railroad. From this he passed, in October, 1872, to the Presidency of the Savannah & Memphis railroad, then a new project. He built and managed this road with great ability, and then accepted a superior po- sition as President of the Western Railroad of Alabama. Serving this with his usual signal suc- cess, he was presently called, under peculiarly flattering circumstances, to supersede the veteran Judge John P. King in the Presidency of the Georgia Railroad & Banking Co., of which the latter had been in charge for the long term of thirty-seven years. The writer before mentioned says of General Alexander's administration :

Succeeding the illustrous ex-Senator King, General Alexander had hard work to meet public expectation, but hie more than surpassed the hopes of his friends. Under his rule the price of his stock went up to one hundred and ten, larger dividends were paid, and $1,000,000 added to the surplus account. New energy and new life were infused into all departments, and the road became the most popular property in Georgia. His directors heard of his leaving them with the liveliest regret, and offered him every inducement. to remain, among which may be mentioned a salary of $10,000 per annum.

The last reference in this extract is to the ap- pointment conferred upon General Alexander in April, 188r, by President H. D. Newcomb, of the Louisville and Nashviller ailroad, to the vice- presidency of that great and powerful aggrega- tion of railways. He removed to Louisville the following month and entered upon his duties, which now include the presidency of the Hen- derson Bridge company and of the "Short Line," or the Louisville, Cincinnati & Lexington road, one of the recent acquisitions of the Louisville & Nashville. Of late he has acquired special celeb- rity as a speaker and writer in defense of railway

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

interests and methods, and is called from far and near to address important committees and other bodies.

General Alexander was married, in April, 1860, and in King George county, Virginia, to Miss Bettie Mason, daughter of Dr. A. H. Mason, of Falmouth, Virginia.

H. VICTOR NEWCOMB.

Some account of Horatio Dalton Newcomb, former President of the Louisville & Nashville railroad, and father of the subject of this brief sketch, has been given in a previous chapter. His son, H. Victor, also, in the fullness of time, President of the great Louisville & Nashville corporation, was born in this city on the 26th of July, 1844. Before he had completed his twenty-first year, in the spring of 1865, then residing in New York, he became a clerk in the famous mercantile house of Messrs. E. D. Morgan & Co., of that city. In the fall of the same year, having then reached his majority, he became a partner in the new house of Warren Newcomb & Co. In this important association he applied himself so closely to business as to impair his health in a few months, and in the spring of 1866 he took a European tour for health and recreation, during which he extended his travels somewhat widely, spending much time in Southern Europe and Northern Africa. In the autumn of that year he returned to New York and found his uncle, Mr. Warren New- comb, head of the firm to which he belonged, had died. The partnership was of course dis- solved, and his next business connection was with the great firm of Newcomb, Buchanan & Co., of Louisville, with which he aided to main. tain a very prosperous business. In 1874 his father, then President of the Louisville & Nash- ville railroad, sent him abroad in his stead to represent the interests of the road; and notwith- standing his youth and comparative inexperience, he successfully negotiated in London the sale of a large block of the bonds of the company. So great was the confidence now reposed in his abilities that, upon the death of his father short- ly after, he was elected a Director of the road, and the next year became its Vice-President. A writer upon "Men of the Hour," in a New York

publication called The Hour, says: "It was owing to his excellent and energetic management that the Louisville & Nashville railroad was raised from its somewhat subordinate position and made the centre of one of the chief systems of railroads in this country. He did so by judiciously buying, leasing, and combining with other roads until he had acquired a complete control of a large number of railroads."

In the spring of 1880 Mr. Newcomb was pro- moted to the high position of President of this powerful railway organization; but he was not physically equal to its burdens, and a return of ill health compelled him to resign in the De- cember following. He has been retained as a director, however, and retains a strong practical interest in whatever affects the reputation and prosperity of the road. He was soon again in influential position, having organized in Febru- ary, 1881, at No. 35 Nassau street, New York, in association with a number of prominent men, as General U. S. Grant, Morris K. Jessup, William R. Travers, and Henry B. Hyde, the United States Bank. He was made its president,- the youngest bank president, it is said, ever elected in that city,-and remains in that office, achieving already a remarkable success for his institution.

In December, 1866, in Louisville, Mr. New- comb was united in the bonds of matrimony with Miss Florence Ward Danforth, of that city. They have had three children-Edyth Ward and Hermann Danforth, both living; and Florence Danforth, who died in infancy.

The writer in The Hour says of Mr. Newcomb:

He is a member of the Union Club, but, being a man of domestic tastes, takes more delight in the pleasures of his home than in outside amusements. He is fond of good horses and field sports, from which, however, the active busi- ness life that he has led has somewhat debarred him. His remarkable success in business has enabled him to gratify a strong love of art, and in his collection of pictures many fine specimens, which he picked up with good judgment during his extensive travels in Europe, are to be found.

HON. C. E. KINCAID.

Charles Easton Kincaid was born in Danville, Kentucky, in 1855; graduated at Centre College, Danville, June, 1878; stumped part of the Eighth Congressional district that autumn for the Hon. Philip B. Thompson in his hot contest

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

for Congress ; afterwards removed to Anderson county, and owned and edited the Anderson News, the Democratic paper of that county. After a residence of eight months he was elected judge in that county, but resigned and went to Frankfort and reported the long legislative ses- sion of 1879-80 for the Louisville Courier Jour- nal. At the close of the session he was ap- pointed State Railroad Commissioner on the first railroad commission Kentucky ever had, which office he held till the spring of 1882. He was the youngest State officer in Kentucky, and by far the youngest Railroad Commissioner in the United States. His ancestors were of Scotch Presbyteri- an stock, and among the pioneers of the State. He descended through one branch of the family from James Wilson, who signed the Declaration of Independence. The first member of his family in this State was a Revolutionary soldier from Virginia, who entered large tracts of land. His grandfather, judge John Kincaid, was a member of Congress during General Jackson's adminis- tration, and held many other offices. He was pronounced by Chief Justice Robertson, of this State, the greatest lawyer he had ever known. Mr. Kincaid's father, William Garnett Kincaid, is a lawyer by profession. He was an officer in the Mexican war, on General Taylor's staff, and was also a classmate of General Grant at West Point.

OTHER RAILWAY MEN.

General Jeremiah T. Boyle was born in May, 1818, in the present Boyle county, Kentucky. He received a superior education, and graduated at Princeton College, and then at the Transylva- nia Law School. After many years of succesful practice at the bar and political service, he be- came a Brigadier-general in the late war, and long had command of the Department of Kentucky. Afterwards, says the writer of a biographical no- tice, "he was the first person to urge the con- struction of street railways in Louisville, and perhaps owing to his earnest labors in that direc- tion that city now possesses its excellent system of roads." He organized and was President of the first of these, and built the pioneer tramway here. He then became President of the Edge- field, Henderson & Nashville Railroad, and was conspicuous in the effort to introduce narrow-

gauge roads into Kentucky. He died of apo- plexy in Louisville July 28, 1871.

James R. Del Vecchio, former President of the Market street railroad, was born in Bloomfield, New Jersey, September 5, 1822, of an Italian father and American mother. He became dry- goods clerk and merchant, editor of the Brook- lyn Standard, a Lieutenant-Colonel in the late war, a prominent bank officer in New York City, and in 1865 a resident of Louisville, where he presently became a large stockholder and Presi- dent of the Market street railroad, and held the place until his death, December 10, 1875.

Frederick DeFuniack, General Manager of the Louisville & Nashville railroad, is a native of Austria, born at Trieste, August 15, 1839. He was thoroughly educated in the engineering and polytechnic schools of the Continent, and began his active career when only eighteen years old, as assistant engineer on the Alexandria & Cairo railroad, in Egypt. He was a Lieutenant of en- gineers in the Austro-French war, and then with Garibaldi in lower Italy. He came to the United States in 1862, joined the Confederate army and became a captain of engineers; taught in Southern schools and colleges after the war ; in January, 1866, became Resident Engineer on the Mississippi levees; in 1867 Assistant Engin- eer and Roadmaster on the Mississippi & Charleston railroad; in May, 1870, Chief En- gineer of the Mississippi Central Railway; in 1871 an agent of Southern railways on impor- tant service in Europe; on his return Chief En- gineer of the Ripley Narrow-gauge Railroad, the pioneer of such enterprises in the South; and began service with the Louisville & Nashville Railroad in March, 1872, as Engineer and Super- intendent of the Road Department. He is ac- counted of remarkable talents as an engineer, an organizer and manager.

CAPTAIN JOSEPH SWAGAR.

The hero of this brief sketch enjoys the honor, doubtless, of being the oldest retired steamboat captain in the Mississippi Valley. Now about to round his ninetieth year, he is still in marvel- ous health of mind and body, with his physi- cal faculties almost unimpaired, save for some dullness of hearing. His clear and vivid recol-

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

lections, stated in his graphic yet simple way, go back, as will be seen below, almost to the very dawn of the new era in river transportation in this Western World.

Captain Swagar is a native of the Keystone State, born in Montgomery county, then thirteen miles north of Philadelphia, on the 29th of Octo- ber, 1792. When but eight years of age, just as the glorious Nineteenth Century was coming in, he went with his parents to reside in the Quaker city. Five years more passed in the pleasant pursuits of home and the schools of that time, when, at the age of fourteen, he was apprenticed to a coppersmith, and in seven years became thoroughly master of the trade in all its branches, as then practiced. He then, late in 1815, decid- ed to try his fortunes in the almost wilderness West, came across the mountains to the Ohio, and for lack of better conveyance just then, em- barked in a flatboat for a voyage down that stream. It was caught by cold weather and much ice at Maysville, and young Swagar pushed into the interior, spending the remainder of the winter at Lexington. The next spring-sixty-six years, two generations, ago, be it noted-he reached Louisville, with which most of his busy life since has been identified. He shortly en- gaged to take two flatboats, with cargoes of bacon, whisky, and tobacco, to New Orleans, where he remained about three months, and then took ship for Richmond, Virginia. On this voyage he came near being shipwrecked on the Florida coast ; but happily escaped, went on to Richmond, and reached Philadelphia again the same year (1816). He had taken a fancy, how- ever, to the rising and hopeful village by the Falls of the Ohio; and after a little rest at the old home, he started again toward the setting sun, to make a new one in Louisville. He tar- ried a little at Pittsburg, and there, by arrange- ment with the owners, contracted for the copper- work to go into the Hope Distillery, then about to become the most flourishing industry in this place. He engaged as an engineer in it upon his arrival, and completed its works by 1818.

There were few skilled mechanics of any kind then in town, and Mr. Swagar found his services considerably in demand. Messrs. David Pren- tice and Thomas Bakewer, in the year before that last noted, started their foundry here, and turned over to him all their steamboat machinery that

needed repairing. He served them profitably until 1821, by which time the foundrymen were considerably in his debt ; and to extinguish this in part, he took an eighth interest in the new steamer Magnet, which they built the next year, and of which Captain J. Beckwith took com- mand. Mr. Swagar's turn came the succeeding year (1823), when he mounted the deck of his first vessel as master. It was the well-remem- bered Plowboy, built that year, of which he also owned an eighth. It was a very light-draught steamer, drawing only three feet when empty, and built after the pattern of a schooner. He accordingly, in 1824, took her up the Wabash to Terre Haute, and gave the wondering natives in that quarter and along shore their first glimpse of a real steamboat-a sight which some of them, it is said, went thirty miles to see.

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History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I, Part 110

Author: Williams, L.A., & Co., Cleveland Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : L. A. Williams & Co. Number of Pages: 814

Author: Williams, L.A., & Co., Cleveland
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : L. A. Williams & Co.
Number of Pages: 814