History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I, Part 111

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 111

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Until 1828 Captain Swagar was chief officer of the Plowboy. Then he went to Portsmouth, at the mouth of the Scioto, bought the original Diana, and ran her two years. As one of her longer and more eventful trips he went up the Missouri with her to Council Bluffs in 1829, taking up the Sixth Regiment of regular infantry to Fort Leavenworth, and returning with the Third Regulars. Two years afterwards he built a boat which made a yet more notable voyage for that period, which deserves to be permanent- ly recorded in history. We will let him tell the story in his own words, as communicated to the Courier-Journal in the spring of 1880 :

After the total failure of the Colonel-Dick-Johnson expedi- tion up the Yellowstone in 1819 and 1820, the Missouri river was deemed unnavigable for steamers. The Fur Company sent all their supplies to the trading-posts on the Missouri river and Yellowstone in barges or keel-boats until the build- ing of the steamer Yellowstone in 1830-31. I had run the Diana up to Fort Leavenworth, with a keel-boat in tow, with perfect success the year before, and assured the Fur Com- pany that I could build them a steamboat that would go to the mouth of the Yellowstone and back with as much certain- ty as to New Orleans and back; that all that was required was a boat of easy model, strong, plain engine of sufficient power, etc. The engine of the Yellowstone was at least fifty per cent. heavier than those usually built at that day. This steamer made one voyage a year to the Yellowstone and back to St. Louis, without breaking her engine or serious casualty, until the hull was deemed unsafe from decay. 1 su- perintended the building of this boat without pay or charge, as I had promised the boat-builders that they should have at least one boat to build per year. My pride of citizenship in- duced me to labor to make Louisville famed for building steamboats and engines of a superior class for speed and safety."

In 1836-37 Captain Swagar built the steamer

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Antelope for the same company, which success- fully navigated. the turbulent Missouri. He had started the first shipyard here in 1829, and the next year completed in it the first steamer built on this side of the Falls after the Governor Shelby-the Don Juan-and also built the Yel- lowstone. Owning three-fourths of the vessel, he took personal command, and ran her for two years; sold out and built the Diana No. 2; ran her one and one-half years, and sold to the Fur Company; built the General Brown in 1836, for himself, Captain Frank Carter (now superintend- ent of the Cincinnati line of mail-packets), and D. S. Benedict. This was the fastest boat of her time. The next year he sold her to his partners and others, and built the Diana No. 3, which in 1838, at a time when a premium of $500 in gold was offered to the steamer which should get here from New Orleans inside of six days, brought the mails up in five days, twenty-three hours, and fifteen minutes. From 1842 the Captain himself ran the Diana No. 3 until she was somewhat worn, when he reconstructed her for the Diana No. 4, which he commanded one year and then sold. In 1845 he built the Homer, ran her two years, and then, in 1848, at the age of fifty-six, he retired permanently from the river.

In the year 1849 he made the overland trip with Bryant's company of emigrants to Cali- fornia, a trip of two thousand two hundred miles, with a pack-mule train ; but returned the next year. In 1854 he was instrumental, with the late Captain John Shallcross and others, in getting the first law for the regulation of steamboat navigation through Congress. The next year he was appointed Local Inspector of Hulls at Louisville, and held the post until 1861. Since that time he has been substantially retired from active business, although for some time, about 1865, he was President of the Frank- lin Bank.

Captain Swagar was married, in 1819, to Miss Mary Walter, of Louisville, sister of Jacob Wal- ter, well-known in local history as a lively specu- lator of that age. She died in 1835, and he was remarried in 1839, his second wife being Rachel Moore, of Philadelphia, descendant of one of the immigrants with William Penn. She survived until February 1, 1870. His children living are but two-Frances, daughter of the former wife, now wife of Joseph Clement, long a hardware

merchant in Philadelphia, and has three chil- dren ; and Ella S., daughter of Mrs. Moore- Swagar, married Thomas H. Sherley, a promin- ent business man in Louisville, and they have five children-three daughters and two sons. Captain Swagar has lost eight children, four by each marriage-among them a very talented and promising son, Charles M., who, after a varied and eventful life, died in Paris in 1871.

ARCHIBALD ALEXANDER QUARRIER,

Secretary and Cashier of the Louisville Bridge Company, was born in the city of Richmond, State of Virginia, of Scotch descent, his mother being Sally Burns, daughter of Richard Burns, of King William county, Virginia, late of Scot- land; and his father, Colonel Alexander Quarrier, a native of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, emigrating to this country early in the time of the Revolution, and becoming imbued with the spirit of liberty, joined the army in Philadel- phia, and as Captain in the Pennsylvania line, continued in active service during the war of independence. Mr. Quarrier is the youngest of six sons. His father's family removed from Richmond in 1812 to Charleston, the seat of justice of Kanawha county, now the capital of the State of West Virginia, but then on the border of the Great West, and of such import- ance for its extensive salt manufactories, supply- ing the fast increasing population west of the Alleghenies.

Here Mr. Quarrier passed his boyhood and early manhood with his elder brothers in mer- cantile pursuits. He was married in 1836 to Mary Henry, the eldest daughter of Henry Fitz- hugh, of Fauquier county, Virginia. For ten years he was engaged in the manufacture of glass in Wheeling, Virginia, then only second to Pittsburg in that industry; and came to the city of Louisville in 1857, where he has since re- sided.

In politics Mr. Quarrier has ever been a Dem- ocrat of the Jeffersonian school, and sympathizer with the South in all her political troubles and adversities; in religion a member of the Epis- copal church from his infancy, and for the past twenty years, and at present, one of the Vestry and the 'Treasurer of Christ church of this city.

A.A. Quartiers

George V. Morris

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Mr. Quarrier's two sons, Cushman and Archie M. Quarrier, have been for many years promi- nent railroad officials in the Louisville & Nash- ville railroad company, having seen the road in- crease from about sixty miles to nearly three thou- sand miles.

HON. GEORGE W. MORRIS.

This gentleman is of English stock on the father's side; his mother was of Welsh blood. He was himself born near Bristol, England, the third son of John and Elizabeth (Jones) Morris. His natal day was January 27, 1823. When about seven years of age he was brought to this country, and his first recollection is of the city of New York. He had, however, already at- tended school for a year. The family settled for a time in New York City, and young George continued his schooling there for about a year. In 1832 they removed from that city to Troy, and there the father recommenced the carriage business, to which he had been trained in the mother country, and which he had prosecuted in New York. He was prospered fairly in this until 1837, when the great financial crisis of that period shattered his fortunes, and threw all of his family capable of supporting themselves upon the world. By this time the parents had had thirteen children, of whom eight were living, and six now survive-three sons residing at the North, at the old home in Troy, and three in the South-George W. and William W. at Louis- ville, the latter the youngest of the family, and the other, Benjamin F. Morris, for twenty-five years a resident of Clinton, Louisiana, and now for six years Mayor of that city. The father survived to a venerable old age, dying at the residence of his second son in Troy, March 24, 1881, in his eighty-eighth year; but the mother had departed this life in the same place, Novem- ber 6, 1860.

George received comparatively little general education in the Troy schools, and not much more mechanical education in the various branches of his father's workshop and elsewhere, where he had been placed, with the view of training him to a trade. He had no taste or talent for such things, however; and in his fif- teenth year, upon the culmination of his father's 69

misfortunes, he swung away altogether from the parental home, and engaged as clerk in the general country store of Mr. Jesse Tracy, at Sand Lake, on the border of the mountain region east of Albany, at fifty dollars and board for the first year, and not much more for the next following years. During five years, how- ever, he sustained the hard duties of a young salesman and general factotum in such a place, and has found his experience there very valuable as a preparation for an active business career, and remembers his employer with special affec- tion as a man of excellent education, of eminent piety and purity, and the most thorough-going integrity. His fine library was freely at the dis- posal of his clerk, who owes much more of his present information and intelligence to faithful use of it than to the formal education of the schools. In the spring of 1842, however, ambi- tious for a wider field and the larger life of the city, George left his employ, and entered that of Messrs. V. & D. Marvin, of Troy, then a very reputable and widely known firm in all the Northeastern States, engaged in selling dry goods. He was a salesman in the carpet depart- ment of their house for about six months, and then, from the prevailing dullness of business, transferred his energies to a very different sphere, teaching a country school that winter and the next spring, in Greenbush, Rensselaer county, for two "quarters." Young Morris did not take very kindly to this work, however. He then went to Hampton, near the seat of Hamilton College, and for another six months attended the De- lancey Institute, an Episcopal school named in honor of Bishop Delancey. This was the last of his academic training. Returning to Rens- selaer county, he took a school in the district ad- joining his former field of pedagogic service, but taught it for a much longer period, about eighteen months in all.

He was now very successful in the business, and remained at it through the urgency of the authorities in the district, who advanced his wages several times as an inducement for him to remain. He finally gave it up, however, once for all ; and soon pushed Westward, bringing up June 10, 1846, at Louisville, where he has since steadily resided, during a period now of about thirty-six years. It was very difficult, in that dull time, for a young stranger to get a situation here ;

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but after some weeks he secured a place in the tobacco house of Captain Edward Holbrook, as a clerk, at $200 a year. He has never since been out of business for a day. In about three months he obtained a better engagement as book- keeper with Messrs. Emery Low & Co., whole- sale dealers in dry goods. Two years thereafter he made his first venture in independent bus- iness, as junior member in the firm of Fonda, Moore & Co., wholesale grocers. About this time he was married, as will be related hereafter. In July, 1851, the house of Fonda, Moore & Co., which had been organized in September, 1848, was dissolved, and that of Fonda & Morris was formed, consisting of two of the former partners. This in turn was dissolved in 1858, by the re- tirement of Mr. Fonda, and Mr. Morris remained alone for about nine years longer, when, in January, 1867, he finally abandoned the grocery business and engaged in the iron trade with Mr. George S. Moore, with whom he has ever since been associated most pleasantly and profitably. Their present place of business is on the north- east corner of Main and Bullitt streets.

Notwithstanding his large business interests here for many years, Mr. Morris has found time to gratify his tastes for intellectual culture, giving a part of his time each day to it ; and has thus reached high literary attainments. His style as writer or speaker is decidedly superior, and the calls upon him for literary or oratorical service have been frequent. It is said that he has pro- nounced more addresses upon literary and com- mercial topics than any other non-professional man in Louisville. He has also been of much public service otherwise. In 1851 he rendered essential aid in procuring a new charter for the city. He advocated early and successfully the policy of liberal loans by the city to railroads. He served with great usefulness as a member of the first Board of Trustees of the University and Public Schools, and remained a member twelve years, during five of which he was President of the Board. In 1865 he received from the Uni- versity the honorary degree of Master of Arts. For a number of years he was a Director of the Mechanics' Institute, and delivered the annual address before it in 1857, which was highly com- mended by the local press. He was chosen President of the Board of Trade in 1860, and served for two years with great credit. In 1864

he was elected to the Common Council, and two years thereafter was nominated by the Democrats as candidate for Mayor, but was defeated through circumstances not at all personal to himself. In 1870 he was unanimously elected to represent his ward in the convention to form a new city charter, and was made President of that body. Three years afterwards, upon call of many prom- inent residents, irrespective of party ties, he was sent to the State Legislature, but resigned his seat from the demands of business, after the panic of 1873 set in.

His position in the financial and business world is even more distinguished. Some of the most important material interests in the city have been confided to his management. He was one of the original corporators of the Southern Mu- tual Life Insurance Company of Kentucky, and has been a member of the Directory and of the Executive Board from its organization. For twenty-three years he has been a Director in the Franklin Fire Insurance Company, of Louisville ; for ten years was a Director of the Bank of Louis- ville, and for a still longer period has been a Director of the Bank of Kentucky.

Mr. Morris's religious affiliations are Presby- terian, and he is a ruling elder in the Second church of that faith in the city. He has also served most efficiently as superintendent of the Sunday-school, and has frequently represented the society in the Presbyteries and the higher bodies of the church. In politics he was form- erly an ardent disciple of Henry Clay; but for many years his sympathies have been with the Democracy, though he takes no active part in their councils. During much of his life he has been conspicuously identified with the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he has been Grand Master of the State, Representative to the Grand Lodge of the United States, and in many other responsible positions. For twenty- four years consecutively he has been Grand Treasurer of the Jurisdiction of Kentucky. In the interest of this Order he has written and spoken much in public or before its meetings, notably in a fine address before the Right Wor- thy Grand Lodge of the State, at its session in Lexington October 24, 1872. Numerous other benevolent and reformatory organizations have enjoyed the benefit of his membership and counsels. The writer of an excellent biographi-

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cal sketch of Mr. Morris, in Louisville Past and Present, from which some materials have been drawn for this notice, says :

As a debater he is ready, self-possessed, and pungent as the circumstances demand. As a public speaker he is remark- ably graceful in manner, distinguished in rhetoric, attractive to his auditors, impressive, and full of earnestness in the presentation of his subject. As a business man he has been uniformly successful; and to say that "his word is as good as his bond" is only to state the fact that both pass current among his large circle of acquaintances.

He is altogether unselfish, and of a most charitable dispo- sition. He contributes of his means with most commendable liberality, not only to objects of common charity, but to the establishment and maintenance of institutions which are intended to benefit mankind. He is the special friend of young men: to counsel, encourage, and assist such as try to help themselves is one of his predominant characteristics, and few men of his age enjoy a better reputation as a bene- factor. It has thus far been his aim in life so to live that be might do good to his fellow-men, and it may truly be said that his course furnishes an example to the young eminently worthy of their emulation.

Mr. Morris was united in marriage July 26, 1848, to Miss Caroline A., youngest daughter of James and Abigail Wallace, of Troy, New York, a worthy consort in both physical and mental endowments. They have had nine children, of whom but three are now living-Carrie Belle, married Colonel J. Rowan Boone June 10, 1870, and now resides at the old Boone homestead in the southern part of the city; John Stuart, mar- ried Miss Annie Cooper, of Louisville, in No- vember, 1876, and now chief clerk of the Louis- ville City Railroad, at Thirteenth and Main streets; and Wallace Wood, a youth of eighteen years, still a student in the Boys' High School. The family reside in an elegant mansion at 736 Third avenue, between Chestnut street and Broadway.

BENJAMIN F. AVERY.

One of the most remarkable examples of well- directed, successful business effort, resulting in affluence and renown from small beginnings, is the subject of this sketch-Mr. Benjamin Franklin Avery, the eminent plow manufacturer of Louis- ville. He was the son of Daniel Avery, of Aurora, New York, to which place the father emigrated from Groton, Connecticut, becoming one of the earliest settlers of Cayuga county. He was a large farmer and land-owner, and represented his dis- trict two terms in Congress. Here Benjamin was born, the sixth in a family of fifteen children,

twelve of whom lived to middle or old age. All received an academic education, but the boys had to share the work of the farm. This labor was distasteful to Benjamin, who asked to go to college. His petition was granted, on condition that the expense should be deducted from the one thousand dollars which would be his portion on coming of age, in accordance with his father's custom. He accepted the condition and entered Hamilton College, but at the end of the first year transferred his connection to Union College, from which he was graduated in 1822. At his father's solicitation he studied law, and was ad- mitted to the bar in New York City. He devel- oped no taste, however, for the profession, his natural mechanical inclination precluding much interest in any other direction.

His earlier experience on the farm had con- vinced him that there was room for improvement in form and general construction of the plows then in use. Providing himself with patterns, a pocket furnace (as it was then called), and other apparatus for a small foundry, he started south- ward on a small coasting vessel, with these and $400 in money as his sole earthly possessions. He sailed up James river to Richmond, Virginia, desiring to make his first business venture there, but finding indifferent encouragement he went on to Clarksville, Mecklenburg county, where in company with another young man, Caleb H. Richmond, a practical moulder, he opened his first foundry in a pine log building, 18 to 20 feet square, covered with slabs split from the "old fields " pine. They bought a single ton of metal to start with ; would not run in debt by borrow- ing money or soliciting credit ; attended indus- triously and energetically to business ; lived fru- gally, and in a short time began to reap their reward in success. After a few years, the owners of the land which they occupied determining to turn this success to their own advantage, refused longer to lease their property. This obliged the young men to seek a new field, which they found in Milton, Caswell county, North Carolina. Af- ter a few years, the same thing recurring, they went to Meadsville, Halifax county, Virginia, where they bought land and settled permanently. During all the period of their association, Mr. Avery was the business manager, doing also much of the toilful work of the foundry, at which his more skilled partner assiduously labored.

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cal sketch of Mr. Morris, in Louisville Past and Present, from which some materials have been drawn for this notice, says :

As a debater he is ready, self-possessed, and pungent as the circuinstances demand. As a public speaker he is remark- ably graceful in manner, distinguished in rhetoric, attractive to his auditors, impressive, and full of earnestness in the presentation of his subject. As a business man he has been uniformly successful; and to say that "his word is as good as his bond" is only to state the fact that both pass current among his large circle of acquaintances.

He is altogether unselfish, and of a most charitable dispo- sition. He contributes of his means with most commendable liberality, not only to objects of common charity, but to the establishment and maintenance of institutions which are intended to benefit mankind. He is the special friend of young men: to counsel, encourage, and assist such as try to help themselves is one of his predominant characteristics, and few men of his age enjoy a better reputation as a bene- factor. It has thus far been his aim in life so to live that he might do good to his fellow-men; and it may truly be said that his course furnishes an example to the young eminently worthy of their emulation.

BENJAMIN F. AVERY.

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History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I, Part 111

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