History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I, Part 112

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 112

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

At Meadsville the partnership was ended, kindly and harmoniously, Mr. Avery always cher- ishing pleasant memories of his first associate in business.

On the death of his father in 1842, Mr. Avery was appointed executor of the estate, and the next year sold his Virginia property and busi- ness to a younger brother, his own time and at- tention being required at Aurora. Here was re- siding a nephew, Daniel Humphrey Avery, ener- getic and desirous of new business interests. In 1846 his uncle Benjamin fitted him out with plow patterns and a roving commission to select the best place in the South or Southwest for a plow manufactory. With excellent judg- ment the young man, after looking widely and carefully, selected Louisville as the place, and the next spring began work in Jabez Baldwin's foundry on Main street-now the plow factory of Brinly, Miles & Hardy. In a few months, how. ever, he began to feel the need of his uncle's ex- perience, and urged his coming for a short time. Mr. Avery reached Louisville, December 25, 1847, intending to stay a few weeks only. Mean- while, he became so much interested in a busi- ness which he had once relinquished, that he de- cided to spend his winters here, and finally make this his home. The beginnings of the industry were very small. He was sure he could make a better and cheaper plow than those in general use, but the prejudice against cast-iron plows was so general that the sale of a single plow was, for many months, a notable event. Much of Mr. Avery's outside encouragement in those days was similar to that given by Mr. James Hewitt, of "Rock Hill," near Louisville, who owned large plantations in the South, and who was also a native of Cayuga county. "My friend," said Mr. Hewitt, " if you can succeed in introducing your plow, you will have fortune enough, but I do not believe you can."

After two or three years the nephew, Daniel Humphrey, engaged in a successful business in . Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where he died during the late war. Long before the war Mr. Avery had built a large manufactory at the corner of Fif- teenth and Main streets, the beginning of the im- mense establishment which the firm now occupies. During the war his business, which had been almost exclusively with the South, was entirely prostrated. Through all those dark and troub-

lous days he was earnest and outspoken in the cause of the Union. When the war was over he recommenced business, and soon restored it to more than its former prosperity.

In 1868 he formed a new firm with his sons and son-in-law (John C. Coonley, now of Chi- cago), joint partners, under the style of B. F. Avery & Sons. The business has gradually ex- tended till it has become of the most im- portant in the Western country ; employing a large number of workmen and making many dif- ferent kinds of cast-iron and steel plows, besides publishing an excellent semi-monthly paper called "Home and Farm," which has a very wide circula- tion. Of late years Mr. Avery has measurably re- tired from business, leaving the care and labor to heads and hands which have not so long borne the heat and burden of the day.

He was married by Rev. Dr. Nott, President of Union College, April 27, 1844, to Miss Susanna H. Look, eldest daughter of Mr. Sam- uel Look, a farmer widely known in Central New York. They have six children, all living- Lydia Arms, wife of John C. Coonley, of Chi- cago, Samuel Look, Gertrude Arms, wife of John G. Shanklin, of Evansville, Indiana, George Casswell, Helen Blasdell, wife of C. B. Robinson, of Louisville, and William Sidney. The sons are all in the firm of B. F. Avery & Sons, and live in Louisville. Before leaving Aurora Mr. Avery united with the Presbyterian Church, in which he has since been an active worker, giving cheerfully and liberally for religious and benevo- lent objects.

JAMES S. LITHGOW.

Another of the "iron men" of Louisville is the subject of this sketch, Mr. James Smith Lithgow, head of the house of James S. Lithgow & Co., occupying the extensive premises at Main, Han- cock, and Clay streets. He is a native of the city (then the borough) of Pittsburg, where he was born November 29, 1812, only son of Wal- ter and Frances (Stevenson) Lithgow. The father followed the vocation of a plane-maker, and was one of the first of that trade in the Ohio Valley. He did not survive the birth of his son James quite a year. After his death Mrs. Lith- gow broke up her home in Pittsburg, and re- turned with her fatherless child to the parental

J. J.Gathright

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Thomas I Barret.

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home. Her parents in turn departed this life in a few years, and mother and son were left alone in the world. James was well cared for, how- ever, and was early indoctrinated in the princi- ples of religion, as well as in the rudiments of a fair English education. But it was desirable that he should become self-supporting as soon as possible; and in April, 1826, when as yet but thirteen and a half years old, he was apprenticed to the trade of a copper- and tin-smith, in his native city. He served faithfully through his apprenticeship, mastered his business in all its departments, and continued at journey work, meanwhile residing with his mother in Pittsburg until he was twenty years old, when he struck out alone in the world, to do battle with it for himself. He came to Louisville in December, 1832, al- most exactly a half-century ago, a period which measures the term of his continuous and active life in the Falls City. He made an engagement here at his trade with Messrs. Bland & Coleman, but was shortly recalled to Pittsburg by the dan- gerous illness of his mother, from which she died during his stay. She left him no patrimony ex- cept a stainless name and the inspiring memory of her good words and deeds; and he returned to Louisville without capital, except that of good habits, good workmanship, and great business ability, which only awaited opportunity for de- velopment. He went back to the journeyman's bench, and remained at it for nearly four years, or until October, 1836, when he had realized from his savings the sum of $484.

Finding, in the person of Mr. Allen S. Wal- lace, also of Louisville, a fellow-workman pre- pared to invest a similar sum, he formed with him a partnership under the name and style of Wallace & Lithgow. They opened a new busi- ness in copper, tin, and sheet-iron, on Market street, between Second and Third; began manu- facturing at once, and in the course of twenty- five years, during which the partnership endured, they built up successfully and permanently one of the very largest establishments of the kind then or now in the Western country. While still young in the business,-less than four years after beginning, indeed,-it was devastated by fire, which cost the firm $25,000. Almost before the flames had subsided, however,-even on the next day,-arrangements were made for continu- ing the business, which was actually resumed the

next week ; losses were soon made good, and the firm was speedily upon its feet again. In 1857 the house once more suffered from disas- trous conflagration, their stove foundry and ware- house on Second street, erected in 1844, being completely destroyed. Nothing daunted, an- other and still larger establishment of the kind soon arose through the energy of the firm, on the corner of Main and Clay streets, where are situated the present mammoth foundry and ware- house, enlarged from year to year during the last quarter of a century to meet the increasing de- mands of business. Here forty to fifty tons of pig-iron are daily transmuted into stoves and ranges, of great variety of design and use. The house is best known, perhaps, by its manufac- tures of this kind ; yet it is very largely engaged in other lines of work, as mantels, grates, iron hollow-ware, and other castings, marbleizing mantels, enameling grates, etc., etc. For all purposes about two hundred and fifty persons are regularly employed, and very much more iron is worked here than in any other foundry south of the Ohio. All needed facilities for de- signers and workmen have been provided, and mechanical improvements introduced as fast as they became known and approved in the trade.

The long, harmonious, and eminently success- ful partnership of Wallace & Lithgow was only broken by the death of the senior, which occur- ed in 1861. Mr. Lithgow remamed alone for one year, and then taking into the house his two sons-in-law, Messrs. Clark O. Smith and J. L. Smyser, with Mr. Vincent Cox, they formed the strong firm of J. S. Lithgow & Co., by which title it is still known. Their store and sales-room were long maintained at the corner of Main and Third streets; but in September, 1871, they were removed to a new, more elegant, and com- modious stand at No. 71 Main street, adjoining the Bank of Kentucky. Even this was not sufficient for their great business, and the next year the firm began the erection of the splendid building now standing upon the same site, and which cost $217,000. Before it was finished the terrible financial crisis of 1873 came upon the country, striking the iron trade among the first, and causing therein, as elsewhere, an im- mense falling off of business and shrinkage of values. The firm, for a time, with countless others, went to the wall. Mr. Lithgow himself

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called a meeting of the creditors, made a brief, sensible statement of the situation, and gave up to them all his assets, including his wife's large dower interests, and even property held by his daughters under his grant in fee simple. He was not to be kept down, however; and in due time the house was again "in full blast," with more than its wonted business and prosperity.

Mr. Lithgow has also filled a number of pub- lic or semi-public positions of importance. In 1866 he served, by call of an enormous majority of voters, as Mayor of the city, to fill the vacancy caused by the retirement of Philip Tomppert. He has served repeatedly in both branches of the City Council, and sat in the City Charter Convention of 1866. Long before, in 1836, he was Chiet Director and President of the Mechan- ics' Fire Company, a hand-engine company comprising many of the best citizens of the place. In 1865 he was made President of the Northern Bank of Kentucky; and has served in the Directory of both the Louisville & Frankfort and the Elizabethtown & Paducah Railroads.

Mr. Lithgow was brought up in the tenets of Reformed Presbyterianism, but in 1843 identi- fied himself with the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which he became a conspicuous member. He was a delegate to the General Conference of 1870, in Memphis, and rendered the denomination important service there. He is generous, benevolent, hospitable, and kind, tar beyond the common measure of men.

Mr. Lithgow was united in marriage, Novem- ber, 1837, to Miss Hannah, daughter of an En- glish couple named Cragg, for a long time residents of Cincinnati and elsewhere in Hamil- ton county, Ohio. They have had eight chil- dren, only six of whom survive-Elizabeth P., now Mrs. Clark O. Smith; Fannie, now Mrs. J. L. Smyser ; Alice, now Mrs. M. Muldoon; Han- nah J., now Mrs. L. P. Kennedy; Walter, engag- ed in business with the company ; and Miss Linnie, still at home with her parents. All the children reside in Louisville, and the two de- ceased-a son killed by accident, and an infant daughter-are both buried here.

DENNIS LONG.

Here is a face that bears God's impress of the man and his character, for he. is universally known and esteemed as " an honest man."

A hard and indefatigable worker from boy- hood, Mr. Long became prematurely gray from real toil. He is now in his sixty-sixth year, and bears the marks of hard licks and many a stoutly- fought and victorious battle.

Mr. Long was born inside the gates of Lon- donderry, Ireland, in 1816. He came to this country with his parents in 1820. They first set- tled at Erie, Pennsylvania, but shortly afterwards moved to Pittsburg, travelling over a corduroy road, then the only way made between the two cities.

At a very early age Mr. Long was apprenticed to the trade of a moulder, and after some years' work at his trade in Pittsburg, moved to Louis- ville, where his first day's work as a journeyman was performed at the place where one of his foundries now stands. In the course of a few years, by hard labor and close industry, he was enabled to start a foundry and machine-shops of his own.

He made the first pipe for the St. Louis, Mis- souri, Gas Works and the first large water-pipe for the city of Nashville, Tennessee, also the castings for the first rolling-mill established in Louisville, and which stood on the site of the present old Coleman mill.

The firm of Roach & Long was soon after formed. They made the machinery for the then noted steamcr Falls City, which phed between here and Wheeling, the low-pressure steamer C. B. Cotton, and many others.

In 1860 the city water-works were projected, and the award of the contract for the immense Cornish pumping engines was made to Roach & Long. Such an undertaking at that time was one of great magnitude and risk. In the begin- ning of this work Bryan Roach was accidentally killed, and thus the labor and care of the surviv- ing partner were greatly increased. The splen- did results now to be seen in the operation of this master work are an evidence of the tenacity and industry of the builder.

During the late war Mr. Long was a non-com- batant, and lent assistance to reither side, but his sympathies were with the Government in the struggle.

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During the war and shortly after, he built the machinery for the well-known steamers Olive Branch, Ruth, General Anderson, Stonewall, General Buell, Tarascon, Ben Franklin, and the iron steamer John T. Moore, and many others.

Fire has been a great element of combat in Mr. Long's career-first, by the total destruc- tion of the foundry, patterns, etc., where all his past work had been done; then by the burning of the smaller pipe works, afterwards the destruc- tion of the steamer Stonewall, of which he owned two-thirds, and finally the loss of the large pipe works, involving in all a loss of over $300,000.

For years past his energies have been confined exclusively to the manufacture of cast-iron gas and water pipe, and in this line he is the founder of the now largest company in this country. A pipe works at Columbus, Ohio, and another at Chicago, Illinois, were built by him and success- fully operated for some years.

The present foundries known as those of Dennis Long & Company, have for years fur- nished the pipe for the cities of Chicago, Cincin- nati, St. Louis, Allegheny City, Indianapolis, and nearly all the large and small cities north and west of Louisville.

Seven years since, the holding of a large amount of then unsaleable water bonds of a dis- tant company compelled Mr. Long to call his creditors together. After an exhibit of his af- fairs, the creditors unanimously agreed to act just as Mr. Long desired. He elected to ask for an extension of time, giving his notes with nine per cent. interest for the full amount due all. Every note was faithfully paid with interest inside of three years, and part of same before maturity. Thus no one lost a dollar of prin- cipal or interest, and his record for probity has never been questioned.

After these many years of toil Dennis Long stands to-day as a monument of industry, hon- esty, and inte grity. A man of ample means, he quietly and in a particularly unostentatious man- ner enjoys the fruits of his labor, being yet at the head of his large company, and by his presence and experience giving the care and attention that its very extensive business demands. In no other man, perhaps, in the city is more centered the confidence and respect of the community in whose midst he has lived above forty years.

JAMES S. PHELPS.

Mr. James Shipp Phelps, long one of the most prominent tobacco warehousemen in Louisville, and President of the J. S. Phelps & Co. house, at the southeast corner of Main and Eleventh streets, is a native Kentuckian, born at Hopkins- ville, Christian county, March 8, 1828. He was the third child and third son of John H. and Caroline (Shipp) Phelps. The father was born in July, 1790, and had come from Virginia with his brother when a young man some years be- fore, and had taken his wife near Hopkinsville, from the well-known Shipp family. The Phelps stock is probably English, though it is not known when it first made its advent in this country. James lost his mother while still less than two years old, and his father remarried in October, 1830, this time taking to wife Elizabeth More- head, sister of the first Governor Morehead- James T. She proved an excellent mother to the little family, and brought them up carefully. James had two elder brothers-Hiram Abiff, an attorney at Hopkinsville, and Laban Shipp, de- ceased at about twenty-six years of age; and a half-sister, Lucy C., now residing with her brother in Louisville. The elder Phelps died in 1842: His surviving wife married Dr. Augustine Web- ber, of Hopkinsville, in February, 1846, and survived him about eighteen months, dying May 21, 1875, at the residence of her stepson in this city.

Young Phelps was educated mainly by Mr. James D. Rumsey, of Hopkinsville, and in the school of a venerable Baptist minister, the Rev. Robert T. Anderson, near that place, who had much repute as a thorough and successful teacher for many years. He was in this school from about the age of fourteen until he was ready to enter upon active life. At the request of his father, who had been in his lifetime Clerk of the Circuit Court of Christian county, under the old system of appointment, for a long series of years, and had died at the post, James entered the office of his successor while a very young man, as a writer and, indeed, manager of the office, in the absence of his principal, who was in failing health. This was an important position for a youth, and fulfilled his father's expectation of the place as a capital means of practical education for him. Mr. Phelps realizes to this day, and very frequently, the benefits of this beginning of his

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business career. So well did he improve his opportunities of observation and legal study in the office that, within a single year after leaving it, he was enabled to receive from the circuit judges a license to practice law. He opened an office with his brother (though not as a partner) in Hopkinsville; but at the end of another year he wearied of the slow and drudging character of the profession, and determined to embark in mercantile business, for which he had a decided taste. He entered into partnership with Mr. Joseph K. Grant, of the same place, in buying out the business of Mr. Archibald Grant, the oldest merchant in Hopkinsville, and father of Joseph. It was in 1853 when the two young men started thus in the dry-goods business. The times were prosperous, and Christian was then the richest county in the State, outside of Jeffer- son and Fayette. A great many slaves were held in the county, and the negro trade was especially lucrative. The partners made money every year, selling to the amount of $115,000 the last year they were together. In 1856, however, Mr. Phelps retired, selling his interest to Mr. Grant, and remained comparatively unemployed and at ease until the summer of 1862. During the war Hopkinsville was much of the time on the bor- der between the contending forces; and he de- termined in the second year of it to remove to a less disturbed region. He came to the city and built the well-known Louisville Tobacco Ware- house the same season, at the northwest corner of Tenth and Main streets. His family followed in December, and they have since resided in the city.

Mr. Phelps embarked in the tobacco business as a warehouseman, and as the head of Phelps, Caldwell & Co., at Tenth and Main. This ware- house was sold about 1867 to Ray & Co., and the superb building now occupied by Messrs. Phelps & Co., and known as the Planters' To- bacco Warehouse, at the corner of Eleventh and Main, was erected by Mr. Phelps in 1875. Meanwhile he was in business in an old building on the same site. The firm of Phelps, Cald- well & Co. was dissolved at the time of the sale and removal, and that of J. S. Phelps & Co. was formed, composed of Mr. Phelps and John C. Durrett, a young man who was a cousin to the wife of Mr. Phelps, had been since boyhood in the family and associated with Mr. Phelps in

business, and had come to the city with or soon after him. The present stock company, bearing the same name, was formed in 1881, and em- braces the two gentlemen named, and three of the sons of Mr. Phelps. The business has been most successfully maintained, and enlarged from year to year, though on a safe, conservative basis ; and the house is now among the heaviest tobic- co concerns in the city.

Mr. Phelps was an old-line Whig before the war, and a hearty sympathizer with the Union cause when the great struggle came on and dur- ing its continuance. Since the war he has not been connected with either of the great parties, but has nevertheless faithfully observed his duties as a citizen, voting for those whom he deems the best men. Many years ago he was much at- tached to Odd Fellowship, and served for sev- eral years as Deputy Grand Master of the State ; but has not of late maintained his connection with the order. He is a member, with several of his family, of the First Baptist church in Louisville, in the faith of his parents and other relatives of a past generation. .

Mr. Phelps was married in Hopkinsville, July 25, 1849, to Miss Mary Jane, second daugh- ter of Zachariah and Mary Jane Glass. She is still living. They have had six children, all sons, in order as follow : John Holland (named for a grandfather), also in the tobacco business in Louisville ; Zack, died in infancy ; James Shipp, cashier and book-keeper for J. S. Phelps & Co., and secretary of the company ; Zack (named from his maternal grandfather), a lawyer in the firm of Jackson & Phelps, in the city ; Laban (from his uncle), another of the com- pany at Eleventh and Main; and Hiram Ott (from a Philadelphia friend of the father), still a boy in the schools. The family resides at the corner of Twentieth and Jefferson streets, in Louisville.

JAMES ANDERSON, JR.

To the grandchildren of James Anderson, Jr., this record is affectionately inscribed.

The paternal ancestors of the subject of this sketch removed from the vicinity of Edinburgh, Scotland, to Ireland about the year 1650. They settled on Cool-collet Hill, near Glaslough, in the county Monaghan. His maternal ancestors, the

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Williams family, emigrated from Wales about the same year and settled in the same county on a beautiful leasehold estate called "The Groves." These two families intermarried with the family of Walter Bell, who went from the south of Eng- land into Ireland, and established himself in the county Armagh.

James Anderson, son of James Anderson and Jane Bell, and Sarah Bell, daughter of William Bell and Agnes Williams, were married August 31, 1792, and were the parents of James Ander- son, Jr.

The father of James Anderson, Jr., was a great reader, with a taste for politics and affairs, which drove him into active sympathy with the sturdy Protestant patriots of the north of Ireland who planned and led the rebellion of 1798. The student of history knows the sad termination of that effort for freedom and the sufferings of those engaged in it. During that season of tumult and excitement James Anderson, Jr., was born, January 1, 1798.

During this period of Irish history, the British Government made little attempt to administer the civil laws, abandoning the country to the merciless rule of an irresponsible soldiery. Seek- ing all participants in the rebellion, the troops reached Mr. Anderson's residence when the young James was a few months old. Failing to find Mr. Anderson there, they determined to se- cure the youngest child as a means of extorting from the young wife and mother the whereabouts of her husband, or, baffled in this, they would retain the child as a hostage. But their plans were foiled by the acuteness of .Mrs. Anderson, who, foreseeing danger to her child, had secreted him on the tester of a bedstcad, and, although the soldiers plunged their bayonets into the mat- tresses, the child escaped unharmed.

After a time the Government adopted a more pacific policy, granting pardon to all but a few of the most conspicuous leaders. But Mr. An- derson, disappointed in the issue of the rebellion, decided to leave his pleasant home at Cool- collet Hill, sever his lifelong associations, and make a home for himself and young family in the New World.

He and his family left Ireland in April, 1801, and after a voyage of six weeks arrived in New York. They crossed the mountains and settled upon a farm adjoining Braddock's Field. Here

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History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I, Part 112

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