History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I, Part 115

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 115

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Soon after his professional graduation young Ward began the practice of the law in George- town, with hopes that were speedily justified by important and lucrative practice. His energetic and popular qualities, however, soon diverted him for a time into political paths. He cast his lot with the Democracy, to whose banner he thereafter steadfastly adhered, through evil and good report. While yet in young manhood he was sent to the lower House of the State Legis- lature, where his brilliant talents at once com- manded attention and presently secured uni- versal admiration. At a remarkably early age (twenty-eight years), he was promoted to the high and difficult position of Speaker of the

House-an honor which is prominently noticed in "The Queens of American Society," by Mrs. E. F. Ellet, a publication of 1867, in which three of his daughters are celebrated. After a glowing notice of the most famous of these, then known as Sallie Ward Hunt, Mrs. Ellet says:

Her father, Hon. Robert J. Ward, possessed the intellect- ual qualities that make men great, with those moral ones which secure lasting friendship. At twenty-eight he was elected Speaker of the Kentucky Assembly, his ability and eloquence giving promise of a splendid public career. So great became his popularity that he might have obtained any office in the people's gift had he remained in public life; in comparative retirement his generous character and virtues gave him influence during life and endeared his memory to numerous friends.

Other important offices were afterwards and repeatedly pressed upon him, and had he ac- eepted these offers and remained in public life, he would undoubtedly have attained to some of the highest distinctions in American politics. In response, however, to the anxious solicitations of his family, who desired all that was possible of his charming presence with them, and to the suggestions of his own most retiring nature, he abandoned the active pursuits of politics, once for all, at the close of his legislative term. He returned to the practice of his profession in Georgetown, and pursued it with his wonted success for many years. Determining at length to seek the wider opportunities and more stirring life of the city, and to embark in a business that promised larger and prompter returns, he re- moved with his family to Louisville, and estab- lished a delightful and most hospitable home in the well-known mansion at the northeast corner of Second, and Walnut streets. Here he re- tained bis residence until the day of his death; but presently, after a short career as a commis- sion merchant in Louisville, he entered upon a very different field in New Orleans as a cotton operator. The firm of Ward, Jonas & Co., of which he was head, was succeeded after a few years by that of Ward, Hunt & Co., in which the second partner was Dr. Robert P. Hunt, husband of his daughter, Sallie Ward, and the remaining partner was Mr. George W. Ward, brother of the subject of this sketch. This partnership was only broken by the events of the war, which for years almost totally destroyed the business of the Crescent City. The firm name indeed was retained until the close of the war; but the partners were scattered by the

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dreadful exigencies of the great struggle, and the business was practically closed by the opening of the conflict. Before it had progressed more than a few months, Mr. Ward was called to a higher life. He died suddenly of disease of the heart, retaining even in death the flush and fullness of his splendid manhood, during the autumn of 1861.

Mr. George D. Prentice, writing an obituary notice of him shortly afterwards in the Journal, although opposed to him lifelong in political views, said, "He died without an enemy."

It is a matter of some interest, considering the well-known kind and charitable character of Mr. Ward, that the mansion long occupied by his family at the corner of Second and Walnut streets, is presently to be occupied as a Widows' and Orphans' Home, upon an unsectarian basis, and upon a pecuniary foundation provided by the late Mr. Cooke.

Mr. Ward was most fortunately and happily united in marriage to Miss Emily, youngest daughter of Matthews and Emily Flournoy, of a well-known Virginia and Kentucky family. The father was of Huguenot descent, and had served with eminent courage and soldierly skill in the War of 1812-15. She was in all respects a worthy companion of her distinguished husband. They had children as follow, in the order of seniority: Matthews Flournoy Ward, now de- ceased; Sallie Ward Hunt, now Mrs. Vene P. Armstrong, of Louisville; Malvina Ward, now Mrs. Collin S. Throckmorton; Robert S. Ward, Jr., William, and Victor Flournoy Ward, all de- parted this life; Emily Ward, now Mrs. William Johnston, of Louisville; and Lillie Ward, who became Mrs. Louis Schroeder, and is not living. The family is one of the most remarkable in the social annals of Kentucky, the daughters being especially and very widely noted for their beauty and accomplishments. Sallie Ward Hunt is the subject of an extended and most complimentary chapter in " The Queens of American Society," which also contains brief notices of two of her sisters; and she remains, and will doubtless re- main for many years to come, one of the most attractive, most courted, and most notable ladies in Louisville circles.

SAMUEL CASSEDAY.

One of the most esteemed families that has ever been reared in Louisville is that whose head was the late Samuel Casseday ; and he was, in some respects, its most distinguished member. Men there may have been here, in the hundred years of local history, who had larger opportuni- ties of usefulness; but none can be credited with greater willingness and native ability to aid in every good work and work. And none have yet "gone over to the majority," who have left the memory of a purer and better life.

Mr. Casseday was born August 6, 1795, at Lexington in the Valley of Virginia, the son of Peter and Mary McClung Casseday. His father was a small farmer, who had emigrated to the Valley from Pennsylvania after the Revolution- ary war, in which he was a private soldier. He died when Samuel was scarcely more than seven years old. The boy had early, as best he could, to aid in the support of a large family left without means. His own facilities for education were consequently meagre, only such as he could ob- tain in his intervals of labor and in the indiffer- ent country schools of the time. But through his energy and privations he succeeded in giv- ing a good education to his younger brothers, Alexander and George. He was an attentive reader and careful observer, however ; and by the use of his natural talents became an unu- sually well-informed and well-directed man. His schooling was practically closed with his tour- teenth year. In 1813 his mother brought the family from the old home to Paris, Kentucky, and the next year removed to Cynthiana, where they remained about four years longer. Young Casseday there, with two younger brothers, learned the carpenter's trade. He then resided for two years in Livonia, Indiana, with an uncle named McClung, who was also an uncle of the famous John A. McClung. In 1822, quite cas- ually, he came to the city where the rest of his long and useful life-his Louisville residence covering a period of fifty-four years-was to be spent. . He began here humbly as a journeyman carpenter, and in November of the same year ac- cepted an engagement as clerk in Thomas Jones's crockery store, at the munificent but then suf- ficient salary of $6 per month, with board and clothes. It was a great thing for him when his pay by and by reached the handsome figure of

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$35 a month. He had not long to wait, how- ever, for independent business. His kindly yet energetic nature made him many influential friends ; and among these was one, Mr. John S. Snead, long President of the Bank of Kentucky, who took so much interest in the young man and his future as to incur pecuniary responsibility on his behalf. He was encouraged by Mr. Snead to undertake a venture in the crockery business with Mr. John P. Bull, a partner who was kindly nominated by Mr. Sread, who agreed to indorse for them, or give them letters of credit, or other- wise aid them with his influence and means. In June, 1824, accordingly, they embarked in bus- iness as dealers in queensware, glass, and china goods. The house was a success from the be- ginning, clearing the then large sum of $7,000 the very first year. Before the year had gone, indeed, Mr. Casseday was justified in making a trip to England in the interest of the young firm, which was among the earliest west of the moun- tains to make direct importations. When addi- tional capital was desirable, Mr. Snead's kind- ness was again available, in a loan of $4,000. In 1835 Messrs. Bull & Casseday were succeeded by Casseday, Ramsey & Gamble ; they, in 1859, by Casseday & Hopkins, who were in turn fol- lowed by Casseday Sons & Gates, and then by Casseday & Sons in 1865.

The senior member of the firm retired from business in 1870, having then the oldest house in Louisville, to which honor John P. Morton & Co. have succeeded. From his retirement to the date of his death he devoted his time mainly to the improvement of his real estate and to the details of those large charities which he had de- vised or of which he was a prominent member. Mr. Casseday died July 6, 1876, full of years and full of honors.

In politics Mr. Casseday was a genuine inde- pendent, though voting and sympathizing for the most part with the Democratic party, after the old-line Whigs had passed away. In faith he was a Presbyterian after the straitest sect, hav- ing joined the Tinkling Springs church as early as 1818, under the ministration of Rev. John R. Moreland. For nearly half a century he was a teacher in the Sabbath-school, and as an elder in that denomination his self-elected duties were almost those of a pastor. Mr. Casseday's name is associated with all of the great charities of

Louisville begun in his lifetime. The Blind Asylum, the Orphanage at Anchorage, the Col- onization Society, the Cooke Benevolence, the Presbyterian school (destroyed as a school during the war), all came under his fostering care in their day.

In November, 1824, Mr. Casseday was joined in marriage to Miss Eliza McFarland, daughter of Patrick and Rosanna McFarland, of Louisville. The result of this union was the goodly number of ten children, most of whom bore the impress of the father's genius. The children all had lit- erary talents of a high order. Ben Casseday, one of the most noted historians of Louisville, a journalist of repute, and poet of no mean order, died a few years ago at Cincinnati. The second son, S. Addison Casseday, was a geologist of rare promise and much attainment, who died at the early age of twenty-six. Mrs. Mary Cas- seday Gates, deceased, was a story-writer of note in her time. Miss Jennie Casseday has been an invalid for many years, but has also used her natural talents and fine culture for the benefit of her day and generation, organizing at her bed- side in 1878 and 1881 those beneficent and beautiful charities known as the flower missions of Louisville and Portland. Fannie B. Casse- day is also widely known as a literary worker and essayist. Thus the native genius of the father, which was deprived ot early culture, found expression in the children.

MR. JOSEPH DANFORTH,

almost the oldest business man now remaining in Louisville, was born in Londonderry, New Hampshire, on the 21st of January, 1792, and is consequently now in his ninety-first year. Joseph Danforth, Sr., his father, and Stephen Danforth, his grandfather, were both soldiers of the Revolution, and the latter was killed at the battle of Bunker Hill. Mr. Danforth is of En- glish stock on both sides, but both his paternal and maternal ancestors had been long in this country. His mother's maiden name was Eliza- beth Barker, and she was a native of Massachu- setts.

In 1810 young Danforth went to Boston, and engaged in the commission and importing busi- ness. Five years thereafter, he was married to

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

Miss Lucy Shaw Lewis, daughter of Nathaniel and Lucy (Shaw) Lewis, of that city, and a lineal descendant of Mary Chilton, who is said to have been the first of the Pilgrim band to set foot on Plymouth Rock. In 1818 he visited Kentucky, and decided to make Louisville his future home. At that time it had a population of 3,700, and was built up only between Second and Fifth streets, extending from the river front back to Jefferson street. In December, 1818, Mr. Dan- forth went back to Boston to arrange his affairs there, making the entire journey on horseback, which, owing to the severity of the weather and condition of the roads, occupied forty-two days of constant travel. He returned to Kentucky in 1819, and was soon followed by his wife and children, who made the voyage down the Ohio river from Pittsburg in an open rowboat. Im- mediately upon his return, he engaged alone in a general commission business, which he continued until 1823. He then established the first whole- sale dry-goods store in the city, and for many years his firm, J. B. Danforth & Co., afterwards Dan- forth, Lewis & Co., then J. Danforth & Son, was one of the most prominent in the business. Dur- ing the late war he removed to Henry county, Kentucky, and lived there until 1873, when he re- turned to Louisville, where he now resides in the enjoyment of a ripe old age. On the 2 1st of Jan- uary, 1882, he was ninety years old, and on that day sat for the photograph from which the accom- panying engraving was made. With the excep- tion of a partial deafness, he retains full posses- sion of all his faculties, and takes a lively interest in the movements of the day.

Mr. Danforth served creditably on the School Board of Louisville for a number of years, and was President of the Louisville Board of Under- writers for eighteen years.

H. VERHOEFF, JR.

This gentleman is a native of Westphalia, in the northwest of Germany, born on New Year's Day, 1827. He is of pure Holland stock on the father's side, one of his ancestors, Admiral Ver Hoeff, having been a prominent actor in the strug- gle for freedom in the Netherlands, in the brave days of William of Orange, and is celebrated in Motley's great history. The mother was of an

old and well-known German family. Their names were Hermann and Augusta (Hellmann) Verhoeff. Hermann, Jr., the subject of this sketch, was the first-born, the oldest of six children. When he was nine years old, the whole family emigrated to America, landing in New York July 4, 1836, amid the rattle of fire-crack- ers and the boom of cannon. The elder Ver- hoeff had been a soldier under Blucher in the final campaign against Napoleon, leaving his studentship at the University for that purpose, was present at the battle of Waterloo, and ac- companied the allies to Paris. He afterwards graduated at the University of Berlin, became a burgomaster, and otherwise an active and promi- nent man, and came to this country possessed, not only of fine scholarship and remarkably well- furnished mind, but of an ample fortune. In 1838 the family reached Louisville, where the father engaged in the mercantile business and the son went to the private school of Mr. O. L. Leonard, of whom he speaks to this day in the highest terms, as one to whom he owes far more than to any other one of his teachers. At the end of about two years the family left Louisville, rather impoverished than enriched by their resi- dence in the city, which had not been prolific of profit to the business. They settled after a time about one hundred and fifty miles below Louis- ville, in Spencer county, Indiana, on the banks of the Ohio. A small farm was taken here, and our subject, whose school life had ended at the age of fourteen, now assumed the main share of management of the farm and support of the family. We may here presume to say that, al- though his school-life ended so early, he has al- ways been a reader, has collected a superior library in English and German, and is well known as a man of wide information and thorough practical education. After enduring the hardest kind of farm labor with success for himself and the family, for several years, at the age of twenty- two he took a country school in the same county. Three months' teaching netted him the sum of $100, which proved to him the nest-egg of a fortune. With it he opened the second store ever kept in Grandview, then a very small place. He kept for sale everything that a farmer was likely to need, and bought everything that a farmer had to sell. Purchasing his stock partly on credit at first, he established at once a credit

HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

which has been steadily maintained and enlarged to this day. He was successful in this business from the beginning, and the memory of him re- mains in his old town and neighborhood as the best merchant who ever sold goods in Spencer county.

He had for years shipped his produce taken in exchange to New Orleans and other parts of the South ; but was compelled, at the outbreak of the war, to find other markets for it, and so came to Louisville in 1861 and formed a part- nership with his younger brother Otto, as the firm of Verhoeff Brothers, in the grain and com- mission business. They soon extended their operations very widely in the Ohio Valley, hav- ing a tow-boat and barge of their own, and con- siderable interests in steamers plying to New Or- leans. This business was highly successful, and the firm remained intact until dissolved by the death of the junior member in 1870. The other continued the same line of operation until 1873, when he gave an interest in the house to his nephew, Mr. Henry Strater, who had been in his employ for a number of years. The new firm was Messrs. Verhoeff & Strater, which remains the same in its name and members to this day. Finding that they could not accomplish their large transactions successfully without larger facilities, Mr. Verhoeff, in 1873-74, built the large grain elevator at the corner of Eleventh and Maple streets. It was at that time consid- ered a serious business risk, as it was the very first elevator built south of the Ohio, but which has proved a quite profitable enterprise, enabling the firm to extend their business very widely; and from it they are now supplying even the in- terior cotton States, as Alabama, Georgia, and the Carolinas, with grain. Every railroad enter- ing Louisville has its tracks to this elevator.

Mr. Verhoeff has always been a public-spirited citizen. He has served two terms in the City Council, and has prominently identified himself with all measures having in view the interests of the city. He was one of the most active found- ers of the Board of Trade, and did much to pro- mote the purchase of the fine building it now oc- cupies. He has been Vice-President of the Board from the beginning. He was one of the originators, and has been from the first a Direc- tor, of the Cotton Compress Company ; has been repeatedly a Director in city banks, and has oth-

erwise been conspicuous in business and public affairs.

Mr. Verhoeff was married in Grandview, No- vember 6, 1859, to Miss Mary, daughter of James Parker, of that place, a gentleman of Eng- lish descent. Mrs. Verhoeff is still living, as is also, with her son at his comfortable residence on Second and Jacob streets, his venerable mother, in her eighty third year. His father died at the home of his son Hermann in Louis- ville, in 1870, aged about eighty. Mr. and Mrs. Verhoeff have had seven children, of whom five are living-William, Superintendent of the eleva- tor of Verhoeff & Strater; Minnie; Charlotte; Mary; Frederick H .; and Caroline-all residing at home with their parents.

LEVI TYLER.

Mr. Levi Tyler, long a prominent citizen of Louisville, and ancestor of a well-known and numerous family in the city, was a native of Jef- ferson county, born December 8, 1789, upon the farm of his father, two miles from Bruners- town, as it was then ealled-now Jeffersontown -and thirteen miles from the little hamlet at the Falls, then and still known as Louisville. His mother's maiden name was Miss A. M. Hughes, and she was married December 29, 1788, in Jefferson county, to Levi's father, Ed- ward Tyler, an emigrant from the State of Vir- ginia. He died in May, 1840; his wife about 1815, when Henry Tyler, their grandson, was an infant. Their son Levi came to Louisville in 1807, a stout youth of eighteen, and in 1810, October 4th, by the Rev. Joseph Oglesby, was married to Miss Elizabeth, daughter of Samuel and Martha Oldham, of the well-known old Kentucky family. She was born in Jefferson county, about three miles from Louisville, Sep- tember 25, 1792. Both of her parents died here about the year 1821. She died in Louis- ville, August 20, 1840. Levi had left six brothers on the home farm; but they also came to join him in town one after another, until it became a numerous and strong brotherhood in the early days of Louisville. The pioneer of the family here, the subject of this sketch, soon entered the office of Hon. Worden Pope, Clerk of the Courts, as a writer and deputy, and was

Alexander Harbison

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with him for a number of years. He was after- wards for a long time a Deputy Sheriff of the county, and made an excellent officer. His large and intimate knowledge of the legal affairs of this region gave him superior opportunities for the purchase of claims upon property, liens and clouds upon titles, and the like; which were im- proved in the course of years to the rapid and great advantage of his own fortune. His wide acquaintance with people further facilitated this business, and also led to his employment as ad- ministrator of a considerable number of estates. He was scrupulous and painstaking to a fault in his management of these, and rarely failed to give satisfaction to those interested.

His minuteness of memory and memoranda in his business was something wonderful, and it is remembered that once, when the question arose in court whether an important suit was not barred by the statute of limitations, it was de- termined by the production from Mr. Tyler's all- comprehending note-book, of a marginal scrap of newspaper, with some figures thereon, which he had the thoughtfulness to preserve. He was high in the confidence of the Hon. James Guth- rie, in whose office he had his desk for many years, and attended to the local business interests of that gentleman while he was attending to his public duties in Washington. It is said he never failed to honor the frequent drafts of Mr. Guthrie, however large they might be, or what- ever the state of his business at the time. He husbanded his means carefully, invested them judiciously, guarded and promoted his invest- ments with rare judgment, and, as a matter of course, died possessed of a large fortune. The handsome property at the northeast corner of Third and Jefferson streets was built by him in 1840, expressly for a post-office building, to which use it was devoted for many years, or until the Government building was finished and occupied. The well-known Tyler block, on Jefferson, be- tween Third and Fourth, was built from the pro- ceeds of his estate, and also aids to perpetuate his name.

Mr. Tyler died in Louisville March 16, 1861, in his seventy-second year. He left an only son, Henry, born June 5, 1815, who grew up in the city, married Miss Rebecca Ann Gwathmey, second daughter of Samuel and Mary Gwathmey, of the famous Louisville family of a past genera-

tion, has been a resident of the city all his days, and is still living, in a hale and vigorous age. His surviving children are Isaac H. Tyler, Levi Tyler, Virginia (wife of Mr. William A. Robinson, of the great drug-house on Main street), Henry S. Tyler, and Ella, now Mrs. Lewis H. Bond, of the celebrated oil firm of Chess, Carley & Co. All of them, happily for the venerable father, are still residents of Louisville.

ALEXANDER HARBISON.

Alexander Harbison was born in Rathfriland, County Down, Ireland, April 16th, 1796. He came to America in 1819, settled in Louisville in 1821, and died March 12th, 1863.

He commenced business in 1821, having form- ed a copartnership with Mr. Hugh Ferguson as retail dry-goods merchants. Mr. Harbison put into the firm as his capital $700 in specie, Mr. Ferguson putting in as his capital " Common- wealth money," two dollars for one of specie, which was its value at that time.

This partnership was continued until 1842, dur- ing which time the firm was quite successful.

Mr. Harbison from that time until 1848 was engaged in the manufacture of cotton goods, when he again invested part of his means in a retail dry-goods stock and continued in that business until he retired in 1860. He invariably pur- chased his goods for cash, and consequently was never seriously affected by the financial panics which swept over the country during his business career.

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History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I, Part 115

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