USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Columbus > History of the city of Columbus, Ohio, from the founding of Franklinton in 1797, through the World War period to the year 1920 > Part 54
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Soon eame the Civil War with its distress and its excitement and in the distractions of the times religious life lagged. The young pastor found his task hopeless and himself in physical collapse. He was forced to give up the work and soon after, with strength re- newed, became pastor of a little church in Morrisania, two miles up the Harlem river. There he labored during the years of the war. He read and studied in the Astor library and in 1863, having secured an appointment to the Christian commission and served with the army until illness drove him home where for two months he wrestled with a slow fever.
In 1866 Dr. Gladden was invited to and accepted the pastorate of the Congregational Church of North Adams, Mass. There in addition to his preaching he began to write for the Independent, Seribner's Monthly and other periodicals, thus beginning a service never long interrupted. In 1871 he left the pastorate of North Adams to be religious editor of the Independent, and continued that work for four years; returning then to the ministry and becoming pastor of the North Congregational Church of Springfield, Mass. For two years, while he was there he was editor of "Sunday Afternoon," a magazine for the house- hold, a monthly of ninety-six pages, designed to show how to mix Christianity with human affairs. He also wrote "The Christian League of Connecticut," first printed in four install- ments in the Century Magazine, the purpose of which was much the same. After eight years of this varied and important service, Dr. Gladden, in 1882, accepted the call to the pas- torate of the First Congregational Church of Columbus, Ohio, becoming at once a strong factor in the city's life. From Sunday to Sunday during his aetive pastorate he labored to disentangle Christianity from what he believed to be its hampering dogmas, to vitalize it and make application of it to the problems of the individual, the city, the state and the nation. He had no sooner begun his pastorate here than the antagonism of labor and capital was forced on his attention by a strike in the Hoeking Valley coal mines. Though prominent members of his church were among the employers, he spoke out from his pulpit and in private conference, setting up ethical standards that were new to some of them. Here. too, he preached his famous sermons, which were subsequently gathered into a book, "Who Wrote the Bible?" He was in the forefront of those who were fighting for municipal reform and in 1900-1902 he served as a member of the City Council. It was a critical period in the life of the city, and he greatly helped to put justice into interurban franchises and the new franchise of the Columbus Street Railway Company. He had a part in the extension of the municipal electric light plant so that all the street lighting should be done by the city itself, in the improvement of the water supply and in the organization of citizens for the election of better officials. It was from Columbus, Ohio, too, that he proclaimed his hostility to the use of wealth unjustly got in educational or missionary enterprises, and made a number of deliveranees which, whatever else their result, helped to awaken the public eonseienee to the injustice of our commercial system.
Dr. Gladden was moderator of the National Council of the Congregational Churches of
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the United States; also president of the American Missionary Association; was trustee of Williams College, and served a term as preacher at Harvard University. He was the author of some forty volumes comprising sermons, essays and treatments of public matters.
In 1914, Dr. Gladden was made pastor emeritus of the First Congregational Church, the burden of the pastorate having become too heavy, but up until his death, July 2, 1918, he was still writing and preaching his powerful message of peace on earth and good will to men.
CLARENCE E. RICHARDS, son of Ephriam G. Richards and Louise Shipman Richards, was born in Jackson, Michigan. February 22, 1865. On the paternal side Mr. Richards comes of a family of pioneers. His great-great-grandfather was a pioneer of Massachusetts, his great-grandfather a pioneer of western New York, and his grandfather a pioneer of the state of Michigan, moving there in 1831.
His father was a pioneer settler of Kansas, moving there in 1870 when the subject of this sketch was five years old. Mr. Richards is the third of four children in the family, all of whom are still living, Rev. Gerald R. Richards, of Cleveland, Gary F. Richards, of San Francisco, and Frank A. Richards, of Columbus.
The year after going to Kansas, in 1871, Mr. Richards' father homesteaded 160 acres of land and it was there that Mr. Richards received his early education in the country schools. The family left the farm in 1881, moving to the county seat, El Dorado, Kansas, where he attended the village schools and later the teachers' normal school, and during the years of 1883 to 1886 he taught in the country schools of Butler county, Kansas. During his school days, and while teaching he always had a fondness for mathematics and an ardent desire to become an architect or engineer, and was continually studying with that end in view. In 1886 and 1888 he was employed as an assistant engineer in charge of buildings and bridges for one of the branches of the Missouri Pacific Railroad, which was then being built through that section of the country.
Mr. Richards came to Ohio in the fall of 1888, expecting to enter school at Denison University, where his two elder brothers had just graduated, but on account of financial reverses was unable to carry out his plans and was obliged to abandon his long cherished desire for a university course. Early in 1889 he entered the office of Edward Anderson, one of the older architects of Cincinnati, working for Mr. Anderson as a draftsman and superintendent. In 1891 he left Cincinnati and went to Newark, Ohio, going into business with his brother, who was an engineer, under the firm name of Richards Brothers, archi- tects. He remained there two years, after which he came to Columbus as superintendent of construction for the firm of Yost & Packard, architects. He served in this capacity six years, and in 1898 organized the firm of Richards, McCarty & Bulford, architects, of which he is still senior member. This partnership has been longer in the practice of the profession, without a change of name or personnel in its organization than any other firm in the State.
Mr. Richards was united in marriage with Mary E. Whiteside, at El Dorado, Kansas, October 10, 1889. Shortly after his coming to Columbus his wife died, in February, 1894. By this marriage one son, Clarence E. Richards, jr., was born November 19, 1892. This son graduated at Denison University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dur- ing the war with Germany he enlisted in the naval reserve flying corps, was commssioncd an ensign and placed in charge of the inspection of flying boats at the Brooklyn plant of the Curtiss Engineering Corporation. Immediately after his release from the service in Feb- ruary, 1919, he returned to Columbus, where he is now engaged in business with his father.
Six years after the death of his first wife, Mr. Richards was married to Miss Carrie B. Humphrys, daughter of Alfred S. and Martha Moores Humphrys. This marriage oc- curred January 17th, 1900, at Indianola, Florida, Mrs. Richards' parents having removed from Columbus to Indianola, Florida, in 1897. By this marriage a son, Alfred Humphrys Richards was born, July 22, 1901, and a daughter, Louise Moores, born April 14, 1903. The daughter died at the age of two years. The son is a midshipman in the United States Naval Academy. Mrs. Richards is a native of Columbus, having been born and raised here. Her mother was also a native of this city. Her grandfather, Henry Moores, was one of the early settlers of Columbus, having come here in the days of the canal in 1845. Mrs.
Wemae. a bad
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Richards was prominent in musical circles at the time of her marriage and is a member of the Women's Music Club and the Columbus Art Association.
During the period of over 20 years that Mr. Richards has been engaged in the prac- tice of architecture in Columbus, his firm has become well known throughout the central west, having been connected with many of the largest building projects throughout the states in which they practiced. Among their buildings are the Ohio National Bank, the Citizens Trust & Savings Bank, the Athletic Club of Columbus, the new Ohio Penitentiary at London, Ohio, the largest institution of this kind in the country, and many office build- ings, hotels and public institutions throughout the states of Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Kan- sas, Texas and Iowa.
Mr. Richards is a member of the Columbus Club, Columbus Country Club, Scioto Conn- try Club, Columbus Athletic Club, Columbus Rotary Club, Order of Elks, the American Institute of Architects, Columbus Chamber of Commerce and the Columbus Art Association. He is a member of the First Baptist Church and politically he is a Republican.
STUART ROBINSON BOLIN. The Bolin family, of which Stuart R. Bolin of Colum- bus, is an honored representative of the present generation, has been intimately identified with the history of central Ohio for considerably over three-quarters of a century. The family is of French-Irish stoek and originally the family name was "Boleyn." The Ameri- can ancestor, John Bolin, great-grandfather of Stuart R., came over prior to the war of 1812, and settled at Martinsburg, Va., (now W. Va.) He was a soldier in the American army during the above war and died at Norfolk, Va., while in the service. His son, John P., grandfather of Stuart R., was born at Martinsburg in 1807, and there married Mary A. Brannon, who was born of Irish parents in 1809. John P. Bolin removed to Ohio in 1834 and settled on his farm near Circleville, Pickaway county. Later he removed into Circle- ville where he was in the building and contracting business until 1875, in which year he purchased a hotel property at Harrisburg, Franklin county, and there passed his remaining years.
Hon. Andrew Robinson Bolin, son of John P. and Mary A. (Brannon) Bolin, was a distinguished lawyer, legislator and orator. He was born at Cireleville in January, 1849. By the time he had reached his seventeenth year he had completed the course at the public schools and had been granted a teacher's certificate. He taught school one year and then entered Miami University, where he was graduated as honor man of the class of 1871, degree of A. B. Miami later gave him the A. M. degrce, and he was a trustee of that institution at the time of his death. He read law in Cincinnati and at Circleville and was admitted to the bar in 1872. But in order to better fit himself for the profession he entered Cincin- nati Law School, where he was graduated LI. B. with the elass of 1873. He practiced law at Cireleville until 1909 and after that in Columbus until his death, on September 18, 1913, as senior member of the firm of Bolin & Bolin, of which firm his son, Stuart R., was the junior member. He attained high honors in the profession and was associated, on one side or the other, in most of the important litigation of his day in Circleville. He was thoroughly trained as a lawyer, possessed a clear legal mind, was a hard worker and always a close student. He was a brilliant orator and his work in the Ohio General Assembly of two terms stamped him as a wise legislator.
On April 8, 1875, Mr. Bolin was united in marriage with Sophronia, daughter of Edward and Sophronia ( Blodgett) Reetor, of Pickaway county. Her father was a nephew and name-sake of Governor Edward Tiffin, first Governor of Ohio, with whom he came to this State before it was admitted into the Union. Mrs. Bolin is still living.
Stuart R. Bolin, son of the Hon. Andrew R. and Sophronia ( Reetor) Bolin, was born at Circleville on June 20, 1878. He was graduated from High School on his seventeenth birthday and from law college eight days after his twenty-first birthday. Leaving High School he entered Ohio State University where he was prepared for law school. He entered the two year's course of the Law Department of Yale University in 1897, and completing the full three years' course of study in two years was graduated LL. B. with the class of 1899. He was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1900 and entered the practice of law in Circle- ville as a member of the firm of Bolin & Bolin. His success at the bar was assured from the beginning, for he was not omy conseientiously and adequately prepared for the profes- sion, but, as was his father, he possessed natural legal ability and aptitude for the law.
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During his career in Columbus he has met with suecess as a lawyer and prominence in public-legal affairs. He served as City Attorney in 1912 and 1913, and on June 5, 1915, President Wilson appointed him United States District Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, and on February 12, 1916, the United States Senate extended his term. This appointment was made without solicitation on the part of Mr. Bolin, and was accepted on the condition that the headquarters of the District Attorney would be removed to Columbus from Cineinnati, in which latter eity they had always been located. Thus did Mr. Bolin do a niee thing for this city, and in so doing demonstrated his loyalty to the State capital and expressed his idea of the "eternal fitness of things."
Mr. Bolin's appointment as United States District Attorney was well received by the profession and people, and his work and its results have proved that that confidence was not misplaced. It was his good fortune, so regarded, to be ineumbent of this office during the war period, for probably in no other offiee can be found the opportunity to render such vital service to the Government as in that of the United States District Attorney, and to this im- portant work Mr. Bolin devoted his entire time, his legal talent, and his vigorous personality, discharging his duties in the most striet, but always impartial manner, recognizing neither friend or foe, and with the best interests of the Government and the publie always paramount.
In 1907 Governor Pattison appointed Mr. Bolin executive commissioner, representing the State of Ohio at the Jamestown Exposition, held at Norfolk, Va., that year. In the fall of 1914, at the request of Governor Cox, Mr. Bolin assumed charge of the Legislative Reference Library of the State, the duties of which was to gather and prepare information for the benefit of the Legislature, to be available and to frame snch legislation for the General Assembly, which position he held until early in 1915, when he voluntarily resigned.
Mr. Bolin is a member of Yale Alumni Association, Yale Kent Club, Phi Delta Theta Fraternity (Ohio State University Chapter), and of the Columbus Athletic Club. He is Past Eminent Commander of Seioto Commandery No. 35, Knights Templar, stationed at Cireleville, and a member of Aladdin Temple of the Mystie Shrine of Columbus.
On October 9, 1904, Mr. Bolin was united in marriage with Ada Rebeekah Brown, daughter of Ambrose and Flora (Cunningham) Brown, and to them have been born the fol- lowing children: (1) Flora-Belle; (2) Ethel Virginia; (3) Ada Elizabeth: (4) Roberta Brown; (5) Stuart Robinson, jr.
HON. JOHN J. LENTZ. One of the notable men of Columbus is the Hon. John Jacob Lentz, president of the American Insurance Union, who has been a conspicuous figure in the affairs of the eity, state and nation for over a quarter of a century. He has won a high place in the publie mind by what he has accomplished as a lawyer, business man, publie official, and as a patriotie eitizen. He is a native of Ohio and the State has every reason to be proud of him for what he has done and is doing. His career is that of the man who has won his way from a humble position in life to an honorable and distinguished place in the nation by his own efforts. Born and reared on a small farm he early devel- oped a capacity for hard work and a spirit of self-reliance. He walked a distance of five miles cach morning to attend the St. Clairsville High School; he was a teacher of a distriet school at seventeen and superintendent of a village graded sehool when he was twenty-one years of age; he is a graduate of three colleges, was admitted to the bar and began praetiee when he was twenty-seven and was a member of Congress at forty.
Mr. Lent% was born in Belmont county, Ohio, January 27, 1856, the son of Simon and Anna (Myer) Lentz. After attending the distriet and High School he taught a country school in Belmont county two years, then in Clinton county one year, attended the National Normal University at Lebanon where he graduated in 1877 and that fall became superintendent of the Maineville, Ohio, graded schools. Before graduating from the Uni- versity of Michigan with the degree of A. B. in 1882, he spent a year at Wooster University, Ohio, where he won second prize in an oratorieal contest of eighteen entrants and took the highest rank in mathematics ever attained by any student in that University. While at Ann Arbor taking the literary course, he also attended the law lectures of Judges Cooley, Campbell, Felch, Wells, and Kent. He completed his law studies under Dwight, Chase and Dillon at the Law School of Columbia University, New York City, where he finished the two-year course in one year and graduated with the degree of LL. B. in the class of 1883.
Som Pertz
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And to Mr. Lentz's credit it should be stated that he earned every dollar of his expenses while attending all these Universities.
He was admitted to the Ohio bar in October, 1883, and immediately entered the practice in this city as a member of the firm of Albery, Albery & Lentz. In April, 1887, Judge George K. Nash, later Governor of Ohio, proposed a partnership to Mr. Lentz and the law firm of Nash & Lentz was formed, which ranked among the leading ones of the har of Ohio and continued until Governor Nash's death in October, 1904. Since 1907 Mr. Lentz has been 'a member of the law firm of Lentz & Karns, but his presideney of the American Insurance Union, his membership on the Board of Governors of Mooseheart, his many addresses in behalf of fraternalism, the Anti-Saloon, and other reform movements have prevented his aetive praetiee in late years.
For many years Mr. Lentz has been very prominent in public affairs. He was for five years in his early practice of the law a member of the Board of Examiners of the Teachers of the eity. In 1893 he received a handsome complimentary vote for Governor in the Demoeratie State Convention at Cincinnati, though he was in no wise a candidate. In 1896 he was nominated on the Democratic tieket for Congress in the Twelfth, or Capital District, and after a gallant contest. and the memorable debates with his opponents was eleeted by a majority of 19, while Wm. MeKinley, who headed the Republican ticket for the Presidency, carried the district over W. J. Bryan by a majority of 280 votes. He was re- eleeted to Congress in 1898 and was nominated again in 1900, but in the latter year be was defeated by a majority of only 18 votes, while President MeKinley, who was a candidate for re-election, carried the district by a majority of 735 votes over W. J. Bryan. When Mr. Lentz entered Congress Thomas V. Reed was Speaker of the House. and assigned Mr. Lentz to membership on the Committee on Military Affairs and he continued on that committee during his four years in Congress. The Spanish-American War occurred during that period and the Committee on Military Affairs was one of unusual importance while Mr. Lentz was a member. In 1908 Mr. Lentz attended the National Democratie Convention at Denver and was elected honorary vice president of the Ohio delegation and was chosen to second the nomination of both Bryan and Kern as candidates for President and Viee Presi- dent. He was honored by being selected as President of "Fraternal Day" at the Panama Paeifie Exposition at San Franeiseo April 22, 1915.
Mr. Lentz is regarded and affectionately ealled the "father and founder" of the American Insurance Union, for to him is due and accredited in no small measure its organization and sueeess. This institution began business in 1894 with fifty-five members and under Mr. Lentz's able management as its president it has in twenty-five years grown into the second larg- est life insurance company in the State of Ohio, with one hundred thousand members. carrying one hundred million dollars of insurance and a surplus of nearly two million dollars. Mr. Lentz has been the president and the guiding spirit of this great organization since its ineeption and incorporation.
On September 21st. 1919, the American Insurance Union celebrated its silver jubilee. at which Hon. Thomas R. Marshall, Vice-President of the United States, delivered the jubilee address.
At a meeting of the National Congress on that occasion, Mr. Lentz was unanimously made honorary president of the American Insurance Union for life, which is an honor un- known among fraternal insurance associations. It was also provided that should he retire from the active presidency at any time during life he should continue to receive throughout life an amount equal to two-thirds of his then salary, and continue as an emeritus member of the board of directors. He was given a most beautiful silver loving eup, on which were engraved these words: "John J. Lentz, President and Founder. American Insurance Union Silver Jubilee, September 21st, 1919. Presented by his fellow workers." Each member of the Congress was deeorated by a handsome silver medallion carrying in bold relief his well- known and distinguished likeness, with the words, "John J. Lentz, Founder and President."
For many years he has been a prominent figure in the Loyal Order of Moose and at the International Convention of that order at Baltimore in 1910, he introduced the first resolution and delivered the first address in favor of founding a vocational and academic home for the care and training of the dependent children of deceased members and he coined and proposed the word "Mooseheart," which was unanimously adopted as the name of the in- stitution. From the beginning he has been a member of the board of governors. He
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assisted in selecting and purchasing 1,000 aeres for the home in Illinois, 35 miles west from the heart of Chicago, and he presided at the laying of the corner stone ceremonies July 27, 1913, and delivered its first commencement address in June, 1919.
"Mooseheart" is now the greatest institution of its kind in the United States and Pro- fessor Albert Bushnell Hart of Harvard University, says it is destined to become the great- est of its kind in the world. The plan of "Mooseheart," provides for a home for 5,000 children on 5,000 acres,
In February, March and April, 1918, as president of the American Insurance Union and a member of the Moose War Relief Commission, Mr. Lentz under the auspices of the United States Government visited the American, British, French, and Italian war fronts. On April 7, 1918, which was the first anniversary of America's entrance into the World War, on invi- tation of the Italian Government, in the old Coliseum in the city of Rome, he delivered his famous address: "A Free Man in a Free Nation in a Free World," pronounced by Ambassa- dor Thomas Nelson Page and others to be the truest definition of America's purpose and mission in the World War. After his return from abroad he delivered this address at the request of the United States Government and many civic, religious, fraternal, and com- mercial organizations at the same time, describing conditions as he found them at the front lines from the English Channel to the Adriatic Sea and emphasizing the importance of America doing her full part in establishing a condition in the world wherein one may proudly claim that America was the originator of the thought of "A Free Man in a Free Nation in a Free World."
Mr. Lentz has been one of the leading progressive thinkers and reformers of the nation, and like all reformers who think a generation ahead of their time, it has required courage and determination on his part to stand by his convictions but he did stand by those con- victions because he had a vision even though it cost him money, position, and friends to do so. Few, if any, such men have lived to see so many of their dreams and ideals realized. He has been an ardent worker for prohibition for twenty-five years, and it was his stand in Congress against the canteen in the army posts that defeated him for re-election in 1900 because the liquor interests and their money were solidly against him. He gave the dry forces one month of his time free each year, making speeches in many states against the saloon and its influence, and donated not only his time but money also until Ohio and the whole nation were dry, and he has now entered upon the campaign for a dry world. He has been an advocate of equal suffrage for women for more than twenty-five years, contri- buting his money and his time to the cause and says he will continue to do so until it is in its behalf. triumphant. He has always been a friend of labor and has never failed to raise his voice While in Congress he introduced the resolution and was the leading member of the committee that investigated the Idaho bull pen outrages and the searchlight that he threw on the abuse of martial law for the oppression of labor in the Ccour-de-Alene com- pelled the President to withdraw the troops from that state. He has advocated government ownership of a postal telegraph and telephone for a quarter of a century; was a champion of Rural Free Delivery, the Parcel Post, Postal Savings, and the one eent pound rate, and helped place these laws on the statute books at Washington. Ile assisted in escuring the three eent street railway fare for Columbus and has been an untiring advocate of government and municipal ownership of public utilities, and is living to see these things rapidly coming to pass.
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