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 63
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Rev. Gordon Battelle, D. D., son of Ebenezer (IV) and Mary (Greene) Battelle, and father of Colonel John Gordon Battelle of Columbus, was born at Newport, Ohio, on November 14, 1814. He attended the neighborhood schools, and an academy at Brookfield, Massachusetts, kept by one of his uncles, and at Marietta College. For a time in early life he was a clerk in a mercantile store at Point Harmar, Ohio, and also was engaged in flat- boat trading on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Deciding to complete his education he entered Allegheny College at Meadville, Pa., and was there graduated in 1840, with the highest honors and was valedictorian of his class and received his A. M. degree. Ohio Uni- versity gave him the honorary D. D. degree in 1860. Soon after leaving college he was appointed to take charge of Asbury Academy at Parkersburg, Va., then under control of the Ohio Conference of the M. E. Church. Then began a very active and useful career, first as a teacher and then as a clergyman. He was licensed to preach in 1842. but still con- tinued his educational work. In December, 1843, he organized the first class in the North- western Virginia Academy, at Clarksburg, Virginia, which academy he conducted as prin- cipal until 1851, at which time he resigned to devote himself formally to the ministry. He was successively pastor of MI. E. Churches at Charleston, Fairmont and Wheeling, Va. In 1855 he was elected a delegate for the Western Virginia Conference to the General Con- ference, and in 1859 he was appointed presiding elder of the Wheeling distriet, and was also re-elected a delegate to the General Conference by an almost unanimous vote. In October. 1861, Governor Pierpont appointed Dr. Battelle to visit the various military camps in the western part of Virginia and to report concerning the condition of Union volunteers, and while on that mission he was elected a delegate to the convention to form a constitution for the new state of West Virginia. in which convention he was conspicuous. He was made chaplain of the First Regiment Virginia Volunteers (loyal) and went with the regiment to the front. He died in Washington, D. C., on August 7, 1862, of typhoid fever which re- sulted from fatigue and exposure while at the front. Dr. Battelle was married at Somerset, Ohio. October 12, 1842, to Maria Louisa Tucker, who was born at Windsor, Vermont, on
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October 7, 1816, and died at Buffalo, N. Y., on December 17, 1889. On July 8, 1913, there was dedicated at Newport, Ohio, Dr. Battelle's birthplace, a monument to the memory of the men of that town who had participated in the various wars of the United States. This monument is surmounted by a fine, life-size statue of Dr. Battelle as the most distinguished of the men of Newport thus commemorated. This monument was presented to the town as the joint gift of Post No. 489, G. A. R., and Colonel John G. Battelle of Columbus.
Colonel Jolin Gordon Battelle, son of Rev. Dr. Gordon and Maria Louisa (Tucker) Battelle, was born at Clarksburg, Va. (now West Virginia), on May 12, 1845. He at- tended a private school at Fairmont, (Virginia) Academy, the publie sehools at Wheeling, W. Va., and was prepared for college at Lindley Institute. He also passed the examina- tion for admittanee to West Point Military Academy and received the appointment, but his father's death eaused him to give up a military career and go to work to assist in making a living for his widowed mother and six young sisters.
At the age of 17 he became a elerk in the U. S. Treasury Department at Washington and later on, during the Civil War, he held a position in the U. S. Quartermaster Department at Wheeling for about three years. He then became bookkeeper for the Hobbs Glass and Queensware Company in Wheeling. In 1866 he became secretary and general superintendent of the Norway Manufacturing Company, which operated a rolling mill at Wheeling, and it was there he laid the foundation for his later long and successful career in the manufacture of iron. In 1869 Colonel Battelle went to Memphis, Tenn., where he became identified with the Memphis rolling mill, and also became president of the J. G. Battelle Company, manu- facturers of cotton-bailing tires.
Leaving Memphis, Colonel Battelle eame to Ohio in 1883, and in March of that year he became manager of the Cincinnati Corrugating Company and when that company removed to Piqua, Ohio, he became its vice-president and general manager, later becoming president and general manager of the Piqua Rolling Mill Company, holding offiees with the same eom- panies simultaneously. In his mill at Piqua the first piece of tin plate ever made in America was produced, and William MeKinley, then making his campaign for Governor, dipped one of the first pieces. Two years later Piqua tin plate was awarded the first prize at the World's Fair in Chicago.
When the Piqua companies, of which Colonel Battelle was the head, were sold to the American Sheet Steel Company, he removed to New York City. However, at about that time the Columbus Iron and Steel Company had been organized, and several of his Ohio friends being interested in the new coneern, they induced Colonel Battelle to take a finan- cial interest in the company, and, in 1902, he removed to Columbus. He took over the controlling interest in and reorganized the concern, becoming its president and general manager. Under his guidanec the company grew from a very small affair into one of the city's important industries. Colonel Battelle continued at the head of that company until it was merged with the American Rolling Mills Company, of Middletown, Ohio, in 1917, at which time he retired from active business life. However. he continued a director of same and was also a director of the Inland Steel Company and of the Rising Sun Mining Company.
Colonel Battelle was commissioned Colonel in the Ohio National Guard by Governor Nash and was appointed and served as Ohio Commissioner to the Panama-Pacifie Inter- national Exposition at San Francisco, Cal.
He was a member of the following societies: Sons of the Colonial Wars, Sons of the Revolution, Military Order of the Loval Legion, Society of American Indians, National Geographical Society, Acro Society, Soeicty for National Preparedness, American Genealogi- cal Society. Lincoln Memorial Association, Federation of Good Roads, Boy Scouts of America, The Ohio Society of New York, a director of the National Association of Man- facturers, in fact was the founder of the Ohio Manufacturers' Association, for it was he who elled the first meeting for and inspired its orgonization and was vice-president of same at the time of his death. He was active in the membership of the following clubs: Columbus, Columbus Country, Columbus Athletie, Seioto Country, Columbus Automobile, and the Buckeye Lake Yacht.
Colonel Battelle had a wonderful mind for grasping the details of operation and of bnejness. He was methodical in his habits, initiative in his thinking and tireless in his work. Ho was a great reader and kent himself informed as to the progress made in manufacture and in economics. He was a broad-minded and generous man and believed fully in the
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"Brotherhood of Man." He was liberal in his benefactions to churches and universities, but did not limit his generosity to ereed or color-he gave equally to all churches and insti- tutions of learning-knew no distinction in demonstrations; he was especially interested in the colored raee, was its benefactor and friend, believed in helping the negro to help him- self, and no man or man's memory has a warmer spot in the affections of the colored people of Columbus than has Colonel Battelle.
Colonel Battelle died at his handsome city residence at 662 East Town street, May 10, 1918.
On February 10, 1881, Colonel Battelle was united in marriage at Memphis, Tenn., with Annie M. Norton, who was born at Montgomery, Alabama, the daughter of Dr. Samuel Edwin Norton, M. D., D. D., a Sonth Carolinian, of old Connecticut stoek. Mrs. Battelle's mother was Julia Alston, a native of Halifax, N. C., of English stoek, her ancestors hav- ing come to America in Colonial days.
To Colonel and Mrs. Battelle one son was born: Gordon Battelle was born in Coving- ton, Kentucky, August 10, 1883.
Gordon Battelle has been for several years engaged in business in the West, where he has extensive mining interests, also in Mexico. He is now making his home in Columbus looking after the interests left by his father.
JOHN M. SARVER. The record of John M. Sarver, the well known life insurance man of Columbus, who is a seion of an old family of Ohio, proves that blood counts in this country but in a different way than in the old world; for here we count as worthiest the good blood of our honest, hard-working ancestors, while across the ocean it is merely the dif- ferenee between the aristocracy and the peasantry.
Mr. Sarver was born on November 29, 1865, on the Sarver homestead in Stark county, Ohio, the son of Michael and Eliza J. Sarver. When he was seven years old the family removed to California, but in 1876 they came East and located in Philadelphia, Penn. Six months later they returned to Stark county, Ohio, loeating in the city of Canton, and there John M. Sarver was graduated from the High School, with the class of 1884. He then tanght school during the winter months and attended the Ohio Northern University at other times, taking a elassieal course and graduating with the class of 1886. The following year, when he was but twenty-one years old, he was elected principal of the North Cherry street school at Canton, and after five years in that position he was appointed principal of the Canton High school. His record as an educator and advocate of modern methods of instruction was so eminently satisfactory that in 1901 he was elected superintendent of the Canton publie schools, the duties of which office he continued to discharge in a manner that reflected much eredit upon himself and to all concerned, until 1905. He did much to place the schools of that eity on a modern basis, equal to any in the State, and he was popular with both teachers and pupils .:
While teaching in Canton Mr. Sarver took special courses at Clark University, Worees- ter, Massachusetts, at the University of Buffalo and at the College of Liberal Arts at Chau- tauqua, New York. Thus he became execptionally well equipped for educational work.
Mr. Sarver served as president of the Stark County Teachers' Association in 1889 and 1890, and for many years was a member of the county board of sehool examiners; he was a member of the Ohio Teachers' Association and the National Educational Association and for many years he ranked among the leading school men of Ohio.
In 1905 Mr. Sarver gave up educational work to enter the field of life insurance, in which his success has been equal to, if not greater than, that won in the field of education. In the same year he became general agent of the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, and in the following year he assisted in the organization of the Ohio State Life Insurance Company at Columbus, of which company he became secretary, when he took up his residence in the capital city. The rapid growth and pronounced success of this company has been due in no small measure to his wise counsel, close application and strong pertinacity. He con- tinned to hold the position of secretary until 1913, in which year he was elected president of the company. He has remained its head until the present time and his able management of its affairs has resulted in plaeing this well-known company high on the list of life insur- anee companies in the United States, and its prestige is rapidly growing from year to year.
Mr. Sarver is also vice-president of the American Life Convention, an organization con-
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sisting of about one hundred of the life insurance companies of this country. He is also president of the Ohio Conference of Health and Accident Companies. While in Canton he was a charter member and a member of the board of directors of the Citizens Building & Loan Company. He is a member of the First English Lutheran Church, the Young Men's Christian Association, the Knights of Pythias, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Columbus Athletic Club, and other organizations.
Mr. Sarver understands thoroughly the life insurance business in which he has met with. such signal success. He is deserving of a great deal of credit for what he has accomplished, working his way up from the bottom rung of the ladder of sueeess.
CALEB L. MeKEE. Caleb L. McKee, a prominent business man and stock broker of Columbus, has always been identified with the business interests of this community, and from early childhood displayed a marked taste in this direction. Mr. McKee's father was inter- ested in railroad building in the early seventies and the son has always been familiar with the stock market quotations. Mr. McKee, from his own experience, is of the opinion that a young man should follow his bent in choosing an occupation.
Caleb L. MeKee was born November 9th, in the year 1866, at Columbus, Ohio, a son of James M. and Indiana (Lodge) McKee. His father was one of the early settlers of this city, coming here about 1840 and engaging in business as the proprietor of a general store situated where the Wyandotte building now stands. The elder Mr. McKee during the latter years of his life, became prominent in railroad construction, in this State, Indiana, and Illinois. On the maternal side of the house, Mr. MeKee is also descended from pio- neer stock, his mother's grandfather being one of the early settlers of Kentucky, who came through the Cumberland Gap with Daniel Boone in the latter part of the eighteenth century and settling in what was then unbroken wilderness.
Mr. McKee passed his childhood in his native eity and received his early education in the local public schools. He later attended the Ohio State University and Williams College, completing his course in 1885. In that year he returned home and began his business career at Columbus, in the employ of The Kilbourne & Jacobs Manufacturing Company, where he remained four years. In 1890 he engaged in the mortgage loan business, in whiel he continued until 1901, when he turned his attention to stoek brokerage, as he had so long desired to do. From that time to the present he has been actively engaged in this line and has met with a very marked and ereditable success. In the same year (1901), he became a member of the Chicago Board of Trade and in 1907 a member of the New York Stock Exchange. Two years later he joined the Cleveland Stock Exchange and in 1916 that of Pittsburg. He was himself one of the organizers and a charter member of the Columbus Stock Exchange. His interest in the stock market goes deeper than that of merely making a fortune for himself and he has always kept himself well posted regarding conditions throughout the world, particularly with reference to the welfare of this country. In addi- tion to this, his chosen activity, Mr. McKee is interested in Columbus real estate, iron, oil, lumber and coal in various parts of the country. He is also a member of the Columbus Club, Columbus Athletic Club and the Columbus Country Club.
In the year 1910 Mr. McKee was married to Miss Ida Lee Smithi, of Columbus, and they are the parents of one daughter, Indiana Lodge Mckee, and an infant son, Henry Taylor McKee.
Mr. McKee is justly regarded by all who know him as a citizen of the highest type and he has shown in business, as in every other relationship of life, an integrity and probity second to none in the community. He has always interested himself in local affairs and is well known for his broad-minded and intelligent publie spirit. He is a liberal supporter of many movements undertaken for the best welfare of the community and from early man- hood to the present has been a great asset to the city in which he has made his home.
ARCHIBALD SAMUEL HAMMOND. "Through struggle to triumph" seems to be the maxim which holds sway with the majority of people, that is, those who attain to a suc- cessful goal at all, must find it after arduous effort. And, though it is unquestionably true that many fall exhausted in the conflict, a few, by their inherent force of character and strong mentality, rise above their environment and all which seems to hinder them, until they reach the plane of affluence toward which their faces were set through the long years
A. S. Tammond
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of struggle that must necessarily precede any accomplishment of great magnitude. Such has been the history, briefly stated, of Archibald Samuel Hammond, president of the Mid- land Grocery Company, and general manager of the Monypeny-Hammond Co. Branch, one of the oldest and largest wholesale houses in Columbus.
Mr. Hammond was born at MeConnelsville, Morgan county, Ohio, July 19, 1860, a son of the late Thomas and Mary Jane (Wilson) Hammond. The father was born at McConnelsville, September 2, 1830, the son of Benjamin Hammond, who came from Virginia to Ohio and was a pioneer of Morgan county, where he established a home in the midst of primitive surroundings and by grit and perseverance became very comfortably established after enduring many of the hardships and privations incident to pioneering. He married Esther McCune. The mother of the subject of this sketch was born at Meadville, Pennsyl- vania, July 23, 1837. Her parents were natives of Ireland, where they grew up and mar- ried, and Mrs. Mary Jane Hammond was the first of their children born in America. Her death occurred July 22, 1894.
Thomas Hammond, father of our subject, was in early manhood engaged in the oil business and had charge of a refinery at McConnelsville. Under President Hayes' admin- istration he was appointed postmaster there and after serving out his first term was re-ap- pointed, but in April, 1880, he resigned his position and moved his family to Columbus, where he accepted a position as bookkeeper for the wholesale grocery firm of MeDaniel & Johnson, in which firm he was given a working interest in 1881. From that time on his business career was associated with that of his son, the subject of this review. He became one of the successful business men of Columbus and was highly respected as a man and citizen. His death occurred on August 9, 1905.
Archibald S. Hammond was educated in the common schools and high school of McCon- nelsville, and he began his business career on January 2, 1875, as clerk on a steamboat on the Muskingum and Ohio rivers, at which he continued for two years. He then clerked in a retail store in McConnelsville, Ohio, and assisted his father in the postoffice until March 16, 1880, on which date he came to Columbus and this city has been the arena of his activities ever since, and during this period of thirty-eight years he has lived to see and take an active and important part in the material growth of the city and while advancing his own interests has not for a moment neglected his larger duties as a citizen.
Upon taking up his residence in the Capital City Mr. Hammond accepted a position as shipping clerk and bill clerk with the wholesale grocery house of MeDaniel & Johnson. Both he and his father were given working interests in that concern on January 1, 1881, and on January 1, 1887, they, in partnership with William Monypeny, organized the Monypeny-Hammond Company, and took over the business of McDaniel, Johnson & Com- pany. On January 1, 1895, they incorporated under the above title, with Mr. Monypeny as president, Thomas Hammond as treasurer and Archibald S. Hammond as vice-president and general manager. On January 1, 1902, the Midland Grocery Company was incor- porated, of which Mr. Hammond has since been president, and as such he has managed its affairs in an able, judicious, careful and praiseworthy manner, so that its business has rapidly advanced from year to year until it is today one of the largest and most widely known grocery houses in the State of Ohio. He has inaugurated a superb system of management in all departments and promptness and honesty are his watchwords. The Monypeny-Hammond branch still continues as a subsidiary, of which Thomas Hammond was treasurer until his death.
Archibald S. Hammond is also vice-president of the Kcever Starch Company and vice- president of the United Seal Company, president of the Diamond Metal Weather Strip Company and a director of the Ohio Wax Paper and Printing Co., the Columbus Railway, Tight & Power Company, and the Kessler Yeast Company. In all of these he makes his in- fluence felt, for the general success of the firms and their steady advancement is due in no small measure to his judicious counsel and influence. He was formerly a director of the Columbus Board of Trade.
Mr. Hammond is a member of the Columbus Country Club, the Columbus Athletic (Inh. and fraternally he is a Knight Templar, a thirty-second degree Mason, belonging to the Scottish Rite and the Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He is a member of the Junior Lodge of Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
On September 18. 1881, Mr. Hammond married Ettie Benbow, a native of Columbus,
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and a daughter of David Benbow. To this union a son and daughter have been born, namely : Louise is at home, and Alan Archibald, who is assistant manager of The Monypeny-Hammond Co. Branch and manager of The Midland Coffee Co., a department of the Midland Grocery Company ; he married Katherine Niekell, a daughter of Jolin Nickell of Columbus, they have a daughter and son-Virginia and John Archibald.
Mr. Hammond is known for his public-spirit, his genial. obliging. and charitable nature, and he is held in high esteem by all who know him.
BEALE EDWARD POSTE. One of the most conspicuous figures in the commercial circles of Columbus and central Ohio during the generation that has just passed was the late Beale Edward Poste, who was quite actively identified with the business and industrial inter- ests of this section of the Buckeye State, and for a number of years widely known as the head of one of the largest vehicle manufacturing plants in America. Equally noted as a citizen whose useful career conferred credit upon his home city and State and whose marked abilities and stirring qualities won for him much more than local repute. Mr. Poste held dis- tinctive precedence as one of the most progressive and successful men that ever inaugurated and carried to successful termination large and important undertakings in this State. Strong mental powers, invincible courage and a determined purpose that hesitated at no opposition so entered into his composition as to render him a dominant factor in the business world and a leader of men in notable enterprises. He was essentially a man of affairs, sound of judgment and far-seeing in what he undertook, and every enterprise to which he addressed himself resulted in a large measure of material success. At the same time he was a man of esthetic nature and his soul was in harmony with the finer elements of exist- ence. He had an eye for the beautiful in nature in her varied forms.
The subject of this memoir was born in Columbus, February 15, 1856. the son of John and Caroline (Ashby ) Poste, a highly esteemed and influential pioneer family of this city. The parents have long since passed away. Six children were born to them, two brothers of our subject surviving-J. Hamilton Poste, well known business man of Columbus; and J. Robinson Poste, president and general manager of the Columbus Bolt Works of this city.
Beale Edward Poste grew to manhood in his native city, where he was contented to spend his entire life and he received his education in the Columbus schools. As a young man he was for some time connected with the Columbus Machine Company, also served in the office of the county recorder and later engaged in the nursery business with his father. About 1890 he became identified with the Columbus Cart Company, which he helped or- ganize, the other members of the firm being his brother, J. Hamilton Poste and W. S. S. Rogers. Under his able direction the business grew to large proportions. The firm en- gaged exclusively in the manufacture of two-wheel road carts during the period when this vehicle was at the height of its popularity. Although the business prospered it was later merged into the Columbus Carriage Manufacturing Company, which concern also enjoyed an exceptionally rapid growth, building a full line of medium price vehicles. their capacity being about twelve thousand vehicles annually. Owing to the superior quality and work- manship of its products it became in great demand and the company's output was distri- buted all over the United States. It was necessary to expand the plant from time to time in order to take care of constantly increasing business.
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