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 70
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tatious manner. He has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Columbus Chamber of Commerce, and as a member of the City Council; is president of Board of Trustees City Sinking Fund. Ile is a Scottish Rite and Knights Templar Mason, and belongs to the Columbus Club, the Columbus Country Club, the Athletic Club, and Exchange Club.
In 1883 Mr. Campbell married Emma A. White, and to them have been born two children, namely: Edna C., and Samuel Howard. His family residence being one of the beautiful homes of the Capital City, occupying his country home, "Bryn-Mawr," near Denison Uni- versity in summer.
Mr. Campbell is a man who has always guarded well his personal conduct in all the rela- tions which he has sustained to the world, and while advancing his individual interests, has not neglected his general duties as a neighbor and citizen, and "while living in a house by the side of the road, has been a friend to all mankind."
SAMUEL GALLOWAY OSBORN. A well known and successful lawyer of Columbus is Samuel Galloway Osborn, judge of the Municipal Court. As an advocate he enjoys rare, peculiar and praiseworthy gifts, and is thoroughly intrenched in the underlying basic prin- eiples of jurisprudence. In argument he is clear, concise, analytical and convincing. "Per- suasion hangs upon his lips and sly insinuation's softer arts, in ambush lie about his flow- ing tongue."
Judge Osborn is a native of the city where he still resides, and he is descended from two excellent pioneer families, members of which have figured prominently in the affairs of Central Ohio for three generations. His paternal great-great grandfather, Ralph Osborn, came to Columbus in 1807 and in 1812 was Auditor of State. James D. Osborn, the grandfather, was born in Columbus and became prominent in business circles. He founded the old dry goods house that long bore his name-Osborn & Company. Charles F. Osborn, father of the subject of this sketch, was also born in the Capital City, and here he was educated and succeeded his father in the firm of Osborn & Company, dry goods merchants. Samuel Galloway, the judge's maternal grandfather, was a native of Pennsylvania, from which state he came to Ohio in 1828, settling first in Highland county. He was a graduate of Miami University, studied theology at Prineeton College, and in 1836 was professor of Greek at Miami University. He subsequently taught classical languages at Wittenburg College, Springfield, Ohio, and at South Hanover College, Urbana. He read law and was admitted to the Ohio Bar in 1842 and began practice at Chillicothe, this state. In 1844 the Legis- lature elected him Secretary of State, and he came to Columbus to reside. He was a delegate to the Presidential Convention of 1848, and in 1854 he was elected to Congress. He was one of the prominent and influential public men of his day and generation in his section of the State. His daughter, Mary Galloway, was the mother of the subject of this sketch.
Judge Osborn was born February 27, 1871. He attended the public schools and was graduated from the law department of Ohio State University in 1897 with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He was admitted to the Bar in 1897, and in that year began practice in Columbus. He soon attained a high rank at the local Bar and enjoyed a good practice. He was elected judge of Police Court in 1907 and in 1911 was again elceted to this position. He was elected judge of the Municipal Court in 1915, and is still on that bench. In both these positions of trust with which the public has honored him, Judge Osborn has acquitted himself in an able, faithful and conscientious manner, eminently satisfactory to his constit- uents. His decisions are marked by a clear interpretation of the law and by fairness and sound common sense.
Judge' Osborn is a member of the Franklin County Bar Association, the Columbus Country Club, Columbus Athletic Club and St. Paul's Episcopal Church. Fraternally, he is a thirty-second degree Mason, and hokls membership with the Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine; also belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
Judge Osborn married Merielta C. Cole, a daughter of J. Wendell Cole of Columbus.
Judge Osborn is deeply concerned about the welfare of his home city and is an advocate of clean polities and good government.
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THEODORE RHOADS. The career of the late Theodore Rhoads, capitalist, extensive holder of real estate and well known man of affairs, indicates the clear-cut, sane and dis- tinet character, and in reviewing the same from an unbiased and unprejudiced standpoint, interpretation follows fact in a straight line of derivation. In this publication it is con- sistent that such a review be entered, and without the adulation of ornate phrases. The city of Columbus naturally takes pride in the work performed by Mr. Rhoads, who stamped the mark of definite accomplishment on the highest plane of industrial activity, and consisteney demands that he be given due relative precedence in a work which has to do with those who have lived and labored to good purpose in the great commonwealth of Ohio in times that are past, and thence permeated the great industrial and civie life of the nation, in which he stood well to the forefront in representative citizenship. His history and that of the latter- day progress of the Capital City of the Buckeye State are so indissolubly interwoven that they are pretty much one and the same, for he lived to see and take a conspicuous part in the upbuilding of his home city as well as other communities where he had large investments, and during the years in which he honored this locality with his residence no man stood higher in public esteem.
The subject of this memoir was born in Waterloo, New York, October 22, 1847, an only son of Peter and Anne (Wright ) Rhoads, both natives of the state of New York, where they grew up, married and established their home. They were a fine type of sterling old American stock - industrious, honest and obliging. They have both long since passed away.
Theodore Rhoads received his early education in Elmira, New York, and there attended college until he was seventeen years of age when he came to Columbus, Ohio, with his parents and here the family established their future. home, the father becoming the head of the firm of P. Rhoads & Company, one of the pioneers in the oil business, the firm later being taken over by the Standard Oil Company. It was here that the foundations of the family fortune were laid. Our subject engaged in the oil business with his father, and after the business was sold he became president of the Columbus Sewer Pipe Company. The Rhoads holdings soon became scattered and included properties in Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Boston, and other places. He became a dominant factor in the various enterprises with which he was connected and whatever he turned his attention to thrived as a result of his directing genius and perseverance. Although during the latter years of his life he had retired from active control of properties he retained his interest in business to the last. He was a director in the Hayden-Clinton National Bank and the Scioto Valley Traction Company and formerly was a director of the Columbus Street Railway Company and the Chamber of Commerce.
Although Mr. Rhoads was a member of the Columbus Club, the Arlington Country Club and various other social organizations he was not an enthusiastic club man, preferring to devote most of his time to his home and family circle. The one diversion he allowed himself was camping and fishing, and for many years he passed his summers at a place he maintained at Amalie Lake, Ontario. He was a member of the Castalia Trout Club near Sandusky, and was a frequent visitor there. He had also camped and fished at many of the most in- accessible places in the far West and North. He was fond of nature and the outdoors and loved flowers especially ; they were always conspicuous about his several homes. Ever since his retirement from active business in 1901 he passed a large portion of his time in Fiorida, accompanied by his family, where, at "Seminola Park" he maintained a beautiful winter home, his estate there embracing one hundred aeres, pleasantly located between Halifax river and the ocean, one of the most wonderfully attractive estates in that land of flowers, and the family still spend their winters there.
Politically, Mr. Rhoads was a Republican, but never active nor a biased partisan, pre- ferring to cast his vote for the candidates he deemed best qualified for the offices sought. He never made an attempt to be a leader in public affairs although well qualified to hold office. He was a worthy member of the Central Presbyterian Church, and was very liberal in his contributions to the church and other laudable movements for the general good of his fellow men, in fact, he was ever liberal with the fortune he had amassed, but gave out of a sense of duty and a love for those in need and never in an ostentatious manner to attraet public applause. He was a close observer and a wide reader and thus became a cultured gentleman who was universally popular with all with whom he came in contact.
On October 20, 1870, Mr. Rhoads was united in marriage with Ella Kinsell, daughter
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of J. W. and Phoebe A. (Warther) Kinsell, natives of Virginia, each representing fine old Southern families. They were parents of four daughters and one son, Mrs. Rhoads being the only survivor. The union of Mr. and Mrs. Rhoads was blessed by the birth of two sons: Fred E. Rhoads, died ten years ago, leaving a daughter, Margaret Maxine Rhoads, who makes her home with her grandmother, the widow of the subject of this memoir. The other son, R. Stanley Rhoads, lives in St. Louis, Missouri, and is at the head of one of the largest pipe concerns in the United States, He has four children, namely: Edwin T., who at this writing, 1919, is serving with the aviation corps in France with Pershing's army; Ralph Stanley, Doris, and Theodore Rhoads, the latter a namesake for his grandfather, our subject.
After a lingering illness of months' duration, Theodore Rhoads was summoned to close his eyes on earthly scenes at the family residence in Columbus, on June 5, 1916. The spacious and picturesque old homestead at 1081 North High street, which has been occupied by the Rhoads family for nearly fifty years, was a fitting place for his declining days, which had been replete with success, happiness and honor.
MAURICE SUPPLE CONNORS. Among the successful self-made men of Columbus, whose efforts and influence have contributed to the material upbuilding of their respective communities, Maurice Supple Connors, well known railroad official, occupies a conspicuous place. Being ambitious from the first, but surrounded with none too favorable environment, his early youth was not especially promising, but he accepted the discouraging situation with- out a murmur and, resolutely facing the future, gradually surmounted the difficulties in his way and in due course of time rose to a prominent position in railroad circles.
Mr. Connors was born in the city of Toronto, Canada, June 7, 1858. He is a son of Michael and Catherine (Supple) Connors. The Connors family came to America in 1854, locating at Toronto and in 1865 they removed to North East, Pennsylvania. Michael Connors, father of our subject, was long an employe of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad Company. His death occurred at the town of North East, Pennsylvania, in 1910, at the advanced age of ninety years, and there the death of his wife occurred in 1887 at the age of sixty-three years.
Maurice S. Connors had little opportunity to obtain an education, but he has made up for this laek in later life by contact with the world, habits of elose observation and wide miscellan- eous reading, so that today he is a well informed man along general lines. He began his railroad career when but a a lad of twelve years, at North East, Pennsylvania, as water boy to the construction foree, then laving the second traek of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad. He learned telegraphy during those early days and in 1872 and 1873 he was an extra operator for the above named road. From 1873 to 1879 he was telegraph operator on the Philadelphia & Erie Railroad, now known as the Pennsylvania Railroad System, and from 1879 to 1880 he was telegraph operator for the Standard Oil Company at Bradford, Pennsylvania. In 1880 and 1881 he was paymaster in the construction depart- ment of the Standard Oil Company and in 1881 he returned to railroading as train dispatcher of the Evansville & Terre Haute Railroad, at Evansville, Indiana, where he worked two years. From 1883 to 1887 he was train dispatcher of the Indianapolis division of the Cin- einnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railroad, and Master of Transportation of the same division from 1887 to 1889, and Superintendent of the same division from December, 1889, to May, 1890. From May to December of the latter year he served as General Superintendent of the Peoria & Pekin Union Railway, Peoria, Ills. From December, 1890, to December, 1891, he was Superintendent of the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad. IIe came to the Hocking Valley Railroad in December, 1891, and has been identified with that company ever since. a period covering over twenty-eight years. He was Superintendent of the Hocking Valley & Ohio River division and of the Columbus, Hocking Valley & Toledo Railroad from Decem- ber, 1891, to May 25, 1896, when he was made Superintendent of the same, continuing in this position until in March, 1899, when he was appointed General Superintendent of The Hoeking Valley Railroad, suecessor of the Columbus, Hocking Valley & Toledo Railroad, and so continued until May 23, 1910, on which date he was appointed General Manager. Upon the taking over of the railroads by the Federal Government he was appointed Federal Manager, which position he still holds. From September, 1901, to January 1, 1909, hc was, in addition to his duties with the Hoeking Valley Railway, appointed General Super- intendent of the Toledo & Ohio Central and the Kanawha & Michigan railroads, and from
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November, 1902, to July 1, 1909, he was also General Superintendent of the Zanesville & Western Railway. In all the above mentioned positions, Mr. Connors discharged his duties ably, faithfully and in a highly satisfactory manner to his employers, and at the same time he had occasion during those long years of railroad service to become exceptionally well in- formed in all phases of railroad work, and being conscientious, honest and ambitious it is no wonder that he has mounted the ladder to the topmost rung, although entirely through his nnaided efforts and indomitable courage.
Mr. Connors has been a member of the committee of tarnsportation of the American Rail- way Association for the last fifteen years, being now one of the senior members of the com- mittee. He is also a member of the Eastern Wage Conference Committee of that asso- eiation. He has been identified with the Ohio State Savings Association since the year following its incorporation, and for years its first vice-president.
Fraternally, he belongs to the Knights of Columbus, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Columbus Athletic Club.
On June 22, 1881, Mr. Connors married Mary E. Kane, of Kane, Pennsylvania, and they have one son and five daughters, named as follows: John, who is engaged in business in Columbus ; Agatha, Eileen, Gertrude, Mildred and Martha.
Mr. Connors is a companionable, sociable and pleasant gentleman to meet and he is widely known in railroad cireles of the Middle West.
JOHN SELBY MORTON. The late John Selby Morton was one of the foremost business men and citizens of Columbus. His career in this eity, covering a period of nearly forty years, was one of activity and successful achievement, and he left his impress upon the business and eivie history of his time. His sueeess was that of a man whose elimb to a high place in the business world was accomplished step by step; a solid and lasting sueeess and not a sudden jump from comparative obseurity. He won his way by elose application to his business interest and by sound judgment and rare genius for organization and rare executive ability, all backed up by the strietest integrity.
Mr. Morton was born in Scotland and was descended from the old Morton family of England, where his grandfather and father were born. Cardinal John Morton, who was Chancellor to King Henry VIII, was a member of an earlier generation of the family, and of a later generation was Hon. Levi P. Morton, who was vice-president of the United States (1897-'01). The Morton family coat-of-arms was "Quarterly ermine and gules, in the second and third quarter, a goat's head erased argent, attired or."
The American aneestor was George Morton, whose English family-seat was in York- shire. He was a member of the party of Pilgrim Fathers who sought sanctuary in Leyden, Holland, in 1602. In the summer of 1612 he married Juliana Carpenter, whose father, Alexander, was one of the band of Pilgrims who left England for Holland. With his wife, George Morton returned to England in 1620 as agent for the Pilgrims, and in 1623 he came to America on the "good ship Ann" and became one of the founders of the Colony of Ply- mouth. From this George is deseended the different branches of the Morton family in America.
The paternal grandfather of John S. Morton removed with his family from England to Scotland and settled at Kirriemuir, Forfarshire, where he was in commercial business. Mr. Morton's father, who was a weaver by trade, married a Scotch woman and resided at Kirriemuir, Scotland, where their son, John S., was born January 24, 1842.
John S. Morton began his business career when he was fourteen years of age as a elerk in a local drapery and haberdashery (dry goods store). Three years later he went to the city of London to become a clerk in one of the largest wholesale and manufacturing houses in that city, where he continued for three years. Having by that time gained a thorough knowledge of that business, and having an ambition for bigger things, he came to the United States in the fall of 1862, before he had reached his twenty-first birthday. In New York City he found a position as entry clerk in a wholesale dry goods house. The following fall he accepted a position with a larger house in the same line of business, where he was later promoted buyer for one of the departments. Five years later he resigned his position to take the management of a retail store in which he had previously become interested.
In 1871 Mr. Morton disposed of his New York interests. and, coming to Columbus,
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he purchased an interest in the firm of Freeman, Staley & Company, dry goods merchants, which firm then became that of Freeman, Staley & Morton.
In 1879 he organized the Baird Coal Company with a capital of $25,000. The follow- ing year he purchased that business and changed the name to that of the Sunday Creek Coal Company. In 1884 the capital stock of the Sunday Creek Coal Company was increased to $250,000, the company having by that time acquired a large business and greatly increased its holding in real estate and personal property. In 1887 the Sunday Creek Coal Company purchased the entire property of the Ohio Central Coal and Mining Company and increased its capital stock to $4,000,000, making the Sunday Creek Coal Company one of the largest corporations in Ohio at that time. Mr. Morton was the guiding spirit and president of that great company from the time of its organization until the Sunday Creek Coal Company was acquired by the J. P. Morgan interests of New York City. He was also president of the Boomer Coal Company, president of the Ohio Buggy Company, a director of the Capital City National Bank and was also identified financially with important concerns away from home, among which were the Old Dominion Realty Company of Norfolk, Va., the Krupp Gun Mfg. Company of New York and a large Massachusetts life insurance company.
Mr. Morton was also prominent in civic and public affairs. Friends solicited him to make the race for Governor, but he never cared for public office or political honor. His interest in such matters was that of the good citizen, desirous of seeing the city, State and Nation well-governed, to which end he was willing to give of his time and advice and means.
Mr. Morton's death occurred after a brief illness September 5, 1909, in Boston.
Mr. Morton was twice married. In 1863 he married Mary A. Morris, an English lady, who died in 1868, leaving a son and daughter, the latter surviving. His second mar- riage, which took place May 12, 1872, was with Emma Hendren, who was born in Vicksburg, Miss., who survives him. Mrs. Morton is of the old Hendren and Whiting families of Virginia, one of the ancestors having been General Whiting of Hampton. Her mother, Eliza- beth Mallory, was of another old Virginia family and James Barron Hope, poet laureate of Virginia, was a full cousin to Mrs. Morton.
WILLIAM LINCOLN VAN SICKLE. No people that go to make up our cosmopolitan civilization have better habits of life than those of Dutch extraction. The men and women who have come to our shores from Holland, and their descendants, have ever been distin- guished for their thrift and honesty, and these two qualities in the inhabitants of any coun- try will in the end alone make that country great. When with these admirable attributes is coupled the quality of sound sense, which all the Dutch race seems to possess, there are afforded such characteristics as will enrich any land and place it at the top of the countries of the world in the scale of elevated humanity. One of this number is William Lincoln Van Sickle, well known lawyer and man of affairs of Columbus.
Mr. Van Sickle is descended from Ohio pioneers. The Van Sickles are of original Dutch stock and the family was founded in America in colonial days and in the Buckeye State in pioncer times. John Van Sickle was the first of the name to cast his lot with the people of this State. He was the grandfather of the subject of this sketch. He came here from New Jersey, where he was born, and settled in Delaware county in the first part of the nineteenth century.
William W. Van Sickle, father of our subject, was a son of John, the pioneer, who was born in the Van Sickle homestead in Delaware county and there he grew to manhood and worked hard assisting his father clear and develop a farm from the wilderness. He re- ceived a limited education in the early rural schools of his vicinity, and upon reaching manhood married Mary Crane, a native of New Jersey.
William L. Van Sickle was born on the old home farm in Delaware county, Ohio, August 20, 1867. He attended the public schools of Delaware, Ohio, and entered Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, from which institution he was graduated with the degree of Bache- lor of Arts in 1889. He then took the course at the Cincinnati Law School, from which he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1891. In that year he was admitted to the Ohio Bar and immediately entered practice in Columbus, and his advancement to a place in the front ranks of the local Bar was rapid. During all these years he has enjoyed a large and growing practice.
Mr. /an Sickle became counsel for the Columbia Building & Loan Company in 1897,
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and secretary and general manager of it in 1901, and today he is one of the best known building and loan men in Ohio, if not in the entire Middle West. His operations in this line have met with pronounced success from the first, owing to his peculiar adaptability for the work, his sound judgment, wise foresight and perseverance.
Mr. Van Sickle is one of the most active and influential Masons in Ohio. He has at- tained the honorary thirty-third degree in the Scottish Rite Order. In 1901 he was made Master of Ceremonies in Enoch Lodge of Perfection, and on November 19, 1910, follow- ing the death of Dr. David N. Kinsman, who for twenty-seven years had been thrice potent master of Enoch Lodge of Perfection, Mr. Van Sickle was made his successor in this office, and has since continued to hold this exalted position. On September 21, 1909, he received the thirty-third degree, Scottish Rite, in Boston, Massachusetts. He belongs to all bodies of Scottish Rite Masonry and takes part in all the various degrees. He is a charter mem- ber of Champion Lodge, Knights of Pythias, and has held every chair in the same, and has been representative to the Grand Lodge.
On November 12, 1906, Mr. Van Sickle was married to Celesta Bland, a daughter of Ham- let Bland and a granddaughter of Silas Bland, an early pioneer of Ohio, who was one of the first settlers of Licking county. She is a native of Delaware, this State. To our subject and wife one son has been born-William Bland Van Sickle.
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