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 73
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Judge Seidel is a Pennsylvania German, as known in America; the Pennsylvania Ger- mans being about sixty per cent German, twenty per cent French-Huguenot and twenty per cent English, Scotch, Jewish, Irish, and Welsh; a mixed people since before the Revolutionary days.
Judge Seidel was born at Bowers, Pennsylvania, November 26, 1886. He was gradu- atcd from the public schools of Pennsylvania, also from the Keystone State Normal School at Kutztown, that state, class of 1904. He then entered Ohio State University, from which he was graduated in 1908 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts and two years later he received the degree of Bachelor of Laws from the law department of that institution. He was admitted to the Ohio Bar in June, 1910, and not long thereafter he entered the practice of law in Columbus, first in partnership with Lewis A. Alcott, then with Herbert Sherman, continuing with the latter until January, 1917, when he took his present position.
Although one of the youngest members of the local Bar he met with exceptional success, both as a trial lawyer and an advocate and ranked high among his professional brethren at the Columbus Bar.
On January 1, 1917, Governor Willis appointed Mr. Seidel presiding judge of the Municipal Court of Columbus, and in November of that year he was elected to that position, the duties of which he continues to discharge in a manner that reflects much credit upon himself and to the entire satisfaction of all concerned. His decisions are marked by a pro- found knowledge of the law and by fairness and common sense.
Judge Seidel is a member of the Franklin County Bar Association, the Acacia Fra- ternity of the Ohio State University, the Masons, the Loyal Order of Moose, the Benevo- lent and Protective Order of Elks, the Woodmen of the World, the Buckeye Republican Club and St. John's Evangelical Church.
On December 19, 1910, Judge Seidel was united in marriage with Mrs. Marguerite (Manley) Johnson. She is the mother of two children, namely : Eleanor Cecil and Frederick Emerson Johnson. Judge and Mrs. Seidel have one child, John Manley Seidel.
Judge Seidel has won a high position in the legal world of Columbus and in the estimation of the public while yet young in years, and his accomplishments of the past but augur well for a future replete with further honors and successes.
CHARLES BERTRAM WOLFE. In placing the name of the late Charles Bertram Wolfe in the front rank of Columbus business men of a past generation, simple justice is done to a biographical fact, universally recognized throughout central Ohio by those at all familiar with his history, for he was one of the founders of the well known mercantile house which bears his name and was the most potent factor in its upbuilding. He was distinc- tively the architect of his own fortune, in fact, no finer specimen of a successful self-made man could have been found in the Capital City in his day and generation. A man of rare soundness of judgment, wise discretion and business ability of a high order, he managed with tactful success important enterprises and so impressed his individuality upon the community as to gain recognition among its leading citizens and public-spirited men of affairs. What of the man and what of his work? This is the dual query which represents the interro- gation at least nominally entertained whenever that discriminating factor, the public, would pronounce on the true worth of the individual. The career of Mr. Wolfe indicates the clear- cut, sane and distinct character, and in reviewing the same from an unbiased and unprejudiced standpoint, interpretation follows fact in a straight line of derivation.
The subject of this memoir was born April 9, 1867, in Cumberland, Ohio. He was a son of Andrew Jackson Wolfe and Nancy ( Bartou) Wolfe. They removed from Cumber- land to Zanesville when their son Charles was ten years old, and finally established the per- manent home of the family in Columbus where the last thirty years of their lives were spent. Charles B. Wolfe was the third son in a family of six children, those surviving being Robert F., Harry P., Ida May, who married David Beverly, and Katherine, who married Henry Houstle; they all reside in Columbus.
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Born of parents of moderate means, Charles B. Wolfe did not have the present day advantages in an educational way, but being ambitious and a elose observer, he became an apt student to business, a graduate of his own observations and exertions. He remained a wide reader and became a well informed man along general lines. He attended the publie sehools a short time at Zanesville. Like many another sueeessful man of affairs in this country he began his career as a newsboy, which work he followed until he was fourteen years old, then entered a coal mine as a "trapper." At the age of seventeen he came to Columbus where he found employment at the Toledo & Ohio Central railroad shops. At the age of twenty he entered the employ of the H. C. Godman Shoe Company, as traveling sales- man. He took great interest in the shoe business and made a pronouneed sueeess as a sales- man, and about three years later, in partnership with his three brothers, he formed the Wolfe Brothers' Shoe Company, which was successful from the first and eventually grew to vast proportions, principally as a result of the able management of our subject. After twelve years this firm was dissolved and Charles B., in partnership with his brother Edward, formed what is now the C. & E. Shoe Company, manufacturers of shoes. Our subjeet re- mained president of this concern until his death. The plant was onee destroyed by fire. Undaunted by the loss the firm earried its manufacturing interests to Delaware, Ohio, where the business was continued until recently, when the plant was removed to Columbus.
Politieally, Mr. Wolfe .was a Demoerat, but was never active in party affairs. He was of the Presbyterian faith. Fraternally, he was a member of Champion Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Knights of Pythias. He eared but little for the social life of the elubs, being fond of his home and of nature and enjoyed a great deal of time at his beautiful summer place, "Mount Air," located about fifteen miles northwest of Columbus, until it was destroyed by fire in 1913. He was an active and enthusiastie member of the Buckeye Lake Fishing Club, the Olentangy Club and the old Bismarek Club, also belonged to the Columbus Country Club and the Athletic Club, also the Columbus Automobile Club.
He was charitably inelined and gave freely of his time and means to all laudable eharita- ble movements, but never courted publieity in his giving, or in faet, in anything, being quiet and unassuming. He was for many years president of the News Boys' Association of Ohio, an organization with charity as its main mission. Having been a news boy he knew how to sympathize with them and help them. He took an active part each year in their charity work, selling papers on charity day and directing the work of distribution of relief for the poor who appealed to that organization. He spent much time during the cold winter months looking up poor families and providing for them, especially during the holiday season.
On September 19, 1891, Mr. Wolfe married Minnie Chappelear, of Columbus. She is the daughter of Jasper and Julia A. (Bulloek) Chappelear, both of Columbus, where the family has long been well and favorably known. To Mr. and Mrs. Wolfe three children were born, namely: Frederiek D., Charles Bertram, jr., and Clara Barton Wolfe.
The death of Charles B. Wolfe occurred on February 8, 1918, at the age of fifty-one years. Though the stone of life's pathway which marks ambition's end had not yet been reached, "being weary of the battle he sought to lie down and fell into that dreamless sleep that waketh not at the dawn." The "Reaper whose name is Death" elaimed him for his harvest. Only a pleasant memory remains,
EDWARD STANSBURY WILSON. When Colonel Edward S. Wilson passed away one more name was added to the list of honored dead whose earthly records closed with the words, "Well done, thon good and faithful servant," but so long as memory remains to those who knew him the influence of his noble life will remain as a sonree of encouragement and inspiration. For many years editor of the Ohio State Journal, he was especially fitted in many ways for that position, and he made splendid use of the opportunity to do what he could to make life better and more desirable. He recognized "the spark of divinity" in caeh indi- vidual with unerring judgment and endeavored to fan it into the flame of righteousness. Not to condemn, but to aid, he made the practice of his life, and the world is better and brighter for his having lived. But though the voice, gentle and kindly, is stilled, the spirit of his worth remains as the deep undercurrent of a mighty stream, noiseless but irresistible.
Edward Stansbury Wilson was born at Newark, Ohio, on October 6, 1841, the son of Henry and Eliza (Bramble) Wilson. Henry Wilson was a saddler by trade, a plain, God-
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fearing man and an earnest worker in the church, who lost no opportunity to instill in the heart of his son the principles of morality and religion. When the subject was but a small boy, the family moved to Ironton, Ohio, where Edward attended the public schools, this being the limit of his scholastic training. However he had an intense ambition to learn and from his youth up he was an eager and retentive reader of the great historians, essayists and psychol- ogists. It is a notable fact that, though not a college graduate, the honorary degree of Mas- ter of Arts was conferred upon him in 1899 by Ohio State University and in 1910, after his editorial work had made him a notable figure in intellectual circles in Ohio, he was made a Doctor of Laws by Ohio Wesleyan University.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, young Wilson enlisted in the Ninety-first Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, with which he served to the end of the war, participating in many engagements and being wounded in the battle of Stephenson's Depot. He rose to the rank of first lieutenant in the service and was later given the brevet rank of captain. Because of his military service, he maintained active membership to the time of his death in the Grand Army of the Republic, the Loyal Legion and Union Veterans League.
Prior to his enlistment, and while in the army, Colonel Wilson had diligently studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1864, though he never entered upon the active practice. He had a natural leaning towards journalism and in 1865 he became sole owner of the Ironton Register, a struggling weekly, but which in a short time, as a result of his indefatigable efforts, became a prosperous enterprise, the Register being recognized as probably the most ably edited small newspaper in Ohio. He took an active interest in local public affairs, hav- ing an especial interest in education, for the elevation of the standard of which he preached editorially all his life. He served for thirty-one consecutive years as county school examiner of Lawrence county. For thirty years Colonel Wilson was a power in politics in southern Ohio, and was once nominated for Congress, but declined the honor. He served as a presi- dential elector in 1884 and was a delegate to the Republican national convention in 1888. He was a member of the board of trustees of the Ohio Hospital for Epilepties, in Gallipolis, from 1890 to 1900. Early in 1900 Colonel Wilson sold the Ironton Register, of which he had been owner and editor for thirty-four years, and soon afterwards we was appointed receiver for the Ironton & Ashland Electric Railway Company, which he soon put on a paying basis and within a few months the receivership was lifted. Later in the year 1900 President Mckinley appointed Colonel Wilson United States marshal of Porto Rico, the appointment coming as a surprise. In his new work the Colonel made a notable record and he was reap- pointed to that position by President Roosevelt in 1905, but in the latter year he resigned and, returning to his native state, became editor of the Ohio State Journal, a position he filled with brilliant success up to the time of his death, which occurred on December 18, 1919. Colonel Wilson was the author of several works, of which "The Political Development of Porto Rico" attracted considerable attention. His other volumes arc, "An Oriental Outing" (1894), "Keynotes of Education" (1898), and "The Poetry of Eating" (1908).
On October 18, 1871, Edward S. Wilson was married to George Anna Gibson, the daughter of Alexander and Mary Ann Gibson, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Wilson is one of five children, those surviving besides herself being, William Norton Gibson, of Ashland, Ken- tucky, and Margaret Gibson Lawton, of Chattanooga, Tennessee. To Colonel and Mrs. Wilson were born the following children: Bertha, who became the wife of Dr. Robert E. Ruedy, of Cleveland, Ohio, and they have two children, Wilson and John Edward; Florence, who be- came the wife of Robert O. Ryder, managing editor of the Ohio State Journal, and Gertrude, the wife of Charles Clark Hammond, vice-president of the Columbia National Bank, of Pitts- burgh, Pennsylvania.
Probably the best epitome of the work and character of Colonel Wilson appeared in the editorial columns of the Ohio State Journal as follows:
The community scarcely could have suffered a greater loss than it sustains in the death of Colonel Wilson. As a force for righteousness his value was inestimable indeed. Day after day, year in and year out, he preached to his wide congregation the true things of life, the things which make the man or the city truly great. Justice and honor, virtue and spirituality, kindness and tolerance and brotherly love-these were his daily themes and through all the noble words he wrote his own noble character eame shining. No preacher ever had a finer andience and no andience a finer preacher. He was truly good himself and his one great aim in life was to do good, and he did a vast deal of it.
As all our readers know, Colonel Wilson had a wonderful gift for writing, a gift culti-
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vated and polished by years of wide reading, deep thinking and honest, hard work. He was a prose poet who put his words together with rare grace and charm. Character was the basis upon which he built up his usefulness, but this fine technical skill of his was what enabled him to reach and hold so many with his writings. He had the power to make the goodness he taught attractive. His gentle humor, his ability to choose the right word, his knowledge of when to stop, his own evident earnestness, all combined to delight and impress his readers. They made him a great editorial writer, but such no man can be, no matter what his facility in the use of language, if he has not perfect and complete sincerity in his heart of hearts. Entire purity of motive was at the bottom of Colonel Wilson's success in his profession. He never wrote a line which he did not believe.
Colonel Wilson . was a great optimist. Ile had faith that the world was growing better and never lost it as day by day he tried to do his part to keep things going right. He was a great individualist, too. He had no panacea for the uplifting of humanity in the mass save in the patient upbuilding of individual character. He knew that the only real hope of bettering general conditions in the state lies in raising the moral standards of manhood and womanhood in private life and to that end he labored unceasingly.
A peculiar coincidence in connection with the death of Mr. Wilson, was the death, at almost the same hour, of E. O. Randall, reporter of the Supreme Court. The following ex- cerpt is from a resolution passed by the Members' Forum of the Columbus Chamber of Com- merce :
Therefore, Be it resolved, by the Forum of the Columbus Chamber of Commerce, that in the death of these two men, the community, the state and the nation have lost two great and good citizens, whose beautiful and sublime personalities have stamped themselves on our political, literary and social life to an extent that we cannot at this time understand or appreciate fully.
Resolutions were also adopted by the Ohio Newsboys' Association, of which Colonel Wilson had always been a supporter and to which he had been a great benefit and assistance in many ways. Among the published expressions at the time of Colonel Wilson's death the following show the appreciation in which he was held by all classes of men throughout the community and state:
He saw the spiritual everywhere and wanted this recognized in every department of life. Hle lives on; death is but an incident in this larger life, to which he looked forward and of which he often spoke .- (Rev. Dr. S. S. Palmer, pastor Broad Street Presbyterian church). Ilis identification with the editorial page of the Ohio State Journal was so complete that he may be said to have been its very soul. He was an editor of the old school yet with a spirit so exuberant, a nature so progressive, an intellect so keen, that he fitted in to a nicety with the wonderful present .- (Hugh L. Nichols, Chief Justice Ohio Supreme Court.) His genial disposition, his intellectual attainments, his long experience as an editor, his cogent thinking. and his copious and well-chosen vocabulary all contributed to make him a man of marked and unusual influence, not only in this city, but throughout the state .- (James E. Campbell, former Governor.) He was a gentle soul, but as firm as adamant, and in his advocacy of right living he was a great teacher .- (F. B. Pearson, State Superintendent of Public Instruc- tion.) It is because of his sincerity and lofty ideals that Colonel Wilson won the confidence and friendship of a host of people. Ile lived the life a good man seeks to live .- ( Mayor George J. Karb.) Education was his favorite subject. He never tired writing or speaking on it, always emphasizing the importance of the spiritual in education. To him the school was to be a nursery of those graces of character which make men and women lovable and admira- ble. Colonel Wilson was himself the choicest fruit of that education .- (Rabbi Joseph S. Kornfeld.) The Colonel had extracted from a long life the pure sweet wisdom of tolerant, kindly humanness. First of all he was a man; but, secondly, he was a preacher under the alias of an editor, talking sensibly and winsomely of simple goodness .- (Rev. Dr. W. E. Burnelt, Broad St. M. E. Church)
WILLIAM O. TAYLOR. It is interesting to study the life record of a man like William O. Taylor, president and general manager of the Casparis Stone Company of Columbus, who has had a varied career, his carlier years being spent in railroad service in different parts of the country. He started life at the bottom of the ladder which he has mounted with but little aid from any source, although he met with the usual obstacles that confront the majority of people who try lo achieve things worth while in the world of industry.
Mr. Taylor is a native of Monroe county, Ohio, born near Woodsfield, July 29, 1860, the son of the late Greenbery MeGruder and Malinda (Pileher) Taylor, both nalives of Virginia. His father was a miller by occupation and died in 1876, and his mother passed away nearly a decade previous, in 1867.
Following the death of his father William O. Taylor found employment in a flour mill at Cairo, Illinois. Two years later he was on construction work for the Ohio & West Virginia,
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now the Hocking Valley Railroad, and was made foreman of a construction gang for that company before he was twenty years old. In 1880 he became a foreman in construction work for the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railroad Company and in 1881 was promoted superintendent of construction and the following year was superintendent of bridges for the same railroad.
From 1883 to 1884 Mr. Taylor was in the South in charge of construction work for the New Orleans & Northeastern Railroad Company. Returning north in 1884 he became con- struction foreman for the Smith Bridge Company of Toledo; later was engaged in bridge building for the Kentucky Central Railroad Company, after which he constructed several bridges for the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railroad Company. He next spent a year in South Carolina engaged in construction work and in 1888 located permanently in Columbus, becom- ing a member of the firm of Phelps & Taylor, owners and operators of stone quarries. The firm later became Taylor, Beall & Co., and in 1889 was reorganized and incorporated as The Columbus Stone Company. Mr. Taylor afterwards became vice-president and general manager of the Casparis Stone Company of which he is now president and general manager and its large and growing success has been due for the most part to his able management, his foresight and energy.
William O. Taylor is a member of the Columbus Country Club, the Columbus Athletic Club, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, and belongs to the Knights Templar and the Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.
He was married in 1885 to Mary L. Foster, of Norwalk, Ohio, daughter of Frank B. and Flora (Beebe) Foster and they are the parents of one daughter, Mabel E., who married Rex Hays Rhoads, at this writing (1919) Lieutenant Colonel in the Medical Corps in France. To Colonel Rhoads and wife two children have been born, namely, William Taylor Rhoads and John B. Rhoads.
RANDOLPH WILSON WALTON, well known member of the Columbus bar and member of the Ohio State Civil Service Commission, was born in Woodsfield, Monroe county, Ohio, October 15, 1870, son of Dr. William and Mary Virginia (Fitz Randolph) Walton. Doctor Walton was born in Clarington, Monroe county, this state in 1832, and, after a long and successful career as a general physician and surgeon, his death occurred in 1890. He was a son of William C. Walton, a native of Pennsylvania, who settled in Monroe county in an early day. He was active in public affairs and became a member of both the House of Representatives and the State Senate, and had been nominated for Congress in his district, but died before the election was held, his successor on the ticket being elected. He was noted for his eloquence and high standing as a public man.
Dr. William Walton was graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, (the medical department) of Columbia University, New York, and located in eastern Ohio for the practice of his profession, in which he was very successful. Upon the outbreak of the Civil War he enlisted in the Union Army in 1861 as assistant surgeon and was promoted surgeon, with the rank of major, of the Twenty-fifth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in which he served most faithfully until the close of the war, in fact, until after peace had been declared. He was not mustered out of service until the late summer of 1866. The last year of his service was as chief medical officer at Columbia, South Carolina. After the war he engaged in gen- eral practice, first at Woodsfield and later at Clarington, Ohio. His wife, Mary Fitz Randolph, was a native of the town of Woodsfield, daughter of J. F. Randolph, who came to Ohio from Pennsylvania, and settled at Woodsfield, where he engaged in mercantile pursuits many years, also kept a hotel. Mrs. Mary Walton died in Boston, Massachusetts in 1910.
Randolph W. Walton, of this review, attended the common schools of Clarington, Ohio. He came to Columbus in July, 1893, and took a position with a drug house, selling supplies to physicians. He studied stenography at night school and obtained employment as a stenog- rapher with different industrial concerns. Governor Nash appointed him as stenographer and correspondence clerk in his office and during the latter part of the Governor's term he was executive clerk in the Governor's office, which position he retained until the close of Governor Nash's term as governor. Under Governor Herrick, Mr. Walton was correspondence clerk, and was executive clerk by appointment from Governor Harris. As executive clerk he was also ex-officio secretary to the Ohio State Board of Pardons. While in the office of Governor Nash he read law at night and was admitted to the bar in December, 1901, and to the federal
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bar June 1, 1915, and for a time he engaged in the practice of law following the administra- tion of Governor Herrick. In 1909 he returned to the practice of law, which he continued with suecess until January 1917, when he became a member of the Ohio State Civil Service Commission under appointment from Governor Cox. He has discharged the duties of all these responsible positions in a manner that reflected much credit upon himself and to the satisfaction of all concerned, being alert, painstaking, obliging and conrteous.
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