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 74
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Mr. Walton has been very active in Republican politics and his services have been, and are, in great demand, as a public speaker during campaigns especially, his earnestness, logical and forceful eloquence on the stump causing him to become widely and favorably known and popular. He has delivered specches in every county in the state and in very many of the towns and villages. During the campaign of 1908 he stumped Ohio, Indiana and Illinois for the Republican ticket. In 1912 he was a Roosevelt advocate, and after Taft's nomination in that year, Mr. Walton became one of the original "Bull Moosers" of Ohio and stumped the state as the candidate of the "Bull Moose" party for congressman-at-large. Mr. Walton is a past Exalted Ruler and life member of the Columbus Lodge of Elks, also belongs to the Ma- sonic Order and the Sons of Veterans.
When a young man Mr. Walton spent about a year and a half in a newspaper office in Clarington and it was in that work that he gained his early practical experience and educa- tion-a training which has been of inestimable valne to him in later life, and he is still a fre- quent contributor to the press. He is fond of athletic and outdoor sports. He was one of the best swimmers in his younger days on the Ohio river, and was one of the first pitchers of the "curved" ball in baseball in his section of the state.
Mr. Walton married Sidney M. Myers, daughter of William and Sidney C. Myers, of Steubenville, Ohio. He has a very pleasant residence on Hawthorne street, and he and his wife are popular with the best circles of Columbus.
THOMAS SWIFT. The history of Columbus reveals the handiwork of many a noble soul who wrought heroically and unselfishly. Her great industrial establishments and splen- did homes, her high-grade institutions, her happy, prospering people speak volumes of the steadfastness of purpose, strength of arm, courage of heart, activity of brain-of sacrifice of the toilers of the generation that has just passed. One of this number was the late Thomas Swift, a splendid example of a successful self-made man, a progressive, public-spirited, useful and highly esteemed citizen. He belonged to that class of men who, while laboring for their own advancement, as is natural and right, do not lose sight of their duties to their fellow men and the State, being unselfish, patriotic and altruistic in their ideals. The names of such men should not be permitted to perish from the annals of their locality, partly because of the just reward due them for work well performed and partly because such lives are evi- dently a source of inspiration to the youths of the community who follow in their footsteps, taking up the work they left off, both in a business and a civic way.
Mr. Swift was born in Vanceburg, Kentucky, February 1, 1852, son of Patrick and Dorinda ( Kelly) Swift, the second son of five children, all of whom are deceased. Katherine Crosby, a half-sister survives, making her home at this writing in Chicago. His father died when he was quite young and he came to Columbus with his mother shortly after the death of his father. He was at that time about seven years of age. The mother located with her children in a little frame dwelling opposite the Chittenden Hotel on High street.
Thomas Swift grew to manhood in Columbus and received a very meager education in St. Patrick's parochial schools. It was necessary for him to go to work when about ten or eleven years old to help support his mother and the rest of the children, consequently his schooling was interrupted. However, being ambitious he continued a wide reader all his life, which, coupled with habits of close observation, rendered him a well informed man along general lines. His first position was that of "bell hop" in the old National Hotel, now known as the Davidson House. His next venture was in the grocery store of Thomas Bergin, with whom he remained until he had passed his twenty-first birthday. He had not only given his employer eminent satisfaction, being alert, courteous, prompt and honest, but he had gradually mastered the various ins and outs of the business, so that he was enabled to launch out suc- cessfully for himself. The last sixteen years of his life he devoted to the care of the property he had accumulated and to the buying and selling of business property, principally. However, he was practically retired during the last few years of his life with the exception of looking
Sheriff 10. A. "Bill" Slark
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after his own holdings in the downtown section of the city. Having practically grown up with the city he was one of the best authorities on the value of real estate in Columbus, and being a recognized authority his judgment and advice were often sought in such matters. He was very methodical in all his tasks, going about all his work systematically, thus attaining a high degree of efficiency.
Personally, our subject was very democratic, plain and unassuming, which, added to his other sterling qualities of head and heart won him a wide circle of friends and admirers. Those who knew him well said that he was a man who would rather have been underrated than overrated, never desiring to sail under false colors, placing honor and integrity above all material success. He was justly proud of the fact that he had been able by his own efforts to make his way from an humble and unpromising beginning to a position of independence and influence. He was a great home man, devoting his whole life to his home and family. He was a devout member of St. Joseph's Cathedral, in the work of which he was very active and a liberal supporter of the church, in which he was for many years regarded as a pillar. The Bishop, also the present pastor of St. Joseph's Cathedral, were schoolmates of the sub- ject and they remained close personal friends. Mr. Swift was charitably inclined, in fact liberal to a fault, but he always gave out of a fullness of heart and never for display. He belonged to the Knights of Columbus, the Columbus Chamber of Commerce and the North Side Chamber of Commerce. He always helped promote any movement that he deemed would be of benefit to his home city, whose interests he had very much at heart. Politically, he was a Democrat, however, not a partisan, preferring to vote for the best man, regardless of what ticket he represented.
On May 11, 1881, Mr. Swift was united in marriage with Margaret Elizabeth Carter, daughter of Joseph and Mary Jane (Wooley) Carter. The wife and mother, a woman of fine Christian character, passed away on April 24, 1917. These children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Swift: Mary Elizabeth, Margaret Gertrude, Rose Agnes. The last named married Howard E. Critchfield, of Hartford, Connecticut, and they have one child, Mary Elizabeth Critchfield. Mr. Critchfield is assistant to Vice-President Page of the Travelers' Insurance Company. He is a graduate of the Ohio State University, class of 1908, and it was there that he met his future wife, who graduated from that institution in 1909. Geraldine Lau- retta, the fourth child of our subject, died in 1894 at the age of four years.
Mr. Swift was a staunch and uncompromising Catholic, ready at all times to defend his religion. There was no unseemly display about him. In disposition he was kind and genial, having a good word for everybody, extending a helping hand to the unfortunate and scattering sunshine wherever he went. His life was a fine illustration of what may be accom- plished by the man who puts his hand to the plow and does not turn back.
The death of Thomas Swift occurred on New Year's eve, December 31, 1918, which, being accidental and untimely, was a shock to the people of Columbus as well as to his family. While on his way to a telegraph office to send New Year's greetings to his daughter, Mrs. Howard E. Critchfield, who, with her husband and young daughter, were then in Oakland, California, he was struck by an automobile and died shortly after as a result of his injuries.
WILLIAM MADISON SLACK. The career of William Madison Slack, a former traveling man and ex-jailor and now sheriff of Franklin county, illustrates most happily for the purpose of this work the fact that if a young man possesses the proper attributes of mind and heart, he can, unaided, attain to a position of unmistakable precedence, and gain for himself an honored station among the men who are factors in shaping the destinies of the com- munity in which he lives. His life proves that the only true success in this world is that which is accomplished by personal effort and consecutive industry, by honesty and a straight- forward, unassuming attitude toward those with whom he comes in contact.
Mr. Slack is a native of Franklin county, Ohio, and here he has been contented to spend his life, believing that better opportunities for him existed right here at his door than in other cities and states. His birth occurred in Columbus, January 10, 1875. He is a son of Captain Elias Madison and Jane (McDermit) Slack. The father was also a native of this county, born here on May 28, 1845, son of Elias Slack, who was a native of Sussex county, New Jersey. When Elias Slack sr., was eight years old he ran away from home and finally, while still quite a youngster, came to Franklin county, Ohio, Here he learned the blacksmith's trade, also the trade of soapstone cutter, and worked at each for many years. He died at
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his home near the quarries in which he worked, in the year 1855. His wife was a native of New Jersey.
Captain Elias Slack was reared in Franklin and Fairfield counties, going to the latter county with his mother after she he married again, following his father's death. Before he was thirteen years old he had almost completed the stone mason's trade. He ran away from home at the outbreak of the Civil War with the intention of enlisting in the Forty-fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, but being only sixteen years of age at the time, he was rejected by the recruiting officers. A few months later he came to Columbus and learned the printer's trade, which he continued to follow here for a period of twenty-seven years. In 1887 he was appointed chief clerk in the office of the state inspector of work shops and factories, which he held for a period of fifteen years. He was then in the employ of the city board of review for eleven years. His long retention in both these positions would indicate that he was a man who did his work well and conscientiously and thus satisfactorily. He was active in National Guard affairs, and became captain of Company F, Fourteenth Regiment, Ohio National Guards, and continued in that capacity from 1876 until 1885. During that period he saw active service in the great riots in Cincinnati and other cities in this State, and was several times wounded.
William M. Slack received his education in the graded and high schools of Columbus, and as a lad sold newspapers and blacked boots. This willingness to begin at the bottom of things and the grit and courage he displayed in battling with adversities of early life indicated that, if given a chance, he would accomplish much in subsequent years, and the training proved beneficial to him in many ways. In 1892 he became manager of the circulation department of the old Columbus Post. He read law two years, but finally decided to give up his am- bition for the legal profession.
In 1893 Mr. Slack began traveling for the American Sheet & Tin Plate Company, with which he continued for eight years, doing much to increase the business and prestige of this concern in his territory, and he was regarded by his firm as one of its most efficient and faithful employes. He next accepted a position as claim clerk with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, remaining with that road for nine years, performing his work in his usual able, painstaking and honest manner.
Mr. Slack has long taken an active interest in public affairs, and in 1912 he was ap- pointed jailor at the Franklin county jail by Sheriff Charles Resch. In 1916 he was the nominee of the Democratic party for sheriff and was elected by a good majority, and he is discharging the duties of the office in a manner that reflects much credit upon himself and to the entire satisfaction of his constituents and all concerned.
Sheriff Slack belongs to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Eagles, the Loyal Order of Moose, Bears, Oaks, the Woodmen of the World, the Modern Woodmen of America, the Court of Honor, the Knights of Pythias, the Owls, the Knights of Khorassan, the Chamber of Commerce, the South Side Improvement Association, the Germania Singing Society, the Concordia Singing Society, the East Side Athletic Club, the Fulton Athletic Chib, the Order of Golman and the Olentangy Fishing Chib.
In 1891 Sheriff Slack married Lepha P. Evans, who was born in Logan county, Ohio, of which her family were pioneers, being among the earliest settlers of that section of the State. To the union of our subject and wife one daughter has been born-Mary Esther Slack.
Mr. Slack is one of the most popular as well as competent sheriffs Franklin county has ever had and his work proves the wisdom of his friends in entrusting him with the office.
JONATHAN FALLIS LINTON. The career of the well-remembered gentleman whose name forms the caption of this memoir was a strenuous and varied one, the distinction which he attained in different spheres of activity entitling him to honorable mention among the representative citizens of his day in the communities with which his life was identified. Al- though his life record has been brought to a close by the inevitable fate that awaits all man- kind, his influence still pervades the lives of a wide circle of friends and acquaintances who revere his memory. As farmer, newspaper publisher, realty dealer and private citizen, he was always true to himself and his fellow citizens, and the tongue of calumny never touched him. As a soldier he proved his loyalty to the government he loved so well, and his record during his active years in civil life left its imprint for good upon those who came in contact
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with him. He reached the advanced age of eighty-eight years, heaven having lengthened out his life beyond the Psalmist's allotted three score and ten until he was permitted to wit- ness the vieissitudes of the most remarkable epoch in the world's business and inventive his- tory, in all of which he was an interested spectator, and, indeed, played no inconspicuous part in pushing forward the wheels of civilization. The death of such a man, even in the rounded fullness of a very long life, is a great publie loss, but he left to his family the rieh memory of an unstained name, and to the community the record and example of an honora- ble and well spent life.
Jonathan F. Linton was born on his father's farm, in the locality known as Green Plains, six miles southeast of Springfield, Clark county, Ohio, December 16, 1831, and was the eldest of three children born to his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel S. Linton, the subject having two brothers, Nathan and Samuel. When Jonathan F. was about two years old, the family moved to Miami eounty, Indiana, where the father died in 1836. He had been born in 1809 near Wilmington, Clinton eounty, Ohio. After his death, his widow and her three sons re- turned to Ohio. The subject attended the district sehools and an academy in Warren county, completing his studies in Woodard College, at Cincinnati. He afterwards served an appren- tieeship at the printer's trade in the offices of the Springfield Republie and the Wilmington Republic. In 1849, when eighteen years old, he was employed at his trade in Lafayette, Indiana, and New Orleans, Louisiana. In the following year he returned to Indiana and spent some time in improving the farm which his father had left there. He also did some work in surveying, and in March, 1851, he traveled on horseback from his home in Warren county to Peru, Illinois, where he accepted a position on the engineering eorps which was being organized to make the preliminary surveys and estimates for one division of the Chicago & Rock Island railroad. The following winter he taught school and in the spring of 1852 he devoted himself to the improvement of one hundred and sixty acres of land which he had bouglit near Mendota, Illinois.
On January 1, 1853, when but just a little past his majority, Mr. Linton beeame identi- fied with the publishing business and at the same time became a factor in public affairs, by becoming the owner and editor of the Peru Weekly Democrat, which he published as a Whig organ. A daily edition of the paper was soon issued, it being one of the first daily news- papers published in Illinois north of Springfield and outside of Chicago. He became an in- fluential factor in moulding the political history of that period, advoeating the coalition of the Whig and Freesoil parties, and he was one of the three secretaries of the state convention which was held at Ottawa, Illinois, in August, 1851, that brought about this alliance and gave rise to the Republican party.
One of the interesting phases of Mr. Linton's experiences during this period was his acquaintance with Abraham Lincoln. Ile was a delegate to the first congressional nominat- ing convention in his distriet, which met at Bloomington in September, 1854. It was during the evening following the elose of this convention that he first met Mr. Lincoln, when the latter addressed a large audience on the question of slavery in the territories, a paramount issue at that time. In 1858 Mr. Linton attended the Lincoln and Douglas debates at Ottawa and Freeport and attended a dinner given by the mayor of Ottawa in honor of Mr. Lincoln. Subsequently the two met on several occasions, the last being in May, 1864.
In March, 1855, Mr. Linton sold his newspaper and printing plant and invested the pro- ceeds in one thousand and forty acres of land in Lee county, Illinois. Unfortunately, a financial panie which eame upon the country immediately afterwards so lowered the price of wheat as to eause him a serious loss in his farming operations and, in 1857, he returned to Peru and purchased a newspaper plant, which he condueted until the spring of 1859, when he returned to the farm.
In July, 1861, when the toesin of war was sounded through the land, Mr. Linton offered his serviees in defense of his country and was commissioned first lieutenant of Company D of the Thirty-ninth Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, known as the "Yates Phalanx." Not long afterwards he was made quartermaster of the regiment and subsequetuly served in that capacity on the staffs of Generals Howells, Osborn and Vogdes. He saw service with General Lander on the upper Potomac, with Generals Shields and Banks in the Shenandoah valley, and with General Terry and others along the sea islands from Hiltonhead to Charles- ton, South Carolina. In May, 1864, he returned to his farm in Illinois, where he remained for three years.
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In 1867 Mr. Linton became identified with flouring mills at Gardner, Illinois, and Toledo, Ohio, but in 1872 he disposed of these interests and, coming to Columbus, bought the plant of the Ohio Statesman, to the editing, and publication of which he devoted the two following years, at the end of which time he sold the plant to J. H. Putnam. However, a year later again found him the owner of the Statesman, which he published during the succeeding two years, when he sold it to a syndicate. This paper was then ealled the Press, and finally its name was changed again to the Press-Post. In the following year, 1878, Mr. Linton estab- lished the Legal Record, which he published for two years and then sold.
In 1873 Mr. Linton had purchased the Henderson farm of ninety aeres, located on High street, about one hundred rods south of the city limits, and he made his home there until 1898, when he moved into Columbus. He became heavily interested in real estate, especially suburban property, and was for many years a prominent and effective factor in the develop- ment of the outlying residential districts of Columbus. In 1888 he platted and sold the town of Milo, besides many subdivisions of the eity, thus disposing of thousands of lots, and he remained an active factor in the business life of Columbus up to an advanced age.
Mr. Linton was married on September 22, 1855, at Peru, Illinois, to Eliza Jane Sapp, daughter of Noah Sapp, a pioneer eitizen there, who had removed from Mt. Vernon, Knox county, Ohio, to Illinois in1830, and ereeted one of the first mills in Lasalle county. Mr. and Mrs. Linton became the parents of eight children, four sons and four daughters, namely: Mary, who died at the age of two years; Paul Linton, who died in 1910; Elizabeth Fallis, wife of Jonathan Ellston, of Covina, Calif .; Robert, of St. Paul, Minn., married Mary Pittingill; Alfred, of Columbus, who married Zula Dunean; Edward, unmarried, of Columbus; Rachel, who became the wife of Joseph A. Godown, of Columbus, and Harriet, who became the wife of William Ernest Mettle, of Columbus, and six grand children: William E. and Edward Milton Pittingill, of St. Paul, Minn .; Mrs. Elva Odebrecht, of Columbus; Joseph Linton, Stanley Roberts and Jane Eleanor Godown, of Columbus; Jonathan Miller Mettle, of Columbus.
As a newspaper publisher and writer, Mr. Linton was influential in fashioning publie thought and molding opinion and in promoting the political, eivie and business progress of the localities in which he lived. His actions were ever the result of careful and eonseientious thought, and when onee convinced that he was right, no suggestion of poliey or personal profit could swerve him from the course he had decided upon. His career was complete and rounded in its beautiful simplicity; he did his full duty in all the relations of life, and he died beloved by those near to him and respected and esteemed by his fellow eitizens.
HERBERT EUGENE BRADLEY. Deceased, was for many years one of the prominent members of the Columbus Bar, and at the same time one of the leading and successful business men of the eity. He was a man who lived to a good purpose and the record of his career deserves a place in any history of the community.
Mr. Bradley was a native of Ohio, born at Lithopolis August 21, 1864, the son of Henry and Hannah Bradley, well known and highly respected people of Fairfield county, this State. Herbert E. Bradley was educated in the publie schools of his native town, and being left on practically his own resources from the time he was ten years old by the death of his father, he early developed the sterling traits of character and worth which were to make of him the brilliant lawyer and successful business man of mature life.
Coming to Columbus he entered the law offices of English & Baldwin, and there prepared himself for the legal profession. He was admitted to the Bar in 1886 and entering the practice in this eity, it was but a comparatively few years until he had taken high rank among the members of the Franklin County Bar. And, as time progressed, his natural legal talent and attainments in the law, brought him a large and lucrative clientele and he became recognized as one of the leading members of the local Bar-a position he held throughout his life.
Mr. Bradley's ability as a lawyer and his absolute integrity as a man was well known and his services were frequently called for in the handling of estates and during the last two decades of his active life he was connected with several of the largest properties in Colum- bus, among them the B. F. Brown, the C. D. Hinman and the Franklin estates, and such was the nature of his large and varied practice that he became identified with business in a large way and he was elected vice-president of the Columbus Savings Bank, a director in the
Herbert & Bradley
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Kelley Nail and Iron Company of Ironton, Ohio, and a large stockholder in other important enterprises.
He was a member of the Franklin County Bar Association, and belonged to the Odd Fellows and Elk Orders and was a member of the Columbus, Arlington Country, the Wyan- dotte and Marshalsea of Columbus, the Crab Lake Club and Cuyamacha Club of San Diego, California.
On November 14, 1895, Mr. Bradley was united in marriage with Josephine Naughton, of Columbus, and to them was born one son, Herbert Eugene Bradley, born in Columbus November 3, 1896. He attended the Columbus public schools, Harvard Military School at Los Angeles, Cal., was graduated from the Wapakoneta, Ohio, High School in 1914, and entered Ohio State University. The death of his father eaused him to leave the University, after two years and a half, before graduating. Since leaving college he has resided at the parental home, busying himself in assisting his widowed mother in the management of the large estate left by his father.
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