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 77
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86
On the maternal side Pelatiah Webster Huntington was descended from the Rev. Pierre Perit, a Huguenot clergyman, who, about the year 1685 left France to escape religious
438
HISTORY OF COLUMBUS, OHIO
persecution, taking up his residence in New York City, where for seventeen years, he was pastor of the French church. He was a warm personal friend and co-laborer of Rev. William Vesey, first vicar of Trinity Church and he is buried in Trinity church graveyard at the head of Wall street, his death having occurred in 1704. The stone over his remains has an inscription in both Latin and French. Some of his descendants removed to Con- neetieut, and Margarretta Dunlap Perit, the wife of Benjamin Huntington, was a member of the Connecticut branch of the family. She was a great-granddaughter of the highly distin- guished Pelatiah Webster, who was a merchant in Philadelphia before and during the Revolutionary War, and the author of valuable writings on political economy and questions of government. To him many of the distinctive features of the United States constitution have been directly traeed.
Pelatiah Webster Huntington received his early education in a small private school which stood in the neighborhood of his father's house. Later he attended a boy's school in Norwich. At the age of fourteen years he went to sea as a boy before the mast on the ship "Chieora," of four hundred tons, which was owned in Boston and was engaged in the Russian trade. He was thus employed for three years, making several voyages. In August, 1853, he came to Columbus, and at once obtained employment as messenger in the Exchange Branch of the State Bank of Ohio. In that concern and in the banking establishments which have succeeded it, he continued until his death, February 24, 1918, or during a period of more than sixty-three years, a record which perhaps cannot be equaled by any man in Ohio. He occupied every position from messenger boy to president, discharging his duties in each and all with an equal ability, fidelity, promptness and honesty.
During the Civil War the State Bank of Ohio went out of business and the Exchange Branch Bank and all the other branches of the parent institution wound up their affairs. The business of the Exchange Bank of Columbus was thereupon taken over by the private banking firm of P. W. Huntington & Company, consisting of P. W. Huntington and David W. Deshler. Upon the death of the latter in 1867, Mr. Huntington purchased his interest in the banking firm, but continued the business under the same name, later associating with himself several of his sons, until 1905, in which year the firm of P. W. Huntington & Company was merged into the present Huntington National Bank.
As a banker Mr. Huntington maintained a personal reputation that was never ques- tioned, and the banking interests for which he had been the responsible and guiding genius moved along smoothly and uninterruptedly, no matter how stormy the financial sea became, without any disturbance of their solveney or prosperity, each year finding the institution fur- ther advanced. For a time he was also president of the Hayden National Bank and was one of the organizers of the Columbus Clearing House.
Mr. Huntington was an influential factor in the railroad development of central Ohio. He was, from its organization, a director of the Hocking Valley railroad and of the Columbus & Toledo railroad. which was merged with it. He was, at one time, president of the Columbus, Shawnee & Hocking railroad and for many years a director and president of the Columbus & Xenia railroad. He was one of the organizers of the Columbus & Cincinnati Midland railroad, which was later sold to the Baltimore & Ohio railroad. For many years he was president of the Franklin Insurance Co., of the Columbus Gas Co., and treasurer and president of the Green Lawn Cemetery Association, the latter institution being his partie- ular pride and his devotion to the care of its finances and to the beautification of its grounds were in no small measure responsible for its later development. Mr. Huntington was one of the organizers of the Ohio Bankers Association and was among its carlier presidents, being at the same time on the executive council of the American Bankers' Association. In 1878 he built the bank building at the southwest corner of High and Broad streets. Later, in partnership with Mr. William G. Deshler, he erected the Wesley block, on the site of the old Wesley Chapel, which had burned; also with Mr. Deshler, he built the Clinton block at Chestnut and High streets. He was a great admirer of oratorio musie and a singer of some ability ; a valuable collection of oratorios was presented to the Carnegie Library by him.
Mr. Huntington married, first, on June 3, 1858, Jane Nashee (Deshler) Beeson, eld- est daughter of David W. Deshler, and to that marriage were born the following children: Benjamin, died when four years old; Thomas Dunlap and Webster Perit. Mr. Hunting- ton's second marriage was celebrated on October 3, 1872, to Frances Sollace, a daughter of Calvin Theodore and Harriet L. Sollaee of Columbus, and to this union the following
Track Bradford
439
BIOGRAPHICAL SECTION
children were born: Theodore Sollaee, Franeis Ropes and Baldwin Gwynne Huntington, all being, at present, officers of the Huntington National Bank.
Pelatiah W. Huntington was married a third time, on May 2, 1882, his last wife being Ida H. Nothnagel of Columbus, and to their union the following children were born: Edith, who married William A. Loving, now a resident of Albuquerque, New Mexico; Phillis died in infancy; Ralph also died in infaney; and Margaret, the youngest of Mr. Huntington's ten children, who married Captain Elliott S. Church, resides at West Newton, a suburb of Boston, Mass.
Mr. Huntington was publie spirited and accomplished much toward the general welfare of the Capital City during the past half century, being one of its strongest standbys and representative citizens. He was progressive in his views, a man of high ideals and correct eonduet, and in every way merited the good will and high esteem which the people of his home city freely accorded him.
FRANK BRADFORD. Among the successful self-made men in Columbus whose efforts and influence contributed to the material upbuilding of the community, the late Frank Bradford, the able and popular president of the Bradford Shoe Company, occupied a eon- spieuons place. Being ambitious from the first, he resolutely faced the future gradually surmounted the difficulties in his way, and in due course of time rose to a prominent position in the industrial circles of his community, besides winning the confidence and esteem of those with whom he came in contact, either in a business or social way, and he stood as one of the representative citizens of the locality. Strongly in contrast with the humble sur- roundings of his youth was the position which he eventually filled in business circles. He won for himself a place of prominence and honor as one of the world's honored army of workers, realizing early that there is a purpose in life and that there is no honor not founded on worth and no respect not founded on accomplishment. His life and labors were worthy because they contributed to a proper understanding of life and its problems. The strongest char- acters in our national history have come from the ranks of the self-made men to whom obstacles act as an impetus for unfaltering effort and from this class came the lamented gentleman whose name initiates this memorial review.
Frank Bradford was born in Columbus, Ohio, on December 23, 1862, and died in this city on the first day of the year 1920. He was the fourth in the order of birth of the eight children who blessed the union of Samuel and Melissa Bradford, both of whom are deceased. The surviving children are, Henry S., viee-president of the Bradford Shoe Company; Emery, secretary of the same company; Samuel, of Boston, Massachusetts; Mrs. Belle B. Berry, of Columbus, and Mrs. Nellie M. Pumphrey, also of Columbus. Frank Bradford received his educational training in the public schools of Columbus, but when he was ready for high school, he decided to go to work on his own account. His first employment was the same as that of many other successful men in America, he becoming a paper carrier for the Columbus Dis- patch. Later he became an employee of the Samuel Claypool Shoe Jobbing House, of Columbus, in a minor capacity, and in this modest position he began to form the habits of faithfulness to duty which characterized his future business career. The shoe business appealed to him and he determined to stick to it and make a success of it. When seventeen years of age he went to Chicago and secured a position as salesman with the Brooks Brothers Shoc Jobbing House. In this work he was a distinct suecess and it was during even this early period in his career that he formed the determination to eventually own a shoe factory of his own. Subsequently he became connected with the Lewis A. Crossett Shoe Manufacturing Company, of Boston, Massachusetts, and, still later, with the Bay State Shoe & Leather Company, of New York, always as a salesman, in which he had won a splendid reputation. He then came to Colum- hus and accepted a position as salesman with the C. & E. Shoe Company, also becoming a stockholder in that concern. In August, 1908, Mr. Bradford saw the way clear to a realiza- tion of his lifelong ambition, and he organized the Bradford Shoe Company, of which he he- came president and remained as such until the time of his death. His experience thus far in the shoe business was invaluable to him now and he threw every ounce of his energy into the building up of the business of the new company. In this he was successful to an eminent degree, the Bradford Shoe Company becoming one of the most prosperous industries in Colum- bus. His energy, determination, sound business indgment and knowledge of the details of the business made him a man of peculiar qualifieations for his business and he came to be
440
HISTORY OF COLUMBUS, OHIO
recognized as a business man of more than ordinary ability. Democratie and unassuming in his make-up, he knew all his employees personally and treated them as equals, while it was not an uncommon thing for him to work among them when he felt so inclined. In the Brad- ford Shoe Company he erected a monument to the family and took a justifiable pride in his achievement.
Besides the Bradford Shoe Company, Mr. Bradford was also interested in other enter- prises, holding extensive interests in the Tracy-Wells Company, of Columbus, and the M. J. Rynan Company of Duquesne, Iowa. He was always interested in the welfare of his home city, being active in a number of organizations for the publie welfare, notably the Chamber of Com- merce, of which he was an active member.
Politically, Mr. Bradford gave his support to the Democratic party, though his intense devotion to his business interests prevented him from taking an active part in political affairs. Socially, he belonged to the Columbus Athletic Club, the old Governor's Guards, and he was an appreciative member of the Goodale Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons.
On March 2, 1891, Mr. Bradford was married to Olive Jane Loeffler, of Columbus, daughter of William G. and Lavina (Mauger) Loeffler, both of whom are deceased. To them was born a daughter, who died in infancy. Mrs. Bradford makes her home at The Seneca, Columbus.
Mr. Bradford was a man of broad sympathies and generous impulses, which was evidenced in his will, whereby he gave very liberally of his estate to his brother and a number of nephews and nieces, the bulk of the estate being left to his widow. Strong and forceful in his rela- tions with his fellow men, he not only made his presence felt, but also gained the good will and commendation of his associates and the general public, ever retaining his reputation among men for integrity and high character, no matter how trying the circumstances, and never losing that dignity which is the birthright of the true gentleman. His career was characterized by duty faithfully performed and by industry, thrift and wisely directed effort. His life was exemplary and his memory will long be cherished by a wide cirele of friends and acquaintances throughout this community.
GEORGE ALBAN ARCHER. In every life of honor and usefulness there is no dearth of incident and yet in summing up the career of any man the biographer needs touch only those salient points which give the keynote to his character. Thus in setting forth the life record of George Alban Archer, president of The Commercial National Bank of Columbus, suf- ficient will be said to show what all who know him will freely acquiesce, that he is one of the representative men of his home city and a man whose life has improved the general wel- fare of central Ohio.
Mr. Archer was born in the city where he still maintains his home on July 27, 1872. He is the son of John J. and Harriet E. (Alban) Archer, both natives of Ohio, in which state they grew up, received their educational training, married and established their future home. The Archer family came to this state from New York, and the Alban family has been in Ohio for several generations. Members of each have been known from the first as industrious and honorable citizens.
John J. Archer located in Columbus in 1868 and here he and his wife still make their home. They have lived to see and take part in the wonderful development of the city during its growth of the past half century and they are well and favorably known here.
George A. Archer grew to manhood in his native city and he received his early educa- tion in the grammar and high schools. Being ambitious to begin his business career he left high school at the end of his second year. In 1888 when he was only sixteen years old he became a messenger in the bank of which he is now president-the Commercial National Bank, having practically grown up with this old, popular, sound and safe institution, with which he has been identified as boy and man and to whose gradual growth and prestige he has contributed so much, having spent over thirty years in the work of the same. Being wide- awake, capable, honest, reliable and persevering his rise with this institution was gradual and constant from the first. He has filled about every position, at some stage of his career, and in 1910 was elected eashier, a position he held until the death of Mr. Hoffman, in 1914, when he was elected to succeed that gentleman as president. He has discharged his duties in all posi- tions with rare ability, fidelity and foresight-to the eminent satisfaction of the stockholders and patrons of the bank, and its phenomenal growth the past few years has been due almost
441
BIOGRAPHICAL SECTION
solely to his able and judicious management. He is regarded as an expert in all phases of the banking business and has kept fully abreast of the times in the same.
Mr. Archer is a director in the City Service Company, one of the city's most important corporations. He is also a director of the Federal Gas Company. He has long been active in Chamber of Commerce work and was a director of the Chamber of Commerce for several years, and in 1917 was elected its treasurer, a position he is still holding. He is a director in the Columbus Athletic Club, and he belongs to the Columbus Club and the Columbus Country Club, also the Scioto Country Club.
Mr. Archer married Helen W. McCabe, daughter of D. T. MeCabe, vice-president of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. They have three children, namely: George Alban, jr., Hugh M., and Ethel Frances.
Mr. Archer's reputation as a man and citizen is exemplary and he is widely known and has the good will and respect of all classes.
SMITH W. BENNETT is one of the well-known attorneys of Columbus. He came to Columbus from Bucyrus, May 1st, 1898, to fill the position of special counsel in the Depart- ment of the Attorney General of Ohio under Honorable F. S. Monnett, Attorney General. He remained through the second term of Attorney General Monnett, and through the adminis- trations of that Department under Attorney General Sheets and Attorney General Ellis. He left the same January 8, 1909, and engaged in the general practice of the law at No. 8 East Long street where his offices are still located.
He was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States in the year 1899.
He is a member of the Franklin County Bar Association, the Ohio State Bar Association and the American Bar Association, and belongs to the Columbus Club, the Columbus Country Club, the Athletic Club, and is identified with the Scottish Rite, Thirty-second degree Mason in the city of Columbus.
GENERAL JOHN BEATTY. Not too often can be repeated the life history of one who lived so honorable and useful a life and who attained to such notable distinction as did the late General John Beatty, soldier, banker, politician, author and representative citizen of the great state of Ohio during an unusually long and varied career. He was easily one of the leading men of his day and generation-a national figure for many years. His character was one of signal exaltation and purity of purpose, who unselfishly labored for the general good, whether as a gallant general of the Union army fighting for the perpetuity of the nation, as a member of Congress where he helped make the laws of the country, or as an active captain of industry in the commercial and civic life of Columbus. Well disciplined in mind, maintaining a vantage point from which life presented itself in correct proportions, judicial in his attitude toward botlı men and measures, guided and guarded by the most inviolable principles of integrity and honor, simple and unostentatious in his self respecting, tolerant individuality, such a man could not prove other than a force for good in whatever relation of life he may have been placed. His character was the positive expression of a strong nature and his strength was as the num- ber of his days. In view of the fact that the life of this great man is destined to occupy a place in the generic history of his state and that of the nation it is only necessary in this compila- tion to note briefly the salient points in his life history, which would require a volume to give in detail.
General Beatty was born near Sandusky, Ohio, December 16, 1828. He was a son of James and Elizabeth (Williams) Beatty, a pioneer family of that section of the state. He died in 1914 at the advanced age of eighty-six years, his death resulting from an accident.
Although our subject received a good common school education, such as the early-day schools afforded, he was primarily a self-educated man. Being a close observer of men and events and a diligent student of the world's best literature, he became an exceptionally well informed man along general lincs. He began his business career as a banker at Cardington, Ohio, and he also began when quite young to take an active interest in public matters in which he was destined to wield a powerful influence. He actively supported John P. Hale for the Presidency in 1852, and General John C. Fremont in 1856, and in 1860, he was a Presiden- tial elector on the Republican ticket.
When the Civil War broke out he and his brother, the late W. G. Beatty, were success- fully operating their bank at Cardington, but their patriotism led them to sacrifice private in-
442
HISTORY OF COLUMBUS, OHIO
terests and enlist in defense of the Union, each rising to distinction. By sheer force of ehar- acter and innate military genius John attained the rank of brigadier general and W. G. Beatty that of major. The former raised a company of which he was unanimously chosen captain and reported with his men to the adjutant general on April 19, 1861, only a few days after the opening gun liad been fired at Fort Sumter. Later he was elected lieutenant- colonel of the Third Ohio Volunteer Infantry, the duties of which he so successfully per- formed that he was re-elected when the regiment reorganized for the three years' service. He saw service under Generals Mcclellan and Rosecrans in their campaign in West Virginia, and in the winter of 1861-62 was transferred to Kentucky and assigned to General O. M. Mitehel's division. In the spring of 1862 he was commissioned a colonel and assisted Mitchel in his in- vasion of Alabama, leading his regiment in the engagement at Bridgeport and at Huntsville, that state. Returning with the army to the Ohio river, Colonel Beatty fought with his regi- ment in the battle of Perryville, Kentucky in 1862. He commanded a brigade at the great battle of Stone's River, Tennessee, on the first day of which, his command in conjunction with Sheppard's and Schribner's and the pioneer brigades saved the center of the army. On the night of the last day of the battle he attacked a portion of the Confederate works near the Murfreesboro pike, which he carried at the point of the bayonet. Soon after this daring feat he was commissioned a brigadier general to rank from November 29, 1862. He next took part in the Tullahoma campaign, dislodging the enemy from his position on the Elk river. He afterwards served, by appointment of General George H. Thomas, as president of a board to examine applicants for commissions in colored regiments. He was with the army in the Chat- tanooga campaign, led the advance into Georgia and attacked the Confederates at Johnson's ereck and Cooper's gap and with Generals Baird and Negley took part in the engagement at Dug's Gap. He distinguished himself at Chickamauga, one of the greatest battles of the war, opening the fighting of the first day on the extreme right of the line, and on the extreme left of the line on the second day and continued on the field until the battle ended. On the day following he repulsed a heavy reconnoitering column of the enemy at Rossville. Later at Mis- sion Ridge he was with General Sherman, his command forming the reserve on the left wing. On the following day he led in the pursuit of the enemy, overtaking and defcating General Maury at Graysville, driving him from his position by a charge. He then accompanied Sher- man on his mareli to Knoxville for the relief of Burnside. After a brilliant career at the front he resigned from the army in 1861 for personal reasons.
At the elose of the war General Beatty and his brother resumed business as bankers, or- ganizing banks in Mt. Gilead and Galion, in addition to the one at Cardington. In 1873, seek- ing a wider field for the exercise of his business talents, he came to Columbus and organized the Citizens Savings Bank. Later he was active in the organization of the Columbus Savings Bank and the Central Building and Loan Association, being the first president of the latter. He remained president of the Citizens' Savings Bank until it was consolidated with the present Citizens' Trust and Savings Bank. He was a man of rare business aeumen and fore- sight and his elose application and sound judgment, together with habits of unswerving hon- esty and loyalty to right principles resulted in gratifying finaneial snecess. He became one of the financial leaders and well known bankers of central Ohio. Ile retired from active business affairs in 1903.
As Presidential elector in 1860, General Beatty supported Lincoln. He remained a staunch Republican the balance of his life, although he was opposed to a high tariff. As an argument against the MeKinley tariff of the carly nineties he wrote "High Tariff or Low Tariff, Which?" and "An Answer to Coin's Financial School." Other works of his prolific and entertaining pen were "The Citizen Soldier," a history of the Civil War, published in 1876; "Belle o' Becket's Lane," 1882; "The Acoluans," 1902; and "MeLean," a romance of the war, 1901.
After the elose of the war General Beatty was appointed president of the Ohio, Chicka- mauga and Chattanooga Military Park Commission. He served in Congress from 1868 to 1873 as representative from the Eighth Ohio Distriet and served as a member of the Committee on Invalid Pensions. Having made such a commendable record during his first term in Congress he was re-elected and during his second term served as chairman of the Committee an Public Buildings and Grounds. Again re-elected he served as chairman of the House Joint Committee on Printing in the forty-second Congress. His record at Washington was as brilliant as a law- maker as it had been as an army officer and he did much for the general good of the nation, en-
U. R. Martens
443
BIOGRAPHICAL SECTION
joying the confidence and admiration of his constituents and colleagues. At the close of his last term he was strongly urged to accept the candidacy again, but declined.
General Beatty was again the Presidential elector in 1881. He was formerly a member of the Ohio State Board of Charities, a member of several Grand Army of the Republic organizations, also prominent as a member of the Loyal Legion. He belonged to the Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.