History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume II, Part 115

Author: Lee, Alfred Emory, 1838-; W. W. Munsell & Co
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: New York and Chicago : Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1196

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length of time in New York City. He then came west to Ohio, settling in the city of Columbus, where he has since resided. Mr. Wege was married while in New York to Miss Anna Nagel, and four children now living resulted from the union, the eldest being a son of twelve years. Mr. Wege engaged in his present business the second year after his arrival in this city. He is now located at Num- bers 22-26 West Mound Street. A sample of his work may be seen in the marble work at the Chittenden Hotel, and in the present summer of 1892 he is finishing in marble an elegant bank building in Dayton, Ohio. Mr. Wege enjoys an exten- tensive trade in monuments of all kinds, and is a successful business man.

ALLEN F. EMMINGER

[Portrait opposite page 760.]

Is one of the best known citizens of Columbus. He is the son of Abraham and Sarah Emminger, of Mansfield, Ohio, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of Ohio. Abraham Emminger is now dead; his wife still resides in Mansfield in the old family homestead. Doctor A. F. Emminger was born in Mansfield December 5, 1847. He was educated in the Mansfield public schools, being graduated therefrom at the age of eighteen. Following his graduation he began the study of his chosen profession, dentistry, with Doctor Moses De Camp, in that city. Later he attended the New York Dental College, in New York City, and was graduated from the Ohio Dental College, Cincinnati. He located in Col- umbus April 10, 1868, opening an office at Number 18 East Broad Street, where he remained in continuous and successful practice for a quarter of a cen- tury. Doctor Emminger is now located in the elegant brown stone front at Num- ber 150 East Broad Street, formerly the Neil residence. He is the lessee of the building, and occupies as fine a suite of dental rooms as there is in America. These rooms are all on the first floor and form an ideal location for the reception of the doctor's patrons, who are the wealthiest and most influential people of the Buck - eye Capital. Doctor Emminger is prominent, not only in Columbus, but is known all over the country as one of the leaders in his profession. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the new Ohio Medical University, opened to the public in September, 1892, and is also Dean of the Department of Dentistry in this institution. He is an influential member of the Ohio State Dental Society and the American Dental Association, being at one time president of the former, and the youngest member ever elected to that exalted position. Doctor Emminger is a 32º Mason, and Knight Tempiar and an Odd Fellow.

On April 27, 1876, he was married to Miss Minnie E. Potter, daughter of David H. Potter, of Delaware, Ohio. One daughter has been born from this union. ' Doctor and Mrs. Emminger reside in an elegant home at the corner of Broad and Seventeenth streets. There is only one dentist in Columbus who has been in practice here longer than Doctor Emminger, and the latter is exception- ally fortunate, both in the quality and extent of his patronage.

ANDREW G. PUGH,

[Portrait opposite page 544.]

Senior partner of the prominent firm of Columbus contractors, A. G. Pugh & Company, is the third son of Richard and Elizabeth Pugh. and was born June 5, 1857, in a log house on what was then known as the Whiting Farm, on East

PHOTOGRAPHED BY BAKER.

Residence of W. H. Fish, 773 Dennison Avenue, built in 1890.

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REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.

Livingston Avenue, near the Lockbourne Road (now inside the corporation). Mr. Pugh's father and mother emigrated to Columbus from Wales, June 15, 1854, and both are yet living. Mr. Pugh was educated in the common schools of Colum- bus. At the age of fifteen he was employed by Brown Brothers, Civil Engineers, for one year. In December, 1873, he entered the employ of John Graham, City Engineer, and continued there until the fall of 1878. He then went to Indian- apolis, Indiana, with Kanmacher & Denig, Columbus contractors, who built the Indiana State House, assisting Thomas H. Johnson, engineer for the contractors. In February, 1880, Mr. Pugh was employed in the office of the Chief Engineer, M. J. Becker, of the Pennsylvania Lines, and by him was detailed to assist Chief Engineer Jennings, of the C. H. V. & T. Railroad, on some surveys for location near New Straitsville, Ohio. In May, 1880, he was appointed as Assistant En- gineer Maintenance of Way on the Indianapolis Division of the Pennsylvania Lines, and continued in this position until May, 1882. He was then employed by City Engineer Graham, of Columbus, as superintending engineer of the construc- tion of the Northeast Main Trunk Sewer - length 23 miles, inside diameter 9 and 6} feet - and also of the extension of the Northwest Trunk Sewer, the exten- sion of the Mound and Fulton Street sewers, etc. This work was completed De- cember 15, 1883, when Mr. Pugh was elected Assistant City Engineer by the City Council, which office he held until April, 1886. At this time he was employed by Booth & Flinn, contractors, of Pittsburgh, to manage their Columbus contracts. For this firm he built the first brick pavement ever laid in Columbus, in October, 1886 - from High to Third Street on Spring Street. From Columbus Mr. Pugh was sent by his employers to manage a contract for laying about five miles of gas lines in New York City, between Fiftyfifth and One Hundred and Twentyfifth streets and Madison and Second avenues. This work was completed in Decem- ber, 1886. On January 1, 1887, Mr. Pugh was employed by Chief Engineer M. J. Becker, of the Pennsylvania Lines, to superintend the construction of a system of sewers for the new Columbus shops of that company, and also as Superintend- ent of the Construction of Masonry on the Southwest System. Mr. Pugh was thus employed until December 31, 1887. In March of the following year, Mr. Pugh began business for himself as contractor, continuing alone for one year and doing a business in 1888 of $170,000. He then organized the firm of A. G. Pugh & Company, of which he has since been the active manager. In April, 1892, the old firm dissolved and a new firm was organized under the same title. The firm has done work to date amounting to about $665,000, of which amount about $73,- 000 was done at Canton, Ohio, $30,000 in Indiana, and the remainder in Colum- bus. Mr. Pugh owns a onehalf interest in the Asphalt Paving Works of A. G. Pugh & Company, on North Woodland Avenue, where the material for the con- struction of asphalt pavements is manufactured. Mr. Pugh is firm in the belief that asphalt is the pavement of the near future. Mr. Pugh was married October 25, 1882, to Miss Mary Helen Black, of Richmond, Indiana, from which union have been born two daughters, both bright, interesting children.

WILLIAM A. HARDESTY.

[Portrait opposite page 368.]

Every important community contains within its environs a few men of inval- nable worth, by reason of their integrity of character and high moral and social attributes; men whom suspicion has never tainted with its breath, whose deal- ings with their fellow men have always been fair and honorable, whose financial

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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

stability has never been questioned, and whose success in life is the ambition of many but the reward of few. Men combining these excellences of character are rare, and the more admirable because of their rarity. Such a man and citizen is the gentleman of whom this brief biography is written, Mr. William A. Hardesty. This estimate of his worth is that placed on him by those who have been longest and most intimately associated with him, both socially and in business life. Person- ally Mr. Hardesty is gifted with rare modesty, that at times approaches to diffi- dence. In business circles his credit is always high and his dealings honest, honorable, straightforward and unexceptionable. Successful in every business venture, he is ever careful and closely attentive to all his affairs. His sagacity in this line has enabled him to acquire a handsome estate, and he may justly be classed with the most substantial business men of Ohio's Capital. In addition to his high qualifications in commercial life, Mr. Hardesty is a great lover of bis home, and extremely fond of his wife and family, who reside in a beautiful mod- ern stone mansion at 91 Hamilton Avenue.

Mr. Hardesty's life dates back to February 14, 1848, on which date he was born in Malvern, Carroll County, Ohio, the son of Thomas and Mary Jane Hardesty. His grandfather, William Hardesty, was a Pennsylvanian by birth, and emigrat- ed to Ohio at a very early day, building one of the first flouring mills in the State. Settling at Malvern, he reared a family of ten sons, nine of whom followed the pursuit of their father and owned their mills. Most of the grandsons in their day also became millers, so that, at the present day, a legion of successful millers bears the name of Hardesty. Thomas Hardesty, the father of the subject of this biography, was born in Carroll County, one of the nine brothers just mentioned. Milling was his principal occupation, but he also became interested in the banking business. He retired from active life in 1868, and died in the following year at the age of fifty-four.

William A. Hardesty's early education in the public schools of Malvern was supplemented by a commercial course of study in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1864, at the age of sixteen, he enlisted in Company K, One Hundred and Fifty- seventh Ohio Infantry, and was stationed at Fort Delaware, Delaware. In 1867, at the age of nineteen, he entered the milling business with his father and brother, A. H. Hardesty, at Canal Dover, Ohio. At his father's retirement in 1868, he and his brother assumed the management of the mill, since which time they have been highly successful in business, and have built three additional mills. Mr. Hardesty owns a half interest in two flouring mills at Canal Dover, Ohio, and is the sole owner of the large milling plant on West Mound Street, Columbus. The combined capacity of the three mills is twelve hundred barrels per day.

Mr. Hardesty came to Columbus in 1880. His success in life is best shown by the fact that he is now President of the Ohio State Savings Bank and Trust Company, Vice-President of the Jonathan Mills Manufacturing Company, and Vice-President of the Hanna Paint Manufacturing Company. He has never held public office other than that of Director in the Columbus Board of Trade, of which body he is a valued member.

Mr. Hardesty is happiest in his home life, surrounded by his estimable wife and three lovely children. Mrs. Hardesty is the daughter of the late Thomas Moore, of New Philadelphia, Ohio, a gentleman widely known as one of the original lessees of the Public Works of the State. The date of her marriage to Mr. Hardesty was December 27, 1870. The three children born to Mr. and Mrs. Hardesty are Florence, Thomas M. and Helen Josephine.

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REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.

S. B. HARTMAN

[Portrait opposite page 600.]

Was born in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, on April 1, 1830, and is the son of Christian Hartman. In his early years his parents moved to Lancaster County of the same State. At the age of fifteen he left his native State to attend the Farmers' College near Cincinnati, Ohio, at which place he finished his literary education. Soon after completing his literary studies, he turned his attention to the study of surgery and medicine which from his earliest boyhood had been his highest ambition. He began his medical studies with Doctor Shackelford of Medway, Ohio, under whose tutorship he continued until prepared to enter college. He matriculated at the Medical University at Cleveland, Ohio, in 1855, and after having completed the required course of lectures and clinical instructions he began the practice of medicine at Tippecanoe, Ohio, where he continued to practise for two years. Ambitious to become a prominent member of his profession, he went to the city of New York to take a special course of lectures in orthopedic surgery and the surgical treatment of the eye and ear, a branch of surgery which he had already given special attention. Having availed himself of the clinical advan- tages afforded by the various institutions of the city of New York, he decided to enter the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia in order to put himself under the instruction of the renowned Samuel D. Gross, who was the professor of sur- gery of that college. Having passed through the required course of study, and having graduated from the Jefferson Medical College with honor in March, 1857, he again commenced the practice of medicine and surgery in Lancaster, Penn- sylvania.

Doctor Hartman's mechanical skill in perfecting and inventing surgical appliances for the practice of orthopedic surgery soon gave him a prominent position among the surgeons of this country. He also became extensively known as a skilful operator in diseases of the eye and ear. Ten years ago he located in Columbus to give himself wholly to the practice of his specialties. The immense practice in which he soon found himself involved made it necessary for him to employ competent assistants to successfully carry on his work. Being compelled repeatedly to enlarge his offices by his steadily increasing business, he decided at last to build a surgical institution which would give him ample accommodations for the demands of his large practice and equip it with the latest improved mechanisms and instruments for the practice of special and general surgery. As the result of his indefatigable labors he is now at the head of one of the finest institutions of surgery in this conntry. The treatment rooms occupy the entire second floor of a fine fourstory brick building, seventy by one hundred feet, the other three floors being occupied by a chemical and pharmaceutical laboratory which is engaged exclusively in the manufacture of his special medical preparations and surgical appliances. A set of the latest improved mechanical and massage movement cures operated by steam power is in constant use by many patients under his treatment for paralysis, deformities and other ailments. Connected with his treatment room he has a large threestory brick building for the exclusive use of patients under his treatment. They are here provided with accommoda- tions equal in all respects to a firstclass hotel.

The doctor, although sixty years of age, thirtyfive of which have been spent in the most constant pursuit of his profession, is possessed of vigorous health and splendid physique. His enthusiasm in the perfection of his surgical institution and his skill as an operator show no sign of abatement. His many personal accomplishments give him a useful prominence both inside and outside his chosen profession.

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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS. -

GEORGE M. AND OSCAR G. PETERS.

BY MRS. JONATHAN PETERS. [Portraits opposite pages 64 and 152]

Tunis Peters, the greatgrandfather of the subjects of this sketch ( the Peters brothers of the Columbus Buggy Company ), came to this country from Holland some time previous to the American Revolution. He was accompanied by several brothers, but what became of them or their families is not known to the present generation. Tunis for a time lived in New Jersey, and had charge of some large flouring mills called the Elliot Mills. Not long after coming to this country he married a young woman of Scotch-Irish descent, Francisca Adams by name, who, history says, was a relative of John Quincy Adams. Judging by the births of their children, their marriage must have taken place about the year 1774. He settled in Hampshire County, Virginia, and there bronght up his family. He fought for his adopted country during the Revolutionary War, and was first lieutenant of a company. The captain having died, he was offered pro- motion to that rank, but resigned from the army in order to go home and protect his family from the threats and annoyance of the Tories, and lived and served in Virginia as High Sheriff for some years previous to coming to Ohio. In religious faith he was a Baptist, probably a descendant of the early Holland Baptists who were originally of England and were driven across the Channel because of per- section. He followed his children into Pickaway County, Ohio, early in the present century, and subsequently to the War of 1812 went with his sons Ger- shom and John to Hocking County, where he died aged about eighty years.

To Tunis Peters and Francisca Adams were born thirteen children - nine sons and four danghters. Their descendants may almost be called legion, and have been blessed with advantages of education which were denied their pilgrim fathers, and they may be found in all the higher walks of life. In regard to their coming to Ohio it appears that Gershom M., the seventh child and fourth son of the family, was first to leave Virginia, and in the absence of dates the writer, being a member of the family located as early as 1802 in the immediate vicinity of Westfall on the Scioto, judges from circumstances and incidents then familiar, that he, Gershom, was at Westfall as early as 1809 or 1810, perhaps earlier. That all his brothers and sisters, as well as his parents, soon followed him to Ohio is known, for his younger brother Tunis was married February 28, 1811, at his, Gershom's, house on the Pickaway Plains to Eve Glaze, Gershom's wife's sister, a daughter of George Glaze, Senior, who had brought his daughters, Eve and Mary, to Ohio from Virginia some time previous on horseback. Tunis and Eve Peters made their home on the Pickaway Plains not one mile from where Dunmore treated with the Indians and Logan's celebrated speech was made. Here they remained until 1814, but Gershom and a younger brother, John, after the War of 1812, in which Gershom and Tunis served, migrated to what was afterward Hock- ing County, where they remained several years, and Gershom was the first judge and John the first clerk of the court of the county. It is recorded of Gershom that while he was judge he sentenced the first two prisoners ever confined in the Penitentiary, then a small building near Mound and Front streets. By studying at night, by the light of the pine knot, and the occasional help of some peripa- tetic schoolmaster, Gershom M. Peters picked up a good education for that day. Among other things he learned surveying, and was engaged considerably in mak- ing government surveys. While thus engaged he was over the ground where Columbus now stands, when it was covered with a dense forest, a single log hut

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REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.

being the only habitation in all this region. One of Gershom's sons, G. M., mar- ried the daughter of the late Mr. King, the wealthy powder manufacturer who founded the Merchants' and Manufacturers' Bank of Columbus, and is now president of that bank.

Near 1816 Tunis Peters, Junior, located east of Circleville, in Pickaway and Fairfield counties, where he remained until 1830, engaged in farming and tanning ; then removed to Columbus where he purchased a large tannery, with other property, and built himself a good home on the southeast corner of what is now High and Beck streets. Here he spent the remainder of his life. He built a good briek Baptist church on West Mound Street at his own expense, but when Mound Street was graded some years ago this building was torn down. Tunis Peters died in 1855, aged sixtysix years, and was interred in Green Lawn Ceme- tery, where his wife, Eve, was laid by his side on July 14, 1855. George W., the younger son of Tunis Peters, married Sarah, daughter of William Merion, one of the most respectable and substantial of the early pioneers of Columbus. George W. Peters soon bought the Massie tannery in Chillicothe and was a citizen of that place for several years. Returning to Columbus about the year 1845, he bought the property on the corner of Long and Front streets, where he started the trunk business, but his health failed, and about the year 1852 he died aged thirtyfive years, leaving a young wife, one daughter and three sons. All that it is necessary to say of the family is that George M., the first sou, learned the carriagemaking business of the Messrs. Booth, of Columbus, and from that circumstance and his natural inventive genius he originated the Columbus Buggy Company and the Peters Dash Company. Of these great manufacturing enterprises, of which Mr. Peters is the founder, he and his next younger brother Osear Glaze Peters and Mr. C. D. Firestone are owners and proprietors.

Sarah, the mother, has survived her husband many years ; and to her in- fluenee, through the principles and habits instilled into her three sons, G. M. Peters, O. G. Peters and C. M. Peters, belongs the credit of much of the success and prosperity of the family ; and to her charitable life, both of precept and ex- ample, in connection with her only daughter Lucy, whose life has been largely devoted to the works of missions and home charities, can many of the needy individuals as well as benevolent societies of Columbus bear witness. Many hun- dreds of citizens will always remember Lucy A. Peters, who taught for twenty- five years in the public Sundayschools and day schools of Columbus, as the one who inspired and trained them to nobleness of character.

LOGAN C. NEWSOM

[Portrait opposite page 624.]

Was born on February 6, 1851, in Gallia County, Ohio, where, and in the adjoin- ing county, his father owned flouring mill and blast furnace interests. His grandparents on his mother's side were of Conneetieut nativity, and came to Ohio in 1802, the year Ohio was organized as a State, locating in Gallipolis. His people on his father's side were of the French Colony that located in Gallipolis in Octo- ber, 1791.

Mr. Newsom received his education in the High School and Academy at Gil- lipolis. After completing his education, his first venture in the world was in a distillery at Steubenville, Ohio, after which enterprise he was engaged in the grain trade in the city of Pittsburgh. Owing to excessive rates of freight from Pitts- burgh to eastern points, Mr. Newsom found it necessary, in order to increase his business, to again take up his residenee in Ohio, where he secured contracts of a

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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

number of grain elevators in different parts of the State, and successfully prose- cuted the grain shipping business for some years.

Mr. Newsom was married in 1885 to Miss Sallie Monypeny, of Columbus. In 1889 he secured a contract from the City of Columbus for the construction of the intercepting sewer, at a cost of $461,839, against competitors whose bids ranged from 8523,000 up to $780,340. In entering upon this work, Mr. Newsom experienced every obstacle that could be put in the way of its economical prosecution, and met with a great deal of opposition from city officials. The work of construction was ordered to be begun without one foot of right-of-way having been contracted for by the city, a condition under which it was impossible to begin the work at the most natural place, namely, the outlet; consequently, the work had to be pushed for- ward from time to time, as the contractor himself was able to secure the right-of- way from point to point. Because of these hindrances the finishing of the work was delayed for about one year longer than the time specified in the contract. Notwithstanding the many vicissitudes met with in such varied construction, the en- tire route, covering about eight miles, and including about fifteen tunnels, as described elsewhere in this book, was duly completed. Throughout this entire distance but one dwelling house was disturbed by undermining the foundation. During the whole time of construction Mr. Newsom had in his employ on the work from 150 to 450 men. In the tunnel construction, which was all from thirty to fifty feet below the surface, the undertaking progressed unintermittently, with three shifts of men for each twentyfour hours, work never ceasing for an hour from the time the first shovel of dirt was thrown until the entire line was finished, from the south end to the north end. In spite of all the opposition and difficulties, the sewer was finished and accepted by the city officials as a perfect piece of work, and the contractor, while not reaping the large financial result that he anticipated, made a profit on his labor.

Since completing this large work for the city, Mr. Newsom has finished other contracts, among which is the construction of a powerhouse and subway leading therefrom to all the different buildings of the Ohio State University ; also build- ing the extension and improvements on Fourth Street from Chittenden Avenue northw ard.

Mr. Newsom has been identified with the manufacturing interests of the city, among which was the manufacture of cooperage and flouringmill machinery. He was an owner of stock and a director of the old First National Bank and is iden- tified in a similar way with the National Bank of Columbus, which is the succes- sor of the First National Bank. He was one of the original stockholders in the establishment of the Columbus Electric Light and Power Company and is now a large stockholder in that company.

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History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume II, Part 115

Author: Lee, Alfred Emory, 1838-; W. W. Munsell & Co Publication date: 1892 Publisher: New York and Chicago : Munsell & Co. Number of Pages: 1196

Author: Lee, Alfred Emory, 1838-; W. W. Munsell & Co
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: New York and Chicago : Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1196