USA > Ohio > Montgomery County > Dayton > History of the city of Dayton and Montgomery County, Ohio, Volume II > Part 21
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which time he was chairman of the committee on internal improvements, one of the most important of that day.
During his last session in the general assembly Judge Holt was elected president judge of the circuit court and served during the constitutional term of seven years. At the beginning of that term his circuit was com- posed of Montgomery, Clark, Champaign, Logan, Miami, Darke, Shelby and Mercer counties and later Clark, Champaign and Logan were cut off while Allen and Putnam were attached to the first circuit. After his retirement from the bench Judge Holt again took up the practice of law although he did not give his entire time to it and under appointment of the court he served for one year as prosecuting attorney of Montgomery county, one year in the same office in Mercer and two terms in Van Wert county.
In the meantime, in 1827, when the state militia was an important force in the life of Ohio, Judge Holt was elected brigadier general and for some years commanded one of the finest brigades in the state. After the close of his first term on the bench he divided his time between the practice of law and agri- cultural pursuits. He was the owner of a valuable farm and was also extensively engaged in raising fine stock, spending large sums in improving the breed of cattle. He introduced into this part of the state the first thoroughbred short- horned Durham cattle and did everything to encourage the raising of high- grade stock. He was also president of the Agricultural Society of Montgomery County for a time. During the legislative session of 1842-43 he was again chosen for the bench and once more served for seven years as president judge. His decisions were strictly fair and impartial and he ranked with the eminent jurists of an early day, whose records graced the courts of the state. He was made a member of the board of health during the memorable cholera scourge of 1849 and was among the earliest and constant volunteers to visit and minister to the relief of the sufferers. He was made president of the board and his service was of the utmost value through that calamitous period. Again Judge Holt was called to public office when in the fall of 1849 he was made the democratic nomi- nee for the position of delegate to revise, amend and change the constitution of the state and proved an active, working member of that body, being intsru- mental in shaping many of the organic laws which still remain intact upon the statute books of Ohio. He was made the head of the committee on jurisprudence and his impress for influence and utility was strongly felt in the work of the con- vention.
In 1821 Judge Holt was married to Miss Mary H. Blodget, a daughter of Dr. William Blodget. Their only surviving child is Miss Martha Holt, of Day- ton. Their daughter, Mary Belle. became the wife of Thomas Ashton Burrowes and their daughter, Miss Mary Burrowes, is Judge Holt's only living descendant in this county besides the Judge's daughter. For many years Judge Holt was a member of the Presbyterian church, interested and active in its work. He was also a stalwart champion of the cause of temperance, his service on the bench giving him comprehensive knowledge of the evils and abuses caused by intem- perance. In a publication issued while Judge Holt was still living is said : "As president judge of the first judicial district Judge Holt gained an enviable reputa- tion. He ranked, before his election to the bench, as a sound lawyer and to that
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he soon added the highest reputation of an able and impartial judge. During a service of fourteen years in a circuit distinguished for the legal talent of its bar it is a high compliment to say that he gave entire satisfacton and that, popular as he ever has been as a man, his popularity as a judge exceeded it."
CHARLES H. SCHAEFFER.
Charles Henry Schaeffer, well known among the insurance men of the middle west, because of the volume of business which he successfully controls and the enterprise he has manifested in securing his extensive clientage, was born in Dayton, January 12, 1857. His father, Valentine Schaeffer, was likewise a native of Montgomery county, his birth having occurred in Germantown in 1825. In his boyhood, however, he removed to a farm in Williams county, Ohio, and assisted in clearing the wilderness and transforming the wild lands into pro- ductive fields. In early manhood, however, he determined to engage in commer- cial rather than in agricultural pursuits and came to Dayton, where he estab- lished a dry goods business, which he continued until just prior to the Civil war. He was in the one hundred days' service and was ever a loyal advocate of the Union cause. After the war he entered the Dayton State Bank, now the Dayton National Bank, as bookkeeper and there remained for twenty-seven years. He was then in the life and fire insurance business until about 1897, when he re- tired. Many years had been devoted to active business and his rest was well merited. In early manhood he had wedded Mary Ellen Achey and unto them were born nine children, all of whom reached years of maturity, namely: Edgar A .; Albert V .; Nellie S., the wife of Samuel Weller; Charles H .; Louise, the wife of Godfrey Holderhoff ; Lester A .; John J .; Harriet B., the wife of William Bishop, and A. Wilbur. The mother still survives at the age of eighty- one years.
Charles H. Schaeffer acquired his education in the public schools, passing through consecutive grades until he reached the Central high school, although he did not finish his course there. At the age of sixteen he took up the more difficult lessons in the school of experience and has applied himself faithfully to their mastery. He entered the establishment of Reynolds & Reynolds, book- binders and printers, with whom he continued for seven years, and there learned the printer's trade. Subsequently he was employed in the bookbinding establish- ment of Payne & Holden, with whom he continued for some years, and was also with the Holden Manufacturing Company, their successors. In 1884 he severed his connection with that house and joined his father, Valentine Schaeffer, in the life and fire insurance business, under the firm name of V. Schaeffer & Son. The name has since been continued although the father died on the 2d of Octo- ber, 1906. The name of Schaeffer has long stood as a synonym for enterprise and reliability in insurance lines in this city and the volume of business enjoyed by the house attests the progressive methods and unremitting diligence of Mr. Schaeffer.
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In 1889 was celebrated the marriage of Charles H. Schaeffer and Miss Eliza- beth Leibrock, a daughter of Louis Leibrock. In his fraternal relations he is an Odd Fellow, belonging to both the subordinate lodge and the encampment, in which he has held all of the chairs. His political allegiance is given to the re- publican party but he is not active in its work although he believes firmly in its principles and does all he can to further its interests. His entire life has been passed in Dayton, where his substantial qualities have gained him the favorable regard of his business colleagues and the companies which he represents. His geniality and deference for the opinions of others have gained him a creditable position in social circles and wherever he is known he is held in high esteem.
HENRY D. RINEHART, M. D.
Dr. Henry D. Rinehart, who, as a member of the medical profession, is mak- ing a specialty of the treatment of diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat, has become very successful in that department, for his study and researches have been thorough and broad, and, moreover, he readily perceives the relation of the scientific principles of medicine to specific needs.
One of Montgomery county's native sons, he was born on a farm in Randolph township, on the 25th of January, 1859, and was there reared, early becoming familiar with all the duties and labors that fall to the lot of the agriculturist. He also attended the country schools through the periods of his youth and afterward became a student in a normal college at Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, while later he attended the Normal School at Ada, Ohio. Having decided to make his professional work the science of teaching, he was employed to teach a country school in Montgomery county, which school had "whipped out" two teachers during the previous winter term. He succeeded so well with his first efforts at teaching that he was retained as the teacher of said school for five successive years. After teaching both the common school branches and high school branches for eight years in Randolph township, he decided to change for his life professional work-to medicine and surgery.
With broad literary learning to serve as the foundation upon which to build his professional knowledge, he took up the study of medicine and com- pleted the full course in Long Island College Hospital at Brooklyn, New York. He was there graduated with the class of 1886. Immediately afterward he lo- cated for practice of general medicine in Covington, Miami county, Ohio, where he remained for fifteen years. On the expiration of that period, he pursued a course in the Chicago Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat College, in 1901-2, for he was greatly interested in this field of practice and, determining to so qualify for the work in that line that he might make it a specialty, concentrated his entire energies thereon. On leaving the Chicago college, he came to Dayton, where he has since remained in active practice and has secured a large patronage, for his labors have been effective in making the cures that were sought and thus his reputation has grown. In professional lines he is connected with the Montgomery County Medical Society, the Ohio State Medical Association, the Dayton Acad-
DR. H. D. RINEHART
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emy of Medicine, the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Oto-Laryngology and member of the staff of the Miami Valley Hospital.
In 1882 Dr. Rinehart was married to Miss Emma Weybright, a native of this county. Their three daughters are Pearl, Ethel and Opal. Miss Pearl, after graduating in the Covington high school, entered Earlham College and after four years graduated with honors from said college in the classical course and is a teacher of languages in high school. Miss Ethel, after pursuing a high school course, is a student at National Park Seminary. Miss Opal is a junior in Steele high school.
In his religious faith Dr. Rinehart is a Christian, holding membership in the Third Street Presbyterian church. He was for thirteen years superintendent of Sunday school and he takes an active and helpful interest in the various lines of church work. His political allegiance is given to the republican party, but while he firmly believes in its principles, he does not seek nor desire office, preferring to concentrate his energies upon his professional duties, which he always promptly performs with a sense of conscientious obligation. At the organization of the Riverdale Welfare Club in 1906, he was elected as vice president and has been reelected each year since. This club is recognized as one of the influential bodies with both political parties. At the organization he was elected, by the executive committee, as associate editor of Riverdale Welfare Bulletin and has been re- elected each year to assist in the editing of this monthly periodical.
Though a very busy man in his profession, he has found time to engage in the outside work for the betterment of the community and his profession. He served as secretary of Montgomery County Medical Society for the year 1908, and at expiration of his secretaryship, he was elected a member of board of censors of that society.
GEORGE W. OZIAS.
George W. Ozias, attorney at law of Dayton, was born in Farmersville, Mont- gomery county, Ohio, January 28, 1863. During his infancy his parents removed to a farm in Logan county, Ohio, whereon his youthful days were passed in a division of his time between the labors of the fields, the duties of the schoolroom and the pleasures of the playground. When a youth of sixteen he entered Dela- ware College at Delaware, Ohio, and was graduated on the completion of the classical course in 1883, when twenty years of age. In the meantime he had resolved to make the practice of law his life work and to this end matriculated in the Cincinnati Law School where he was graduated in 1886.
The same year Mr. Ozias came to Dayton and accepted the general agency for the Bradstreets Commercial Agency, which position he filled for five years. This brought him a wide acquaintance so that he felt justified in entering upon the active practice of law, feeling that he now might be reasonably sure of a good patronage. Accordingly he opened his office and has since remained as an active attorney of Dayton. His success from the beginning has been uniform and
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rapid. Added to his thorough understanding of the general principles of the law, he has specialized in the department of corporation law and that he is well quali- fied in this branch of the profession is indicated by the fact that a number of the important corporations and business firms in this city employ him to manage their legal interests.
On the 4th of January, 1897, in Dayton, Mr. Ozias was married to Miss Blanche B. Whealen, and they have one son, Charles Whealen, now eleven years of age. Mr. Ozias is a member of the Masonic order. He belongs to the Benev- olent and Protective Order of Elks, while his religious faith is indicated in his membership in the Grace Methodist Episcopal church. While not active in party work, he is a believer in republican principles and at the polls gives his support to the party candidates. The various interests which constitute the important features of life are of interest to him and many of them receive his endorsement and cooperation and at the same time he is never neglectful of the duties which devolve upon him in his professional relations, his devotion to his clients' inter- ests having become proverbial.
DAVID H. TERRY.
David H. Terry, one of the well known republican leaders of Montgomery county, where he is now acceptably filling the office of justice of the peace, was born in Dayton, May 26, 1872. Here he was reared and at the usual age entered the public school, passing through the consecutive grades until when he put aside his text-books he was in the third year of high school. He received special training for the business world in the Miami Commercial College, of Day- ton, from which he was graduated with the class of 1893. He then engaged with J. D. Whitmore, a coal man, as bookkeeper, occuping that position for eigh- teen months, after which he accepted a clerical position with J. R. Thomson, as justice of the peace. He also began reading law and was with Justice Thomson for three years, and for one year with his successor, J. W. Mckeown. When that time had passed Mr. Terry entered the employ of the City Street Railway Company, with which he was connected for five years, spending two and a half years as motor man and two and a half years as conductor. In 1903 he was elected justice of the peace on the republican ticket for a term of three years and has since been reelected, so that his present incumbency will continue to the Ist of January, 1910. His decisions are strictly fair and impartial and thus he has "won golden opinions from all sorts of people."
Mr. Terry was married in Dayton, in 1895, to Miss Anna G. Remmer, and they have four children, Ruth Louise, Edna May, Florence Margaret and George Robert. Mr. Terry is a Scottish Rite Mason and has also attained the Knight Templar degree in the York Rite. He likewise belongs to the Mystic Shrine and is secretary of Dayton Lodge, No. 147, F. & A. M. He is a member of the Gar- field Club and is past grand of Fraternal Lodge, No. 510, I. O. O. F., in which he holds the office of secretary. He is likewise past chancellor of Hope Lodge, No. 277, K. P., and belongs to Dayton Lodge, No. 3526, M. W. A. The fact that
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he has been called to office in these various organizations is indicative of his loy- alty to the interests of the fraternities and his popularity among his brethren of the orders. He belongs to the Broadway Methodist Episcopal church and is a man whose trustworthiness and fidelity to duty are among his most salient char- acteristics.
JOSIAH P. LANDIS, D. D.
Dr. Josiah P. Landis, one of the eminent representatives of the clergy of the United Brethren church, is widely known as a writer on theological subjects and as a lecturer, while his local connection with Dayton is that of professor of Old Testament theology and exegisis in the Bonebrake Theological Seminary. He was born October 27, 1844, at Brickerville, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. It is not definitely known whether the ancestry was German or French, but the namne was originally spelled Landes, which is also the name of a department of France. The first representatives of the family came to this country about the year 1710 from Switzerland. They were Mennonites and one of the name suf- fered a martyr's death for his faith while others were imprisoned. They fled to the shores of America that they might have liberty to worship God according to the dictates of their conscience and settled in the southeastern counties of Penn- sylvania. Some of the family still adhere to the Mennonite faith but in 1844 Joseph and Caroline (Weiler) Landis, the parents of Dr. J. P. Landis, became members of the United Brethren in Christ, which denomination now numbers two hundred and eighty-one thousand members. The father was a merchant in Brickerville and also in Campbelltown, Lebanon county, Pennsylvania. In April, 1854, he removed with his family to Illinois but was not long permitted to enjoy his new home for his death occurred on the 5th of July, 1855.
Dr. Landis acquired his education in the common schools of Pennsylvania and Illinois. He had accompanied his parents to the latter state in 1854 and in a few months the family with several other families from Pennsylvania pur- chased land upon the prairie in Will county, Illinois, six miles south of Joliet, at which time only two houses were in sight. He spent the next five years on the prairie farm and on account of his skill in mechanical lines took charge of the farm machinery and the operation of the fields. After the first year he attended school during the winter months, and one of his teachers, a Miss Whiting, in- structed him in popular astronomy, especially acquainting him with the con- stellations which, together with physiology, became his favorite natural science. He had a great taste for scientific study and investigation and expected to follow in the professional footsteps of several of his uncles who were physicians but later was deflected into theology. Through the influence of a young man con- siderably his senior he developed a voracious aptitude for books and reading which has made him, in the course of years, a man of broad scholarly attainments.
Then before he continued his collegiate education he saw active service in the Civil war, enlisting as a member of Company A, Ninety-fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry on the 4th of August, 1862. He was honorably discharged August
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19, 1865, having for three years been connected with the army as a private. Par- ticipating in the battle of Richmond, Kentucky, August 30, 1862, he was cap- tured with several thousand other Union troops but was presently paroled. He helped to dig ditches in front of Vicksburg in April, 1863, and took part in the whole of that memorable campaign. He also assisted in driving Johnston out of Jackson, Mississippi, and took part in the Guntown, Mississippi, expedition and also that against Tupelo, Mississippi, and was in the battle of Oldtown Creek. He participated in the siege of Spanish Fort on Mobile Bay in March, 1865, in the siege of Mobile and in several minor skirmishes. The hardships and privations of war did not seem detrimental to him for he came out stronger, straighter and heartier than when he entered the service.
It was subsequent to this time that he pursued a collegiate course in Otter- bein University at Westerville, Ohio, from which he was graduated in June, 1869. During a part of the last year he was also a theological student in the Western Seminary at Allegheny, Pennsylvania, and continuing his preparation for the ministry, was graduated from the Lane Theological Seminary at Cincinnati, Ohio, in May, 1871. Subsequently he studied for a time in Berlin University in Germany, taking work in philosophy and New Testament Theology. He also pursued a post-graduate course in theology in Wooster University, Ohio, and received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy cum laude. In 1872 Otterbein University conferred upon him the degree of Master of Arts and ten years later honored him with the degree of Doctor of Divinity.
Having qualified for the ministry, Dr. Landis served as pastor of what is now the Summit Street United Brethren church in Dayton from 1871 until 1874 and in the latter year went to Miltonville, Ohio, where he remained until 1877, going at that time to Germantown, where he also spent three years in pas- toral work. In 1880 he was elected to the professorship of chairs of Old Testament exegesis and pastoral theology in the Bonebrake Theological Seminary at Dayton, where his present professorship is that of Old Testament theology and exegesis although he still continued also to teach pastoral theology. In connection with the seminary work he assisted in the editorial work of the United Brethren Sunday school literature. Four years he was secretary of the board of education and was superintendent of the Sunday school thirteen succes- sive years ; was president of the local Young People's Society of the Summit Street church for fourteen years; of the Miami branch of the Young People's Christian Union for twelve years, and president of the General Young People's Union twelve years. He was long active in the county and denominational Sun- day school work and state Sunday school work and was president of the Ohio Sunday School Union from 1884 until 1886.
With the various departments of church work Dr. Landis has been connected, taking active and helpful interest in various lines which have contributed to the sum total of the grand work that is being carried on by his denomination. He has been a member of the American Society of Biblical Exegesis and has appeared before many important meetings dealing with various lines of church work. Since 1860 he has held membership with the United Brethren of Christ and as the representative of this church was on the program at the International Sun- day school convention at Atlanta, Georgia, in 1878, and again at Louisville, Ken-
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tucky, in 1884. He was also a delegate to the convention at Toronto, Canada, in 1881 and the World's Sunday school convention in St. Louis, Missouri. He was likewise on the program of the Methodist Ecumenical conference at Wash- ington, D. C. and delivered an address on The Philosophy and the Science of Religion at the parliament of religions in Chicago in 1893. He was secretary of the Tri-church Council of the Congregational, Methodist Protestant and United Brethren churches at Dayton in February, 1906, and at Chicago in March. 1907, and was a delegate to the council of Federated Churches of Christ in Ameri- ca, held at Philadelphia in December, 1908, while in November of that year he was elected a delegate to the general conference of the United Brethren church which met at Canton, Ohio, in May, 1909. He is a fluent and facile writer as well as an eloquent, logical and entertaining speaker and has been a contributor to Bishop Weaver's Christian Doctrine. He is also the author of a small volume on the Holy Trinity and a pamphlet on The Relation of Theology to Philosophy. He has likewise written many articles for the church periodicals and was en- gaged to assist in editorial work on the Religious Telescope from October, 1908, until August, 1909. His services are in constant demand for addresses at con-
ventions, institutes, Chautauquas and summer schools, and thus he is continually connected with the work of public instruction be it from the pulpit, the lecture platform or through the columns of the press. His thought is always clear- cut, cogently and convincingly presented and characterized by a terse and de- cisive logic. While it would be tautological in this connection to enter into any series of statements, showing him to be a man of broad scholarly attainments, for this has been shadowed forth between the lines of this review, it is but meet to say that he possesses as well a broad human sympathy and charity that makes him approachable to the men who seek his personal advice, counsel and guidance.
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