History of the city of Dayton and Montgomery County, Ohio, Volume II, Part 5

Author: Drury, Augustus Waldo, 1851-1935; S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, pub
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1092

USA > Ohio > Montgomery County > Dayton > History of the city of Dayton and Montgomery County, Ohio, Volume II > Part 5

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Mr. Rowe votes with the republican party but takes no active part in politi- cal work. He has always preferred to concentrate his energies upon his profes- sion and in all his practice he has treated the court with the studied courtesy which is its due and has never indulged in malicious criticism because it arrived at a conclusion in the decision of a case different from that which he hoped to hear. Calm, dignified, self-controlled, free from passion or prejudice, he gives to his client the service of great talent, unwearied industry and rare learning, yet he never forgets there are certain things due to the court, to his own self- respect, and above all to justice and a righteous administration of the law, which neither the zeal of an advocate nor the pleasure of success permits him to disre- gard.

COLONEL JOHN K. McINTIRE.

Dayton has reason to be proud of many of her citizens but none more so than Colonel John K. McIntire, now numbered among her honored dead. In the years of his active business career he was a commanding figure in com- mercial and industrial Dayton and although complex business and financial prob- lems claimed his attention, there was no man more ready or quick to respond to any call for assistance in municipal matters. In all the relations of private life, too, he enjoyed the utmost confidence and good will of those with whom he was associated because he ever displayed the spirit of appreciation for the good qualities in others, rating men ever by their worth of character instead of their attainment in business lines. It was thus that Colonel McIntire took such a firm hold upon the affections of his fellowmen that his death caused a sense of personal bereavement throughout the entire community.

Colonel McIntire was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, December 18, 1831, and represented one of the old families of Montgomery county, Ohio. His father, Samuel McIntire, was a native of Scotland and of Scotch-Irish parent- age, while the mother, Mrs. Elizabeth McIntire, came of sturdy Virginia stock, being a daughter of one of the Revolutionary war heroes who went to the front from the Old Dominion. The family home was maintained in Lancaster, Penn- sylvania, until 1840 when, attracted by the opportunities of western life, the father loaded his household effects in a wagon and traveled over the mountains to the Miami valley, accompanied by his family. Their pioneer home was a little cabin on the edge of the Huffman prairie near Harshman in a district which was then largely wild and unimproved. The forests were uncut and considerable wild game, especially turkeys, abounded in the woodlands. Four years later the death of the father occurred but the mother survived until 1885, passing away in Dayton, where she had lived for a number of years.

John McIntire was only fourteen years of age at the time of his father's demise. Up to this time he had attended the district schools but the necessity

J. K. McINTIRE

DAYTON AND MONTGOMERY COUNTY

of now providing for his own support prompted him to accept a situation as a farm hand. The commercial spirit, however, manifested itself early in life, and after a brief period he went to Dayton, where he secured a situation in the grocery store of George W. Kneisley, proprietor of a general mercantile estab- lishment on the north side of Second street, between Main and Jefferson. He slept over the store, served as janitor and received the munificent sum of three dollars a month and his board. But at the same time he was gaining practical experience that constituted the foundation of his later admirable and gratifying success. While subsequently he branched out into other fields, he remained throughout his life in active connection with mercantile interests, being rated for many years as one of the foremost wholesale merchants in the city. His careful expenditure enabled him, soon after attaining his majority, to purchase an interest in the business of Mr. Kneisley, becoming a partner on the Ist of Jan- uary, 1854, in the wholesale grocery house under the name of Kneisley, Mc- Intire & Company. While he had as far as possible saved his earnings in order to purchase an interest in the business, he borrowed from Mr. Kneisley a sun of money on a three-year note and by dint of economy and hard labor was en- abled to pay the loan the first year. Success attended the firm and after seven years, in 1861, Mr. McIntire was enabled to become an equal partner under the firm style of Kneisley & McIntire. His association therewith was maintained until 1876, when he withdrew, and the same year established the wholesale grocery house of J. K. McIntire & Company, which still continues as one of the chief commercial enterprises of the city and in fact as one of the largest of the kind in this state. A removal was made May 1, 1894, to No. 116 North Main street. The house was built up through the ability and close application of Colonel McIntire, who surrounded himself with a corps of able assistants, many of whom have been with the house from twenty to forty years, while some of the older employes have been retired on full pension. During the early period of his connection with the grocery trade Colonel McIntire not only gave his at- tention to the details of buying but to the sales as well and his life-long friend, Judge Dwyer, said of him that he combined three very important elements which are necessary to a successful business career ; he was a careful buyer, a skillful seller and a good collector. In this connection Judge Dwyer related an interest- ing little incident of how Mr. McIntire, then a struggling merchant, at one time called to collect a bill from a grocer in Indiana, who was also a teacher in the district school. The man gave the excuse that he had the money at home and could not possibly dismiss the school to procure it, whereupon Mr. McIntire stated that he was a pretty good school teacher himself and took charge of the schoolroom and the pupils while the rural teacher-merchant went home for the money. Throughout his life Mr. McIntire remained at the head of the business which he established and until the closing years was active in its management. He was a splendid representative not only of the old but also of the new school of business, as in advancing time he in no sense slackened his grasp on the affairs of the many concerns in which he was interested. Indeed he visited the grocery store and the bank with which he was connected only a few weeks prior to his demise, June 29, 1908, attending the daily directors' meeting of the Third National Bank.

DAYTON AND MONTGOMERY COUNTY

For many years Colonel McIntire was closely associated with financial affairs in Dayton, serving for twenty-one years as a stockholder and director of the Third National Bank and becoming president of that institution in 1888. He installed this bank in a beautiful home of white marble on the north side of Third street, between Main and Jefferson and, accepting the presidency, he carried on the affairs of the bank with the most scrupulous regard for the interests of the depositors and stockholders and with careful attention to the banking laws of the nation. This is one of the most prominent and largest banking institutions of southern Ohio and its substantial growth is attributable largely to the person- ality, integrity and capable management of Colonel Mclntire. He was also a stockholder in nearly every bank in the city and was likewise identified with in- dustrial and commercial concerns as a director of the Dayton & Troy Traction Company. the Dayton Spice Mills Company, the Dayton Gas Light & Coke Company, the Green & Green Company, and several building associations. He became connected with the Miami Insurance Company in 1862 and was long one of its directors. His cooperation was always an impetus to every concern with which he became connected and the wisdom of his judgment was again and again demonstrated in the success which attended the execution of his well-for- mulated plans.

In 1858 Colonel McIntire was married at Romulus on Seneca Lake, in New York, to Miss Evaline Van Tuyl, a lady of splendid qualities of mind and heart, whose death in 1887 was the cause of most deep and widespread regret. Their children were four in number : Stella, the wife of George N. Elkins, a well known capitalist of Pennsylvania ; Ada, the wife of Colonel Frank T. Huffman, pres- ident of the Davis Sewing Machine Company ; and John S. and Edward M., who are connected with the wholesale grocery house of J. K. McIntire & Company.

Colonel McIntire gained the title by which he was usually known from a brief military service at the time of the Kirby-Smith raid, being commissioned by Governor Todd. In the days when Dayton had a volunteer fire company who gave their services without compensation, Mr. McIntire was connected there- with, belonging to the Neptunes, and when the first fire commission was estab- lished in this city in 1880 he was appointed one of the four commissioners and always retained a deep interest in the affairs of the fire department. In fact he was interested in every movement, measure and work pertaining to the welfare and upbuilding of the city and in all of his business interests the city benefited in large measures. Prominent in Masonry, he attained the Knight Templar de- gree of the York Rite and the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite.

Beginning life in a subordinate position in a mercantile house, Colonel Mc- Intire rose to a position of distinction, honored by all of his colleagues and asso- ciates because of the integrity and trustworthiness of his methods. As he pros- pered he made extensive investments in Dayton property, thus manifesting his faith in the city and its future. He was a broad and liberal minded citizen and looked beyond the exigencies of the moment to the possibilities to come and sought not only the welfare of the present but also of the future. He was a kind and constant friend, a pleasant and genial acquaintance, and no citizen of Dayton but was proud to say "I know J. K. McIntire personally and am counted among his friends." Perhaps no better estimate of his character can be given

DAYTON AND MONTGOMERY COUNTY

than quoting from an article which appeared in the Dayton Daily News at the time of his demise, which said: "Colonel McIntire had those personal qualities which drew his friends to him and bound them by hooks of steel. As a banker he was not only faithful to the stockholders but sympathetic and considerate to the patrons. Many a business man in Dayton can count a large degree of his success to having established himself in the confidence of Colonel McIntire. Once that attained, his credit was fully established. He was a man of indefat- igable energy, kind to those associated with him, courteous to his patrons, yet at all times maintaining the dignity of prudent business principles. He loved the association of his friends and in his later years his greatest pleasure seemed to be the entertainment of his friends by motor trips throughout the picturesque part of southern Ohio. In this day he was an enthusiastic sportsman and did considerable hunting and shooting. He was a distinct type of the self-made man. No American boy started upon smaller resources and no American fortune was constructed along cleaner lines of integrity and fair dealing with his fellow men. He passes to his family the heritage of a clean business record, extending as it has into almost every active walk of local business life."

JOHN S. McINTIRE.

Honored and respected by all, there is no citizen of Dayton who occupies a more enviable position in commercial and financial circles than does John S. McIntire, not alone by reason of the success which he enjoys but owing to the straightforward business policy which characterizes his connection with import- ant mercantile interests. It is true that he entered upon a business already established, but many a man of less resolute spirit would have failed in continu- ing its conduct along expanding lines or in grasping the opportunities of the present. He is widely known here, as Dayton is his native city, the year of his birth being 1868.

After attending the public schools he continued his studies in Deaver Insti- tute in Dayton, preparatory to entering Yale, but, changing' his plans, he went instead to Miami University in this city, from which, in due time, he was grad- uated. He then entered the wholesale grocery house of J. K. McIntire & Com- pany, where he has remained continuously since, thoroughly mastering the bus- iness in principle and detail and more and more largely sharing the responsi- bilities in connection with the control of the house. On the Ist of January, 1909, the firm was reorganized as a stock company under the name of the J. K. Mc- Intire Company with John S. McIntire as president; Edward M. McIntire as vice president ; and J. F. Snyder as secretary and treasurer. John S. McIntire is also a director of the Third National Bank and the Dayton Spice Mill Com- pany.

Mr. McIntire is a popular member of the Dayton City Club and of the Country Club. He is also a member of the First Baptist church and gives his political allegiance to the republican party. The advance of time brings constantly chang- ing conditions and the young man of the present age faces problems unknown to

DAYTON AND MONTGOMERY COUNTY

the former generation. Mr. McIntire, however, fully meets every demand made upon him and his record is in harmony with that of an honored father who was the founder of the extensive wholesale grocery house with the management of which the son is now busily engaged.

EDWARD MORRISON McINTIRE.

The name of McIntire has long been interwoven with the commercial history of Dayton and has ever been synonymous with the strictest principles of com- mercial integrity as well as with continuous progress. While Edward Morrison McIntire entered upon a business already established, he has displayed great re- sourcefulness in enlarging and expanding its scope and meeting the changing demands of a progressive age. He has spent his entire life in this city, the date of his nativity being May 30, 1870. His youth was passed in his parents' home and he supplemented his public-school course by study in the private school con- ducted by Professor Deaver. He was nineteen years of age when he left school to enter business life, becoming connected with the wholesale grocery house of J. K. McIntire & Company, of which his father was the senior partner. He applied himself to the mastery of the business in which, he became thoroughly familiar and upon his father's death he joined his brother, John S., in organiz- ing the J. K. McIntire Company, of which he is vice president. The house has a liberal and gratifying patronage, resulting from the fact that a large and well selected line of goods is carried and that the company is prompt in meeting all demands of the trade. In no other field of activity has Edward M. McIntire directed his energies but has concentrated his efforts along a single line and his success is a well merited result of his labors.

On the 6th of March, 1896, in Dayton, occurred the marriage of Mr. Mc- Intire and Miss Louise Gebhart, a daughter of W. F. Gebhart. They have two children, John K. and Elizabeth. They are members of the First Baptist church and interested in those lines of thought and activity which further the progress of the city. Mr. McIntire is a valued and representative member of the Buz Fuz and Dayton City Clubs and the Country Club, and he votes with the repub- lican party. He belongs to that class who uphold the political and legal status of the community, not because of any unusual phase in their life record or any spectacular chapters in their history, but because they hold themselves amenable to law and order and lend the use of their influence and efforts to movements for the promotion and the good of the individual and the community at large.

HON. CHARLES WESLEY DUSTIN.

Hon. Charles Wesley Dustin for fourteen years has sat upon the bench of Montgomery county and the second circuit of Ohio, while his present term will continue for four years more. A native of Zanesville, this state, his par- ents were the Rev. M. and Mary B. (Dana) Dustin. The father, whose death

DAYTON AND MONTGOMERY COUNTY

occurred in Dayton, was a lineal descendant of Hannah Dustin, who, during the Indian war, after being captured by the redmen, killed ten Indians with a toma- hawk in order to preserve the lives of herself and child, after two children had already been killed by the savages. A monument has been erected to her memory on an island in the Merrimac river, where occurred the incident.

In his youthful days Rev. M. Dustin accompanied his parents on .their re- moval from the Empire state to Washington county, Ohio, where he remained from that time until he attained his majority. His collegiate course was pursued in Marietta College, after which he became a minister of the Methodist church and for fifty years was in active Christian work, first in Ohio and afterward in the Cincinnati conference. He not only gave his attention to religious instruc- tion and pastoral duties but also frequently discussed the vital political and gov- ernmental problems of the time and was particularly active in opposing slavery. In 1890 he retired from the ministry and from 1893 until his death in the winter of 1896 was a resident of Dayton. His wife, who was a native of Washington county, Ohio, was a daughter of William Dana, a son of Captain William Dana, one of the pioneer residents of Ohio and a friend of the Blennerhassetts, whose home stood on the historic Blennerhassett island opposite to which lived Captain Dana. Rev. and Mrs. Dustin became the parents of five children, three of whom reached adult age.

Judge Dustin, who is now the only surviving member of the family, was a pupil in the public schools during his youthful days and acquired his more specific literary course in the Wesleyan University at Delaware, from which he was graduated at an early age for he displayed marked aptitude in his studies. Later he devoted some time to educational work, being connected with colleges in Quincy, Illinois, and in Brookville, Indiana. In preparation for the bar he took up the study of law under the direction of Boltin & Shauck of Dayton and in due time was admitted to the bar and opened a law office in Dayton, making steady progress in his chosen profession. In his early years he did considerable newspaper work as editorial writer for the Daily Journal of Dayton and also in connection with other publications. He was also a contributor to the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette and a member of the editorial staff of the Cincinnati Graphic.

The profession of law, however, has been his real life work and in February, 1895, he was elected to the bench of the common pleas court. His opinions show research, industry and care and have won the approval of and commended themselves to both the bench and bar of the state. In 1900 Judge Dustin was reelected to the common pleas bench and in 1904 he was appointed to the circuit bench by Governor M. T. Herrick to succeed Judge A. N. Summers, who had been elected to the supreme bench. At the next election he was chosen to serve out the unexpired term of Judge Summers, ending in February, 1907. In November, 1906, however, he was elected to serve for six years on the cir- cuit court bench. Devotedly attached to his profession, systematic and methodi- cal in habit, sober and discreet in judgment, calm in temper, diligent in re- search, conscientious in the discharge of every duty, courteous and kind in de- meanor and inflexibly just on all occasions, these qualities have enabled Judge Dustin to take first rank among those who have held high judicial office in Ohio.

DAYTON AND MONTGOMERY COUNTY

His reported opinions are monuments to his legal learning and superior ability, more lasting than brass and marble and more honorable than battles fought and won. They show a thorough study of the questions involved, a rare simplicity of style and an admirable terseness and clearness in the statement of the prin- ciples upon which the case rests.

Judge Dustin, in early manhood, was united in marriage to Miss Alpha Hall Newkirk, of Connersville, Indiana, who died a few years later. The Judge is a member of the different Masonic bodies and of the Dayton Club. He is interested in all that pertains to the welfare and progress of the state and did valuable service while connected with the Dayton board of education for six or seven years. He has ever kept well informed upon the important political questions, was one of the organizers of the Ohio Republican League and served on the committee to draft its constitution. He was also a delegate to the convention held in New York city which organized the National Republican League. He remained an active factor in politics until his elevation to the bench and is still conversant with the political problems of the day. Fond of travel, he has fre- quently visited Europe and the Orient, has also made trips to Mexico, Canada and South America, and is largely familiar with the different portions of his own country. He is a man of broad general learning and wide culture and stands today as one of the strong men of his native state, strong in his profes- sional ability, in his honor and his good name, and in all of those points which make for progressive citizenship. He is keenly interested in all that pertains to civic improvement and was foremost in the movement to beautify the Great Miami river by the building of the dam.

DAVID L. RIKE.

The name of David L. Rike has for many years been to Dayton citizens a synonym for the highest standards of business integrity and enterprise, a progres- sive citizenship and of Christian purpose. While he is no longer an active factor in the world's work, he belongs to that great throng of the

"Choir invisible Of those immortal dead who live again In lives made better by their presence."

His parents were farming people of Montgomery county and at the family home near Dayton on the 17th of July, 1824, David L. Rike was born. His youthful days passed as monotonously but as happily as do those of most farm boys, who are reared to habits of industry and economy, developing in the open life of field and meadow a sturdy constitution. Hard work, plain fare and out of door experiences gave him no false values of life, but equipped him with that hardy, strong and clear vision that enabled him to meet all the hardships and trials that beset every individual, and to enjoy to the full the opportunities and pleasures which came to him. His early educational advantages were those

D. L. RIKE

DAYTON AND MONTGOMERY COUNTY

afforded by the common schools, but the necessity of assisting in the farm work somewhat limited his chance of attending school until he was twenty-one years of age, when he attended a private academy at Xenia, Ohio, working for his board and tuition.

The following year he made his initial step in the commercial world by secur- ing a situation in a store in Xenia, Ohio, the compensation for his services being sixty dollars a year and board. With Mr. Rike merchandising was not merely an occupation. He loved the details of buying, selecting and selling, and when he was a child "kept store" in a fence corner on the farm, with shelves of his own contriving and a stock of selected stones, grasses and leaves. He made up his mind to a mercantile career years before he came to it and was never at- tracted by any other occupation. He remained in his first position until 1850, when he came to Dayton and entered one of the largest dry-goods houses in the city at a salary of one hundred and twenty dollars per year.

In 1853 he entered into business on his own account as a member of the firm of Prugh, Joyce & Rike and at that time was founded the enterprise now so well known in Dayton under the name of The Rike Dry Goods Company. This relation continued until 1867, when R. I. Cummin and S. E. Kumler came into the firm. For twenty-eight years the triple partnership remained unbroken, and unbroken also was the faith of the business world in the honorable standing of the company. During all this period the large and ever increasing interests of the firm had the personal attention and direction of Mr. Rike, to whose re- markable business capacity and good management their success was chiefly due. The store became one of the most important commercial enterprises of the city and the success of the company made Mr. Rike one of the substantial residents of Dayton. His financial advancement, however, was gained entirely without resource to speculation, being won through the legitimate channels of trade in an honorable effort to win patronage through straightforward business meth- ods and judicious advertising. He was never known to take advantage of any man in a business transaction, allowed no clerk to misrepresent his goods and such was his honesty that his word was regarded as good as any bond ever solemnized by signature or seal. Perhaps the best illustration of Mr. Rike's conscientious spirit in the discharge of obligations is the arrangement made by him with his two younger partners when the business became a stock company. The firm had been known for twenty-five years as D. L. Rike & Company, Mr. Rike being the owner of half the capital, the other two, of one-fourth each. Mr. S. E. Kumler, one of the partners, has explained it thus: "In 1892 it was proposed to form a stock company, the three to own the preferred stock, in pro- portion to the capital invested, and the common stock to be divided equally ; the stock company to be named The Rike Dry Goods Company. It will illustrate Mr. Rike's keen business perception and at the same time show how he wished to give his young partners an advantage, to say that he figured the stock company business out in a few hours, he to have six per cent on his surplus capital, after which the profits were to be divided equally between the three. He said that if the business paid six per cent The Rike Dry Goods Company would be simply and only the D. L. Rike & Company, with another added name; but if it paid more than six per cent the common stock, which represented the energy of the

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History of the city of Dayton and Montgomery County, Ohio, Volume II, Part 5

Author: Drury, Augustus Waldo, 1851-1935; S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, pub Publication date: 1909 Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1092

Author: Drury, Augustus Waldo, 1851-1935; S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, pub
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1092