USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > Memorial record of the county of Cuyahoga and city of Cleveland, Ohio, Pt.1 > Part 4
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General Garfield was appointed on many im- portant special as well as other committees by Congress. Ile was sent by the President to Louisiana to report upon the politieal condition of the people with reference to reconstruction, and was chosen one of the High Commission to which was referred the contested presidential eleetion in 1876, and which gave Rutherford B. Hayes the seat. In June, 1880, at the National Republican Convention held in Chi- cago, General Garfield was nominated for the Presidency, both to the surprise of himself and the country. Ile was a delegate to the eonven- tion and was an open advocate of the nomina- tion of IIon. John Sherman, of Ohio. The party was in danger of a most serious division, in which the adherents of General U. S. Grant and of IIon. James G. Blaine were the con- testants. The only safe measure to adopt was found in the nomination of an unobjectionable man who was allied with neither faction, and hence with great enthusiasm they turned to General Garfield; and, although many of the Republican party felt sore over the failure of their respective heroes to obtain the nomination, General Garfield was elected by a strong ma- jority both of the people and of the Electoral College, and was inaugurated at Washington, March 1, 1881, amid great rejoicing.
Even as the office was higher than any other which he had held, and as tho honor was the
greatest the world could bestow, so the annoy- anees which accompanied him into ofliee were more discouraging than he had ever experi- enced, and most appalling dangers surrounded him. Even before his inauguration he was be- sieged by offiee-seekers at Mentor, his home in Lake county, Ohio. On every hand and in every way did seekers after national honors and pay intrude recklessly and remorselessly upon his time and attention. Among these thou- sands of office-seekers was one Charles J. Gui- tean, a native of Illinois, but who at the time elaimed to be a resident of New York. Guitean had nnsuccessfully praetieed law at Chieago and New York. ITis had been an erratic life, and his ambition most unbounded. He had professed many kinds of religious beliefs and had attempted to lecture on religious and social themes. Ile had the appearance of a gentle- man, and in the politieal campaign of 1880 he ingratiated himself into the good will of some members of the Republican committee of New York, and made a few unsuccessful speeches. On the fact that he had taken part in the eon- test he based his claims for a consulship at Marseilles, France, and importuned President Garfield for the appointment. The appoint- ment was refused, and then Guiteau boldly threatened vengeance and was forcibly ojeeted from the White House. He then firmly re- solved to assassinate tho President at the first opportunity. Soon after there arose a politieal difference between the President and Senator Conkling, of New York, concerning the appoint- ment of a collector for the port of New York. This dispute was merely an outburst of the smothered feeling lingering after the defeat of a favorite candidate in the Republican conven- tion, and may have been less remotely con- nected with the fact that the President had placed in his cabinet with William Windom, Wayne Mae Veagh, Robert T. Lincoln, William II. Hunt, Samuel J. Kirkwood and Thomas L. James, Senator James G. Blaine, who had been one of the candidates opposed in that conven- tion by Senator Conkling. Both senators from
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New York failed in their efforts to prevent the Senate from confirming eertain appointments of the President, and after the President had threateningly, though temporarily, withdrawn the unconfirmed nominations from before the Senate of some of Senator Conkling's friends, both of the New York senators resigned and went back to their State Legislature, expecting a triumphant re-election as a rebuke to the President. They failed of election, and in their stead men favoring the President were chosen.
This contest occasioned great excitement and aroused much bitter feeling in the nation. Guiteau, blinded by his desire to kill the Presi- dent, drew much encouragement from the qnar- rel, and expected that in his deed he would find support and defense from the defeated party. However, he did not consult any of them, or apprise any man of his intentions. On the morning of July 2, 1881, while the President was in the Baltimore Railway station at Wash- ington, accompanied by Secretary Blaine, Gui- teau embraced his first opportunity to assassi- nate the President. Guitean, stepping behind his vietim, fired two shots into the President's back, one shot taking fatal effect. For the awful erime Guitean was hanged.
On Monday night, September 19, after eighty days of suffering, the martyred President peace- fully drew his last breath. Midnight bells all over the land tolled in gloomy concert, and the grief-stricken people sprinkled their pillows with tears, saying "Our President is dead!" The next day messages of coudolence, sympathy and grief came to the heart-broken widow from all parts of the world.
IIe died at Long Branch, whence his remains were removed to Washington. The body was placed in the center of the hall of the Capitol at Washington, under the great central dome, and there for three days lay in state. Once during those sad days the multitude was shut out, and for an hour the stricken widow was left alone with her dead, -- one of the saddest, sweetest pictures in our nation's history. The funeral services at the Capitol were very brief
and unceremonious, in accordance with the usnal customs of the Disciples' Church, of which the President had been a member. The remains were borne to Cleveland, and there, on . the 26th of September, the last funeral rites were held in the open air of the publie square, and then the remains were reposed in a tomb in the beautiful Lake View Cemetery of Cleve- land, where to his memory was subsequently erected one of the handsomest, largest and most fitting monuments of the nation.
President Garfield passed all the conditions of virtuous life between the log cabin in Cuya- hoga and the White House in Washington, and in that wonderful, rich and varied experience, still moving up from higher to higher, he touched every heart of the nation at some point or other, and became the representative of all hearts and lives in the land, and was not only the teacher but the interpretor of all virtues.
THOUGHTS UPON THE TRAGIC DEATH AND PUBLIC LIFE OF PRESIDENT JAMES A. GARFIELD.
BY A. TEACHOUT.
Listen all ye, my friends! what do we hear? Is Garfield dead, and our friend no more ? Surprise and horror check the burning tear : He is gone like the sand washed from the shore.
No more we hail the morning's golden gleam; No more the wonders of the view we sing; Friendship requires a melancholy theme; At her command the awful news I bring.
Garfeld, the great master of the boundless space, Thee would my soul-racked muse attempt to paint; Give me a double portion of thy grace Or all the powers of language are too faint.
Weep on, my countrymen ! give your general tear For the friend of all mankind, even the liberated slave. An honest pang should wait on Garfield's bier And patriot anguish mark the patriot's grave.
When from the schoolroom at fTiram he had retired 'Twas you, my friends, surrounded by unnumbered foes,
That called him forth, his services required And took from him the blessing of repose.
With soul inspired by virtue's sacred flame To stem the torrent of corruption's tide, le came, with all his love for liberty ho came, And nobly in his country's service died.
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In the last awful moment, the departing hour,
When life's poor lamp more faint and fainter grew As memory feebly exercised her power, Ile only felt for liberty and you.
He viewed death's arrow with a Christian's eye, . With firmness only to a Christian known, And nobly gave your miseries that sigh With which he never gratified his own.
Let all who love our country elevate his fame And give his laurel everlasting bloom,- Record his worth while gratitude has name And teach succeeding ages from his tomb.
The sword of justice cautiously he swayed ; His hand forever held the balance right; Each human fault with pity he surveyed, But treachery found no mercy in his sight.
Hle knew when enemies besiege a throne Truth seldom reached a monarch's ears ; Knew if oppressed a loyal people groan, And it was their cry he should hear.
HIence, honest to his people, his manly tongue The public wrongs and loyalty conveyed, While titled tremblers, every nerve unstrung, Looked all around confounded and dismayed ;-
Looked all around astonished to behold, Trained up to flattery from their early youth, An artless, fearless citizen unfold To royal ears a mortifying truth.
Titles to him no pleasures could impart ; No bribes his sense of right would entertain; The star could never gain upon his heart, Nor turn the tide of honor from his name.
For this his name our liberty shall adorn, Shall soar on fame's wide pinions all sublime Till heaven's own bright and never dying morn Absorbs our little particle of time.
Far other fate his enemies shall find, Who sigh for place or languish after fame, And sell their native probity of mind
For bribes of statesmen who would thus disgrace their name.
And here a long inglorious list of names On my disturbed imaginations crowd. " Oh! let them perish," loud the muse exclaims, " Consigned forever to oblivion's cloud."
Clean be the page that celebrates his fame, Nor let one mark of infamy appear; Let not the vicious mingle with his name; Let indignation stop the swelling tear.
The swelling tear should plenteous descend ; The deluged oye should give the heart relief; Ihumanity should melt for nature's friend In all the richest luxury of grief.
He, as a planet with unceasing ray, Is seen in one unvaried course to move, Through life pursued but one illustrious way, And all his orbit was his country's love.
Immortal shadow of my much loved friend, Clothed in thy native virtue, meet my soul When on the fatal bed my passions bend And curb the floods of anguish as they roll.
In thee each virtue found a pleasing cell; Thy mind was honor and thy soul divine; With thee did every God of genius dwell; Thon most the hero of all the nine.
Now, as the mantle of the evening swells Upon my mind, I feel a thickening gloom; Ah! could I charm by necromantic spells The soul of Garfield from the deathly tomb.
Then would we wander through this darkened vale In converse such as heavenly spirits use, And born upon the pinions of the gale Hymn the Creator and exert the muse.
But, horror to reflection ! now no more Will Garfield sing the wonders of the plain When, doubting whether they might not adore, Admiring mortals heard his nervous strain.
But he is gone, and now. alas! no more His generous hand neglected worth redeemed; No more around his mansion shall the poor Bask in his warm, his charitable beams.
No more his grateful countrymen shall hear Ilis manly voice in martyred freedom's cause; No more the reckless outlaw will fear His severe lash for violated laws.
Yet say, stern virtue, who would not wish to die Thus greatly struggling a whole land to save ? Who would not wish, with ardor wish, to lie With Garfield's honor in a Garfield's grave ?
Not honor such as princes can bestow, Whose tyrant hand to a lord can raise, But for the brightest honor here below A grateful nation's unabating praise.
But see! wherever liberty on yonder strand, Where the cliff rises and the billows roar, Already takes her melancholy stand To wing her passage to some happier shore.
Stay, our Heavenly Father, stay; nor leave this blessed land
So many ages thou hast exercised thy peculiar care ; O stay and ever cheer with thy Almighty hand, Lest quick we sink in terrible despair !
Let my sons, the laws your fathers bought With such rich oceans of undaunted blood By traitors thus be set at naught, While at your hearts you feel the purple flood.
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Unite in firm, in honorable bonds ;
Break every link of slavery's hateful chain; Nor let your children at their father's hands Demand their birthright and demand in vain.
Where'er the murderers of their country hide, Whatever dignities their names adorn, It is your duty-let it be your pride -- To drag them forth to universal scorn.
So shall your loved, your venerated name, O'er earth's vast convex gloriously expand ; So shall your still accumulated fame
In one bright story with our Garfield stand.
W ALTER I. THOMPSON, Councilman from the Fifth District of Cleveland, and a prominent contractor and builder, was born in this city, August 15, 1853. IIe secured a liberal education and at seventeen years of age began learning his trade as an ap- prentice to S. C. Brooks & Co. From 1874 to 1881 he was a day workman; he then decided to risk his own judgment and his limited capi- tal in a few contracts. He succeeded, and the next year he ventured farther, and each succeed- ing year extended his business until all his own time was devoted to supervision of work, execn- tion of plans and submitting bids for new contracts.
Mr. Thompson's ancestry is English. ITis father, Charles Thompson, was born in Lincoln- shire, England, and in 1835 took up his resi- dence in this city. He was a cooper by trade, and for many years has been superintendent of the barrel department of the Standard Oil Com- pany of this city. Ifc came to Cleveland with two other young men and learned his trade here. Ile is a gentleman of exemplary habits, good business judgment and a modest, quiet citizen. His father was a sea captain, condnet- ing vessels between New York and Liverpool.
Our subject's mother, whose name before marriage was Avarina Jenkins, was a native of Wales; and her father, Isaac Jenkins, came to Cuyahoga connty before 1840 and became a farmer near Warrensville, this State. The chil- dren by this union are: Louisa, wife of William
Kyle, of Cleveland; Walter I .; C. E., in the employ of the Mercantile National Bank of Cleveland; and E. E., in the Cleveland & Pitts- burg Railroad offices.
October 30, 1878, Mr. Walter I. Thompson was united in marriage, in Cleveland, to Miss Olive N. Quayle, danghter of Robert Qnayle, a Manxman and a blacksmith. Mr. Thompson's children are John William and Avrina Olive.
In politics our subject has always been a Re- publican, and has been more or less active in his party's interests ever since he became of age; but not until the spring of 1892 did he submit to the use of his name as a candidate for any elective oflice. He was then elected to his pres- ent position as Councilman from the Fifth Dis- trict of Cleveland, to succeed J. I. Nunn, a Democrat. In the organization of the Council of 1892 he was appointed chairman of the committee on printing and member of the com- inittees on appropriations and city property. In 1893 he was chosen chairman of the latter, and also served on the committees on appropria- tions and fire.
In respect to the fraternal orders he is a member of the Cleveland City Lodge and of Webb Chapter, of the Masonic order, also of Banner Lodge, I. O. O. F., of the Masonic Club, Builders' Exchange and Employing Car- penters' Association. In Odd Fellowship he has passed all the chairs, and is Junior Warden in the Masonic lodge.
B URROUGHIS FRANK BOWER, vice- president, treasurer and general man- ager of the World Publishing Company (Cleveland World), was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, October 31, 1855, and is conse- quently in his thirty-ninth year. He comes of German and American stock. His father, Henry Bower, was born in Pennsylvania, brought up on a farm, taught school, and moved to Michigan in the '30s, where he ou- gaged in the business of buying and selling
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pine land, mannfacturing lumber, and carrying on a general mercantile business until his death in 1870. ITis mother, whose maiden name was Margaret G. Chase, was of Geneva, New York, a daughter of Captain Chase, who dis- tingnished himself in the war of 1812.
Mr. Bower was the youngest of four chil- dren, and was intended for the bar, which pro- fession his elder brother had embraced, but the sudden death of his father when young Bower was fourteen years old required a change in plans. Some time prior to the death of Mr. Bower's father, his eldest son, Henry E. II. Bower, brother of the subject of this sketch, published a weekly newspaper at Ann Arbor called the Democrat. It was in this office that young Bower obtained his initiation into the newspaper business. After his father's death, the Democrat being sold, young Bower took up civil engineering, but this not being to his taste he abandoned it and went West.
In December, 1874, he returned to Ann Arbor and became the local editor of the Courier. At the time he accepted this position he had not yet turned his nineteenth year. During 1875 and 1876 he also attended lectures at the University of Michigan, and in 1876 entered the law department of the university and also studied law in the office of Prosecuting Attorney Robert E. Frazer, now Judge Frazer, of Detroit. Mr. Bower supported himself while in college by corresponding for a number of newspapers and conducting a humorons depart- ment in Ballou's Monthly, a Boston publication. He was accorded the degree of LL. B. in March, 1878, and soon thereafter was admitted to the bar in the Washtenaw circuit court. He was chosen by the Greek-letter secret society of the law department as its representative on the Pal- ladinm board for 1878, and was also elected, after a spirited contest, toast-master of his elass.
After graduating he arranged to practice law in Kansas City, but fate again overruled him. Soon after graduating he was sent for by the Detroit Evening News to fill temporarily an absent reporter's place. About this time the
country was indignant on hearing of the dis- covery, in the disseeting room of the medical college at Ann Arbor, of the body of the son of General Nevins, of Ohio. Bower was assigned to this case by the News. Ilis inside knowl- edge of the medical department, obtained while a student at the university, was all brought into use in this series of articles, which immediately gave him a local reputation as a newspaper re- porter. Later he obtained and wrote up for the News in an exhaustive manner the facts con- eerning the mysterious disappearance of Mar- tha Whitla, a young woman whose dead body was found in the River Rouge, sewed up in a sack. In these articles a citizen of Detroit considered himself accused of the murder of this girl, and he brought suit for $50,000 dam- ages against the Evening News. After an ex- citing trial, extending over many weeks, the jury returned a verdict in favor of the News. This vindicated Mr. Bower's statement of the facts, and as the plaintiff left the court room, a discomfited suitor, he was arrested on the charge of wilful murder. Two murder trials followed, the jury disagreeing on the first trial and ac- quitting on the second trial.
In 1878 Mr. Bower revived the Ann Arbor Democrat, turned the management over to his brother, Henry E. II. Bower, and continued his newspaper work in Detroit. In July of the same year he and Henry A. Griffin, the well- known Cleveland journalist and Secretary of the Ohio State Board of Commerce, started the De- troit Daily Mail. Capital was lacking to make it a success, and the paper suspended in a few weeks. In 1884 Mr. Bower became the man- aging editor of the Detroit Post and Tribune. When that paper was sold two years later he transferred his services to the Detroit Journal, and soon became its managing editor, remain- ing with it until the reorganization of the World Publishing Company of this city in July, 1890, when he was invited to accept its man- agement. He assumed his new duties on July 7th of that year. The World was only a small four-page daily of insignificant circulation; but
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capital was interested, Mr. F. B. Squire be- coming president of the company. Mr. Bower is one of the large stockholders. The World has grown in less than four years under his management to be the paper it is to-day.
In 1891 Mr. Bower wedded Mrs. Agnes Sin- clair Riggs, of Detroit, widow of Major John II. Riggs, and since his marriage has resided at 909 Prospect street. Ile is one of the hardest- working men in Cleveland, devoting his entire time to the management of the World.
IELIAM A. KNOWLTON, M. D., one of the well known and popular phy- sicians of Cleveland, is a prominent resident of the South Side of the city, where he has built up a representative and lucra- tive practice since he established himself in business there, in 1890. IIe was born at Olmsted Falls, Cuyahoga connty, Ohio, May 16, 1839, his parents being Dr. William and Mrs. Charlotte (Haskell) Knowlton, both of whom were natives of thic State of New York, where they grew to maturity, and were married. The father, who was a skilled physician and surgeon, came with his family to Ohio in 1838 and located at Olmsted Falls, where he engaged in the prac- tice of his profession, becoming widely and Favorably known for his ability and honor. Hle had received his medical education in the East and kept pace with the advancement made in his line of ocenpation. Ile had to endure the manifold hardships which ever fall to the lot of the pioneer physician, but he served the people in his field of labor faithfully and unselfishly, gaining the high estcem and the affection of those to whom he ministered. His death oc- curred in February, 1856, at which time he had attained the age of fifty years. His widow sur- vived until 1865, passing away abont the age of sixty-two years. The Ilaskell family was one of prominence in New York; a brother of Mrs. Knowlton was a member of Congress from the distriet in which Genosee, that State, is located.
Of the six children born to Dr. and Mrs. William Knowlton our subjeet was the youngest, and of the number only three are now living, namely: Ellen M. Voorhees, who is still a resi- dent of Cuyahoga county; Rev. A. W. Knowl- ton, a Presbyterian elergyman, located in Wayne conty; and our subject. Another brother, Dr. Angustus P., who died a few years since, was a practicing physician at Berea, Ohio, and had attained to a position of prominence in his pro- fession, being well known in Cleveland and in other parts of the State.
Our subject received an academic education under the tutorship of Professor Samnel Bissell, of Twinsburg, Ohio, and subsequently began the study of medicine under the preceptorship of. his brother, Augustus P., at North Royalton, Cnyahoga county. He is a graduate of the medical department of Wooster University and also holds a diploma from the medical depart- ment of the Western Reserve University. IIe began the practice of his profession at Brecks- ville, where he remained for nearly a quarter of a century, coming to Cleveland in 1890 and lo- cating at 530 Jeunings avenue, where his head- quarters have since been maintained. He has recently seenred a preferment which amply attests his ability and reputation, having taken the chair of obstetrics in the medical department of the Wooster University. He is a member of the Cuyahoga County, the Cleveland and the Ohio State Medieal Societies. In his fraternal relations he retains a membership in each the Masonic order, the Independent Order of Odd Follows and the Grand Army of the Republic.
Of the Doctor's war record it may be stated that he enlisted in May, 1862, for three months' service as a member of Company E, Eighty- fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. On being mustered out at the expiration of his term of enlistment, he again made ready to go to the front, and in October of the same year re- enlisted in Company E, Sixth Ohio Volunteer Cavalry, which was duly assigned to service in the Army of the Potomac. ITe was wounded at St. Mary's Church on the 24th of June, 1864,
.
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and was thus so disabled as to be unable to again join his company, which took an active part in numerons engagements, being one of the com- mands that served under General Sheridan. Dr. Knowlton rose by successive promotions until he was finally commissioned Captain by Gover- nor Brongh. Hle was innstered ont with his regiment in 1865.
In 1868 Dr. Knowlton was united in mar- riage to Mrs. Jennie M. Seymour, of Cleveland, Ohio. She died in 1880, at the age of forty years. The second marriage of the Doctor oc- eurred in 1882, when he was was united to Miss Fannie E., daughter of Owen P. Snow, of Brecksville. They have had three children, one of whom, Douglass, died at the age of one year. Those living are Margaret, aged eleven, and Donald, aged one year. Mrs. Knowlton is a devoted member of the Pilgrim Congregational Church of Cleveland.
H ON. DAVID MORISON, of Cleveland, was born in this city, of Scotch-Ameri- can parentage, and was thus equipped by nature with some of the best gifts of na- tivity to which man can fall heir -- the Scotch thoroughness and thrift and the American keen- ness and practical insight. His mother, Char- lotte C. (Bidwell) Morison, was a descendant of an excellent New England family, who trace their ancestry direct to the Mayflower, many of whom were Revolutionary patriots and citizens of Connecticut. His father, David Morison, Sr., was born in Edinboro, Scotland. After ac- quiring a collegiate education Mr. Morison pre- pared himself for the vocation of a thorough merchant and manufacturer, and at length came to America, loeating in Cleveland.
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