USA > Ohio > Ohio's progressive sons; a history of the state; sketches of those who have helped to build up the commonwealth > Part 20
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SCENES OF CINCINNATI, OHIO
HIGHLAND HOUSE INCLINED PLANE
ON THE OAKLEY RACE TRACK
"HORSE SHOE BEND" NEAR FORT THOMAS
and two Democrats, chosen on account of their merit and ability. Ile threw the responsi- bility of the management of these institutions entirely upon the Boards of Trustees, refus- ing in all cases to recommend people for place. This course resulted in a marked improve- ment in the management and a large saving in the cost of maintaining these institutions. lle also took a position in favor of the taxation of the liquor traffic, in opposition to the liquor interests, which demanded free trade; and in opposition to the Prohibitionists, who demanded the cessation of the traffic. The result of the legislation was the passing of the taxation law and the submitting to the people of two constitutional amendments, one favor- ing prohibition and the other license or taxation. Both amendments were defeated. together with the entire Republican ticket. For a time Mr. Foster became quite unpopular with his party, many of them charging him with leading them to defeat ; but he was soon fully vindi- cated. as the party took up his views, and deci led in favor of the measures he had proposed in the early stages of the contest. In 1889 President Harrison appointed him Chairman of a commission to negotiate a treaty with the Sioux Indians, which was successful in achiev- ing what the Government had been trying to accomplish for many years. In January, 1800, Mr. Foster received the votes of the Republican members of the Legislature for United States Senator, and in the same year he again became a candidate for Congress in the district which the year before had given Campbell for Governor a majority of 1.960. He came within 194 vetes of success. On the 27th of February, 1891, Mr. Foster was appointed Secretary of the Treasury by President Harrison. This appointment was received with great favor by all parties in all sections of the country. The successful adjustment of the four and one-half per cent loan which matured on the Ist of September, 1891. was one of the prominent events of his first year in office. Of the $50,869,200 41/2 per cent bonds which were outstanding on the ist of July. 1891. $25.364,500 were presented by the holders for continuance at 2 per cent per annum. and the remainder were called for redemption and paid upon presentation. No other finance officer has ever negotiated a public Ican at so low a rate of interest as two per cent. At the close of President Harrison's administration he returned to Fostoria, where he resumed his mercantile and banking business. He had previously become largely interested in outside corporations, for which he had endorsed, and this brought upon him financial dis- tress. As above stated, Mr. Foster had always been greatly interested in the public institu- tions of the State. He was the leading spirit in adopting the detached building or cottage plan for the construction of hospitals for the insane, and in the adoption of what is known as non-restraint treatment. He was Chairman of the committee which selected the grounds and built the State Hospital for the Insane at Toledo. This hospital is built on the cottage plan, the non-restraint treatment is practiced here and the hospital itself is regarded as the finest and best-conducted institution of its kind in the world. Mr. Foster was President of the Board of Trustees of this institution until his death. He died on the 9th of January, 1904. at Springfield. Ohio, while on his way to attend the inauguration of Governor Herrick in Columbus.
Governor Foster's successor, GEORGE HOADLEY, was born at New Haven, Con- necticut, on the 31st of July. 1826. In 1830. Governor Hoadley's parents removed to Cleve- land, where he obtained his education in the public schools and Western Reserve University. Ile graduated from this institution at the age of eighteen. The following year he spent at the Harvard Law School. under such professors as Joseph Story and Simon Greenleaf. He entered the office of Salmon P. Chase and Flamen Ball in Cincinnati in 1846. was admitted to the bar the year following, and soon after became a partner in that firm. In 1851 he was elected Judge of the old Superior Court of Cincinnati, serving until the court was abolished by the new constitution. Subsequently he was elected City Solicitor, and in 1859 was
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elected Judge of the new Superior Court, which office he resigned in 1866. He was twice offered the appointment of Judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio, but declined. In 1883 he was elected Governor of Ohio and served one term. Soon after the expiration of his term of office, on the 7th of March, 1887, he removed to New York City, and there maintained a lead- ing law practice until his death. He died at Watkins, New York, on the 26th of August, 1902. Governor Hoadley was for many years a professor in the Cincinnati Law School, and one of its trustees. For ability to quickly grasp and eloquently present a proposition of law, or fact, he has had no superior at the Ohio Bar. His fame as a great lawyer will go down to posterity in the law reports of the States of Ohio and New York, and of the Supreme Court of the United States. Governor Hoadley early became active in politics in the school of Salmon P. Chase. During the war he left the Democratic party, remaining in the Repub- lican party until 1872, when he went back to the Democracy. He affiliated with that organi- zation until 1896. His active political life ended, however, when he retired from the Gover- norship in January, 1886. When Mr. Hoadley was elected Governor of Ohio on the Demo- cratic ticket he had as opponent on the Republican side Joseph B. Foraker. Governor Hoadley obtained a plurality of 12.529 votes. Two years later Judge Foraker and Governor Hoadley were again the party leaders, and this time Foraker won by the plurality of 17,451 votes over his opponent.
JOSEPH B. FORAKER, like many of Ohio's great sons, sprang from the common people. Born near Rainsboro, Highland County, on the 5th of July, 1846, his father was one of the early pioneers of the section, and at the time of the birth of the future Senator was engaged in run- ning a small grist mill with a whipsaw attachment for getting out lumber. The elder Foraker died but a few years ago, after he had seen his son ascending the ladder leading up from the lowest rung to the pinnacle of statesmanship. Young Foraker was brought up amid the hills of Highland County, and his education early in his youth was but of a limited charac- ter. He divided the hard work of the farm with a little schooling and knew much of toil and privation until the bugle of war sounded for recruits at the breaking out of the rebel- lion. Although but sixteen years of age, he enlisted in the Eighty-ninth Ohio Volunteer Infantry as a private soldier, but within a year was promoted to the position of Sergeant, then to First Lieutenant, and finally to Captain of his company, for distinguished services in the field of battle. He was a soldier of that splendid army that unfurled the stars with Hooker "above the clouds," and swept like a thunder storm up the dizzy heights of Missionary Ridge; he was with Sherman at Dalton, Reseca and Kenesaw ; he helped crush out the heart of the Confederacy at Jonesboro and Atlanta ; he marched through Georgia from Atlanta to the sea and bore to a waiting nation the tidings of the fall of Savannah. For a time before the close of his term of service he was on the staff of General William Slocum, and by his daring ride as a JOSEPH B. FORAKER
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messenger of that commander he made possible the capture of General Joe Johnston. He was mustered out at the close of the war at the age of nineteen years, one of the youngest soldiers who ever carried a musket in defense of his country. Returning from the army to the paths of peace, young Foraker felt the need of more education, and he entered Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, from which institution he graduated with honor in 1860. Hle subsequently studied law and was admitted to the bar, taking up his residence in Cin- cinnati, at the hands of whose people he received his first commission - that of Superior Judge-elected in 1879 and serving for three years. His health giving way about that time he refused further service and was engaged in the practice of his profession when nominated for Governor by the Republicans of Ohio, in 1883. Even at that time he was one of the party leaders in Hamilton County, and the Republicans of that part of the State turned as one man to tender him the flag to carry in that momentous campaign. This campaign was one of the few disastrous ones in the history of the Republicans of Ohio. It followed closely upon the agitation engendered by the action of the Sixty-fifth General Assembly in enacting what was known as the Scott law to further provide for the evils resulting in the traffic in intoxicating liquors. In many of the larger cities of the State former Republicans took issue with the party on the liquor proposition, and the result was the defeat of Judge Foraker by Judge Hoadley, who had represented the liquor interests of the State in the litigation before the Supreme Court that resulted favorably to them, for the law was declared unconstitu- tional, and when a candidate was sought Judge Hoadley was turned to, and he accepted the honor. Two years later Judge Foraker was elected Governor of Ohio, and re-elected in 1887. This time he defeated Hon. Thomas E. Powell, then of Delaware County, by 23.329 votes. In 1880 Governor Foraker, against his own best judgments, but. bowing to the demands of some of his enthusiastic friends, was a candidate for a third term before the convention that met at Columbus, on the 25th of June. His name was not formally presented with that of the other candidates, but on the first ballot Governor Foraker received 254 votes, no other candidate receiving as many as 200, and before the result was officially declared enough delegates had changed to Foraker to give him the nomination. It is a part of the history of Senator Foraker's political life that he did not want the nomination. He believed he had been sufficiently honored by the party in the State, and thought some other leader ought to be given a chance. Besides he was a poor man and was convinced that he should turn his attention to his profession of the law that promised better financial returns. But his friends were inexorable, and in an interview held in the executive chamber it was determined that Governor Foraker should face the sentiment in the State and the Nation against a third term. although the position was reached only after the Governor had vehemently protested against again making him a candidate. The Democrats held their convention at Dayton on the 28th and 29th of August. and Hon. JAMES E. CAMPBELL, of Butler County, was nomi- nated for Governor. The campaign was a strenuous one, and Campbell was elected by a plurality of 10,872 votes. The balance of the Republican State ticket, however, was elected, but the Democratic majority in the Senate unseated Hon. E. L. Lampson, who had a majority of 222 votes on the face of the returns, and gave the Lieutenant Governorship to Hon. W. V. Marquis, of Logan. The two administrations of Governor Foraker were wise, economical and approved by the people. Many judicious laws were enacted by the General Assembly, the State debt was largely reduced and the universal verdict was that the execu- tive had been faithful to the people and alive to their best interests. In all the campaigns in which Governor Foraker was a candidate before the people the opposition press had no words of complaint in regard to the manner in which the affairs of the Commonwealth had been administered. In every Republican National Convention, beginning with 1884, Senator
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Foraker has been one of Ohio's "Big Four." In 1896, at St. Louis, he was Chairman of the Committee on Resolutions, and presented the name of William McKinley, of Ohio, for President ; in 1900, at Philadelphia, he again offered Mckinley for a second term in a speech that carried everything before it, brilliant in conception and delivery. In every campaign since 1883, when he stepped from the Judgeship of the Cincinnati Superior Court to the first nomination for Governor, his voice had been heard from the Ohio platforms, and in every National campaign since he became a figure in politics Senator Foraker has stumped other States in behalf of Republican candidates and principles. When Governor Foraker retired from the Governorship, in January, 1890, he at once resumed the practice of his profession in Cincinnati, but retained his hold on the affections and good will of his party in spite of his defeat. When the Republican State Convention met in Zanesville, on the 28th of May, 1895, the following resolution was adopted by an unanimous vote: "The election of a Republican Legislature in this State next November will enable Ohio to send to the United States Senate a Republican colleague to that grand old statesman, John Sherman, who has so long and so ably sustained the honor of Ohio as her representative in that august body. For this honorable place in the upper House of Congress the Republicans of this State have but one candidate, and we, their representatives here assembled, give voice to that unanimous selection in naming and recommending as their choice for that position that grand soldier, peerless orator and patriotic statesman, Joseph B. Foraker."
The venerable John Sherman was permanent Chairman of that convention and voted aye for the resolution. The endorsement of a candidate for the United States Senate was an inno- vation in Ohio politics for either party, but it worked so well that in 1897 and 1903 the Republicans of Ohio paid a similar honor to Senator Hanna. With the resolution of the Zanesville convention in mind, there was no opposition to the election of Governor Foraker to succeed Senator Calvin S. Brice, and on the 15th of January, 1896, he was elected for the full term, beginning March 4, 1897, and ending March 3, 1903. He took his seat with the inauguration of President McKinley, and at once assumed a leading position in the United States Senate. Senator Hanna had just been appointed to succeed John Sherman, who became Secretary of State in the Cabinet of the new President. In that distinguished body the reputation of the senior Senator had preceded him, and it was not long until he was recognized as one of the ablest debaters on the floor. He was a staunch supporter of President McKinley, in all his politics, and a great aid to the Chief Executive in the events leading up to the Spanish-American War. As in all matters of international significance, grave questions arose for consideration, and it was here the world first learned the true worth of Senator Foraker. His comprehensive knowledge of constitutional and international law amazed the Senate and the bulwarks of the sticklers looked like the fabled china shop after his masterly attacks. In all the one hundred days of the war that ended in the subjugation of Spain and the liberation of Cuba, he stood for the Mckinley administration and all it implied in the treatment of Cuba and the conquest of the Philippines. As Chairman of the Committee on Porto Rico he framed the policy for that island that brought order out of chaos and prosperity out of want and distress. In a banquet given at the St. Nicholas Hotel, Cincinnati, soon after the close of the war, Senor Barboso, a Porto Rican statesman, declared : "We love Senator Foraker. He is the father of liberty in Porto Rico; the father, I might say, of our new country. This great statesman, this citizen of Cincinnati, this man whom you all know and love so well, is not as well known personally in Porto Rico as he is here, but he is just as well known by reputation, and he is just as well loved. He framed and introduced a bill establishing civil government on the island. We had been under mili- tary government for four hundred years. The judiciary system was the system of favorit-
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isin. The Spanish Governor was absolute. What he desired the courts did. There was no liberty of press or pulpit, no liberty of person or property. The people were merely the unwilling children of a very cruel and thoughtless parent. Senator Foraker restored civil government. Ah, my friends, you who have never known what it is to live under a military government, do not and can not appreciate the joy that was ours when the Foraker bill was passed and civil government restored. In that bill the great Ohio Senator met the ideas and requirements of the people of the island in most essential particulars. Previously, the Republican party of Porto Rico was organized, and the first platform adopted in March, 1800, called for the very things that were afterwards granted in the Foraker bill. Is it any wonder that we love your Senator? Is it any wonder that we hope some day to be allowed to vote, and then be allowed to vote for him for President of the United States?"
With the brilliant record made by Senator Foraker in the greatest legislative body of the world, there was no thought of opposition to his return for another term. The conven- iton that nominated Governor Nash for a second term, in June, 1901, adopted a resolution endorsing his candidacy, and when the election declared a Republican majority in both branches of the Seventy-fifth General Assembly, only the name of Senator Foraker was on the lips of every Ohio Republican. On the 14th of January, 1902, Senator Foraker was elected for a second term, ending March 3, 1909. During the life of the martyred President William Mckinley, Senator Foraker was one of the close friends of the Chief Executive, and to President Roosevelt he has brought the same devotion that he showered upon his prede- cessor in that high office. When Major Mckinley was first nominated for Governor by the State convention that met in Columbus, in June, 1891, Governor Foraker presented his name in a characteristic speech. In the National conventions of 1896 and 1900 he presented his name for President. Senator Foraker is now in the very zenith of his powers. He stands in the van of the great men of the State and Nation-but the future undoubtedly has more and still higher honors in store for the senior Senator from Ohio, Joseph Benson Foraker.
After Governor Foraker's defeat for a third term JAMES EDWIN CAMPBELL took possession of the executive office. Mr. Campbell is a native of the Buckeye State, born at Middletown. Butler County, on the 7th of July, 1843. His father, Andrew Campbell, was a physician of prominence, and his uncle, Lewis D. Campbell, a statesman of note. One of his maternal ancestors took part in the battle of Lexington, and one of his paternal ances- tors was with Montgomery at the assault at Quebec. Both of his grandfathers were soldiers in the War of 1812. During the Civil War Mr. Campbell served in the navy upon the Mis- sissippi and tributary rivers. He was discharged for serious physical disability, but recov- ered, studied law and began practicing at Hamilton in 1867. He was Prosecuting Attorney of Butler County from 1876 to 1880. In 1882 Mr. Campbell was elected to Congress as a Democrat in a strongly Republican district ; and was re-elected in 1884 and 1886, gaining the last victory by a meagre plurality of two votes in a total of more than thirty-two thousand. In 1889 Mr. Campbell was elected Governor of Ohio, receiving a larger vote than ever cast before for any Gubernatorial candidate; and while in the Governor's office was noted for an inflexible adherence to that which he deemed to be right. In 1891 Governor Campbell was defeated for a second term by Major WILLIAM MCKINLEY, and in 1895, was again defeated by Asa S. Bushnell. William McKinley served two terms as Governor of Ohio. ASA SMITH BUSHNELL. his successor, was born at Rome, Oneida County, N. Y., on the 16th of September, 1834. His father was Daniel Bushnell. of Lisbon, Conn., son of Jason Bushnell, a soldier of the Revolutionary War, who served first in Captain Charles Miels' company of General Waterbury's brigade, and afterwards joined the army of Wash- ington at Tarrytown, N. Y. Daniel Bushnell and his family moved to Ohio about 1845,
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settling at Cincinnati, and there Asa S. Bushnell remained until 1851, when he became a member of the thriving community of Springfield, Clark County, Ohio. Without money, friends or influence, but possessed of a clearhead, active habits and perfect health, Asa S. Bushnell entered upon a business life. He became a clerk in a dry goods store, and served there three years; he then became bookkeeper in the firm of Leffel, Cook & Blakeney, and remained in their employ until the spring of 1857, when he accepted a posi- tion with Warder, Brokaw & Child, manufac- turers of mowers and reapers. In the fall of the same year he formed a partnership with Dr. John Ludlow in the drug business, which continued for ten years, and then he was admitted as a partner in the concern of his old employers, the firm name having been changed to Warder, Mitchell & Co. In that business he continued with great success and finally became the President of the Warder, Bushnell & Glessner Co., successors of the old firm, and one of the leading companies in the manufac- ture of mowers and reapers in the United States. Mr. Bushnell was a thorough business man and widely known as such, as he had been identified with many of the prominent and successful enterprises of Springfield and other cities. He had been for years President ASA S. BUSHNELL of the First National Bank of Springfield, and at the head of several corporations. He was a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, a 33d Degree Scottish Rite Mason, and trustee of the Ohio Masonic Home, to which he gave $10,000 in 1891, thus securing to Springfield the location of the institution. During the Civil War he raised a company and served in 1864 under General David Hunter, as its Cap- tain in the 152d Ohio Volunteer Infantry in the Shenandoah Valley. Governor Bushnell was an enthusiastic member of the G. A. R., being enrolled with Mitchell Post, Springfield; he was also one of the founders and an officer of the Ohio Society, Sons of the Revolution. For four years he was Quartermaster General upon the staff of Governor Foraker. Gover- nor Bushnell for many years had been prominent in Ohio Republican politics, having been a member of nearly every State and National convention within the last two decades. In 1892 he was one of the delegates-at-large to the Minneapolis convention, and in March, 1896, he was unanimously chosen as one of the delegates-at-large to the St. Louis conven- tion. After being actively engaged in local campaigns he was drafted into State politics, and in 1885 became the Chairman of the Republican State Executive Committee, under the management of which the party not only elected Governor Foraker by a handsome plurality, but also accomplished the unprecedented result of securing a majority in the General Assembly without the vote of Hamilton County, and thus re-elected John Sherman to the United States Senate. In 1887 he was nominated by acclamation as the Republican candi- date for Lieutenant Governor on the ticket with Governor Foraker, but for business rea- sons declined to accept the nomination. In 1889 there was a general demand that he should
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head the State ticket of his party, but he positively refused to allow his name to be used. In 1801 he was again urged to become a Gubernatorial candidate, but declined and supported Major MeKinley, who became the nominee by acclamation. He refused several times to become a Congressional candidate, and when, in May, 1895, the Republicans assembled in convention at Zanesville, nominated him as their candidate for Governor, he had not sought the honor. He was elected in November, 1895, by a plurality of 92.622, a victory greater than any ever achieved by a former Governor of Ohio, save John Brough, who was a war time candidate. On the 2d of November, 1897, Governor Bushnell was re-elected, receiving a plurality of 28.105. At the expiration of his second term Governor Bushnell retired to private life. While attending the inauguration of Governor Herrick, on the 11th of January, 1904. Governor Bushnell was stricken with apoplexy and died a few days after in Columbus, Ohio, mourned by the entire people of the State.
GEORGE K. NASH followed Governor Bushnell in the occupation of the executive office of Ohio. In the career of that distinguished gentleman is shown what can be accom- plished in this country under the most adverse circumstances by the youth who is spurred on to high endeavor by a laudable ambition to hold an important place in the world, and has only his clear brain, his honest heart and his capacity for work in his behalf. George Kilbon Nash only achieved his pre-eminent position by the practice of self-denial, and hard, earnest labor, for he was not born to the purple, but sprang from the lins of the so-called "common people." He came to the city that witnessed his inauguration as Governor, a poor, and almost friendless boy, full of energy and hon- orable ambition, but with an empty purse. That he held the proud position at the head of the State of his nativity is largely due to the fact that he has always stood for what is best in private and civic virtue, and been true to himself and his convictions. No man will challenge the statement that he has been faith- ful in every position in which he has been placed by the people. George K. Nash was a son of the Western Reserve, and in that his- toric ground he imbibed his love for Repub- lican principles. He was born in Medina County, on the 14th of August, 1842, and spent his early life working on the farm. His parents were Asa Nash and Electa Nash, both of whom came from Massachusetts, of old New England stock. The family consisted of three sons and two daughters, all of whom are r deceased. Governor Nash's educational advantages were meagre and consisted of GEORGE K. NASH attending the township schools, where he pre- pared for college, entering Oberlin at the age of twenty years. It was during his sophomore year in this institution of learning, in 1861, that the cry to arms rang out, and young Nash heeding the call, came to the defense of his country. He enlisted as a private in the 150th Regiment, O. V. I., and served with honor until the close of the war. Soon after his discharge from the service he came to Columbus, and engaged in school teaching as a means of livelihood. There are men and women now
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