USA > Ohio > Ohio's progressive sons; a history of the state; sketches of those who have helped to build up the commonwealth > Part 37
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writer for the press, and purchased the Marion Star, a progressive daily newspaper. It was a hard struggle to place the property on its financial feet, but the indomitable perseverance of Mr. Harding won the fight, and it is now a splendid paying investment. Warren G. Harding entered public life in the summer of 1899, when he was nominated Senator from the Thirteenth District, composed of the counties of Logan, Union, Marion and Hardin, and was elected by a big majority. As a mem- ber of the General Assembly he took high rank as a debater and legislator. His speeches in behalf of the reorganization of the city govern- ment of Cincinnati, and later to establish a new municipal code for the cities and villages of Ohio, were examples of earnest and logical debate. In that Senate he was Chairman of the Committee on Printing and member of many other important committees. In 1901, Senator Harding broke the one-term rule of the Thirteenth District that had been in vogue for a half century. His services had been so valuable to the people that they insisted upon his making a second race. There was no opposition in the district, and he was re-elected by an increased majority. In the Seventy-fifth General Assembly he was at once given the leadership of the Republican majority of the Senate, and remained unchallenged in that position until the close of the session. He was Chairman of the Committee on Insurance and a member of the Committees on Claims, Com- mon Schools, Federal Relations, Finance, WARREN G. HARDING Military Affairs, Taxation, Universities and Colleges, Banks, and Building and Loan Associations. His eloquence brought him the honor of presenting the name of Senator J. B. Foraker for a second election to the United States Senate, and adding his eulogy to the memory of the martyred President Mckinley at the services held by the joint Houses, on the 29th of January, 1902. At the Republican State Convention, in June, 1903, in Columbus, Senator Harding was nominated by acclama- tion for the office of Lieutenant Governor, and his election followed in November of the same year after a most strenuous campaign, in which Senator Harding, in company of United States Senator Hanna and the nominee for Governor, Myron T. Herrick, stumped the State. The writer of this sketch had the pleasure of listening to Mr. Harding at the tremendous Republican mass meeting held in Music Hall, Cincinnati, during the campaign of 1903, and it is his opinion that a more gifted orator has seldom been heard anywhere in this country than Warren G. Harding. His style of delivery is forcible, his arguments are convincing, his impromptu wit is unfailing and his statistical knowledge and memory are wonderful. The growth of Lieutenant Governor Harding has been healthy and steady in the good will of the people of Ohio, and a long and brilliant future is hoped for him. He was married to Florence M. Kling, a highly educated and accomplished lady, and a fitting helpmate of her distinguished husband.
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John A. Caldwell,
Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of the First District of Ohio, is one of the most popular and best known citizens of Cincinnati. He was born on the Ist day of April, 1852, in Fair Haven, Preble County, Ohio, and received a common school education in his native village, supplemented by a course in mathe- matics and in Latin. In 1876 he graduated from the Cincinnati Law School, and taught school during the fall and winter of 1877, and in the spring of 1878 entered upon the practice of law in Cincinnati. Judge Caldwell was elected Prosecuting Attorney in 1881 and re- elected in 1883. In 1885, Judge Fitzgerald, a man of great popularity, defeated Judge Cald- well for Police Judge of Cincinnati, but in 1887 he, in turn, defeated Judge Fitzgerald for the same office. But before he completed his term as Police Judge he was elected to repre- sent the Second Ohio District in Congress, and was re-elected in 1890 and 1892. As Congress- man from the Second District, he was con- spicuous as an advocate of all measures to protect the workingmen and afford justice and relief to the soldiers. He strongly advocated the eight-hour bill, under the provision of which Government contractors are prevented from forcing their men to work more than eight hours a day. He is the author of the bill JOHN A. CALDWELL to prevent the desecration of the American flag, and also of the anti-lottery bill. Judge Caldwell made the favorable report that secured the enactment of the Car Coupler law, requiring all railroad companies to adopt safety couplers on all trains engaged in interstate commerce, and advocated the re-classification of the various postal employees, under which all railway postal clerks and letter carriers are now working. Against the employment of convict labor on Government contracts Judge Caldwell took a firm stand, and he also was the author of a bill to require all prison-made goods, of whatever character, to be stamped, so as to show where and in what prison they were manufactured. While he was serving his third term in Congress he was unanimously elected Chairman of the Congressional Campaign Committee.
When it became necessary to Republican success in Cincinnati that the party select as its candidate for Mayor the strongest possible man before the people, Judge Caldwell was nominated to head the municipal ticket, in 1893, and he patriotically put aside his Congres- sional career, and was elected Mayor of Cincinnati. In 1899 Judge Caldwell was elected Lieutenant Governor of Ohio, and, in 1901, Judge of the Common Pleas Court of the First Ohio District. Judge Caldwell lives with his family in Cumminsville, Cincinnati.
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Harry L. Gordon,
Ex-Lieutenant Governor of Ohio, and President of the Council of the city of Cincinnati, was born in the village of Metamora, Franklin County, Indiana, on the 27th of August, 1860. He attended the public schools during the winter months and worked on the farm during the summer until he was eighteen years of age, when he left his country home for college. His college education was obtained in the Normal College at Ladoga, Indiana, and De Pauw University, at Greencastle, Indiana, from which university he was graduated with honors in 1882, receiving the degree of B. Ph. Three years later he received the honorary degree of A. M. He studied law with the firm of McDon- ald, Butler & Mason, in Indianapolis, Indiana, and was the chief clerk in that office from 1882 to 1887.
In January, 1887, he removed to Wichita, Kan., where he resided for ten years. While a resident of Kansas he was Assistant Prose- cuting Attorney, City Solicitor and a member of the Kansas State Senate. Immediately upon taking up his residence in Cincinnati he engaged actively in the practice of law, and in April, 1899, he was appointed a member of the Board of Supervisors of said city and in the following year was elected President of the Board, which position he held until April 1, 1903. He was appointed Lieutenant Governor by Governor George K. Nash to fill the HARRY L. GORDON vacancy caused by the resignation of Carl L. Nippert, on the 26th day of June, 1902, and at the special session of the Legislature which convened in August, 1902, he presided over the Senate in a manner which won for him the esteem and confidence of all with whom he came in contact. In the spring of 1903 he was elected President of the Cincinnati City Council.
Mr. Gordon has always been an ardent and enthusiastic Republican, having participated in almost every campaign since he graduated from college. He is a Scottish Rite Mason, Knight Templar and a member of the Mystic Shrine, and belongs to the leading clubs and business organizations of Cincinnati.
He was married on the 20th of April, 1892, to Esther L. Langtree, of Aurora, Indiana, and has one son, Harry L. Gordon, Jr.
Few men have risen more rapidly in political affairs in the State of Ohio than has Mr. Gordon, and he is to-day recognized as one of the potent factors not only in the affairs of the city wherein he resides, but throughout the entire State as well.
Asahel W. Jones,
Attorney at law at Youngstown, Ohio, ex-Lieutenant Governor of Ohio, was born at Johnstonville, Trumbull County, Ohio, on the 18th of September, 1835. His father, William P. Jones, was born in Hartford, Trumbull County, where his grandfather had removed
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from Barkhamstead, Connecticut, in 1801. General Jones' mother was Mary J. Bond, born at Avon Springs, New York, on the 26th of February, 1816, and emigrated to Hartford in 1833. On his father's side he is of Welsh descent and on his mother's of English or Irish. General Jones' ancestors settled in Connecticut in 1635, but fifteen years after the landing of the Mayflower, and the old homestead is to-day occupied by a lineal descendant of the family. Like all farmers' boys, General Jones received the rudiments of education in the district school, as farm work and opportunities offered. When about twelve years old he commenced to attend the Western Reserve Academy at West Farmington, Trumbull County, from which institution he graduated. Afterwards he entered Kingsville Academy, Ashtabula County. After leaving that seat of learning he read law with Curtiss & Smith, at Warren, Ohio, and on the 27th of September, 1859, he was admitted to the bar of Ohio. For several years he practiced in Warren, removing to Youngstown, in 1864, where he has been located ever since. General Jones filled the office of Prosecuting Attorney of Mahoning County for two terms, the first by appointment to fill a vacancy, and the second by election. For more than a quarter of a century he has been regarded one of the leading lawyers of Northern Ohio; he is thoroughly grounded in ASAHEL W. JONES legal principles, and few lawyers in Ohio are better able to expound the law. Many years ago he began the practice, in Mahoning County, of demanding from corporations adequate compensation for injuries inflicted on employees and others by the negligence of officials. His exceptional eloquence wrung from juries large verdicts, and his thorough knowledge of the law enabled him to sustain them in all the courts. So phenomenal was his success in the class of cases mentioned, that Mahoning County soon became the Mecca where all sufferers from corporation negligence in Eastern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania went to have their wounds healed. Under his leadership and tutelage the bar of Mahoning County has become the terror of railroad and other corporations. But General Jones' successes have by no means been confined to damage cases. He has figured on one side or the other of every class of cases tried in his judicial district within the past thirty years. His practice in the District and Circuit Courts of the United States is large and lucrative. In a number of important cases he has appeared before the Supreme Court of the United States, and there, as elsewhere, proved himself equal to any emergency, and entitled to rank among the great lawyers of the country. General Jones is interested in many important industrial and banking enterprises, and has given a large share of his attention to them. He is considered as one of the Republican leaders in the State. In connection with Judge Tripp, of Colum- biana County, he represented the Seventeenth Ohio Congressional District in the Repub- lican National Convention at Chicago in 1880. In 1884-1885 he was President of the Ohio State Bar Association, succeeding General Durbin Ward. In 1886 he was appointed by
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Governor Foraker on his military staff as Judge Advocate General, with the rank of Brigadier General, and was re-appointed in 1888. At the Republican State Convention held in Colum- bus on the 25th and 26th of June, 1889, he was one of the prominent candidates for the nomination for Governor. He received the third highest vote on the first ballot. In 1895 General Jones was elected Lieutenant Governor, and re-elected in 1897. The General is of commanding appearance, and with his massive head and broad shoulders would attract attention everywhere. As an orator he bears out the impression given by his splendid physique, his blows falling like those of a sledge hammer, clinching every point as he pro- ceeds. As a political speaker, he has but few equals and no superiors, and his services have been much in demand in political campaigns. As a man and a citizen, General Jones is deservedly popular. Possessed of a frank and hearty demeanor, he is the personification of genial good nature. He is known and regarded as one of Youngstown's most enter- prising citizens, a friend of progress and improvements, socially, morally and educationally. General Jones is a prominent member of the Masonic fraternity and St. John's Commandery, Knights Templar, of Youngstown.
Robert P. Kennedy,
Was born at Bellefontaine, Ohio, on the 23d of January, 1840, and was educated in the public schools and in the East. At the beginning of the War of 1861, he was attending school in the East, and hastened home to join one of the first companies enlisted for the service.
The first company enlisted in Logan County started for Camp Chase on Tuesday suc. ceeding the firing upon Ft. Sumter, and went into the three months' service. On the follow- ing day Captain Israel Canby, First Lieutenant C. W. Fisher and Second Lieutenant Robt. P. Kennedy began the organization of the second company, which became Company F, Twenty-third Ohio, the first three-years regiment. The company was enlisted for three months, but before it got into camp President Lincoln issued his call for three-year troops and it became a three-year company in a three-year regiment.
This regiment became one of the most distinguished in the service, numbering among its officers Rosecrans, Hayes, Canby, Matthews, Mckinley and others. After the war he studied law with Judge Wm. H. West and the Hon. James Walker, and entered into part- nership with them in the practice of the law in Bellefontaine, which partnership continued until 1878, when he was appointed Collector of Internal Revenue by President Hayes.
In 1885 he was elected Lieutenant Governor of Ohio, taking his seat in January, 1886, and served as such until March, 1887, when he resigned to take a seat in Congress, to which he had been elected in the fall of 1886. He was re-elected to Congress in 1888, and served in the Fiftieth and Fifty-first Congresses. In 1899 President Mckinley appointed him Presi- dent of the Insular Commission to investigate and report upon the conditions existing in Cuba and Porto Rico, and to formulate a code of laws for Porto Rico. He has always been an ardent Republican, and has been heard on the stump in every campaign since 1867, and has been in nearly every State from Maine to the Dakotas. He now resides in Bellefon- taine.
In 1862 he married Maria Lewis Fordner, the third daughter of General Isaac S. Ford- ner, who died in January, 1893, and in September, 1894, he married Mrs. Emma C. Men- denhall, the daughter of Hon. Calvin Cowgill, of Hobart, Indiana.
The war record of the subject of this sketch, as furnished by the War Department, is as follows: Entered into the service as Second Lieutenant of Company F, Twenty-third Ohio Infantry, June 1, 1861; promoted to Second Lieutenant of Company A, April
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13, 1862; left Camp Chase for Benwood, West Virginia, on the 25th of July, 1861; thence to West Virginia, July 28, 1861; remained on duty at Weston, Sutton, Sum- merville and Glennville, West Virginia, until September, 1861 ; appointed Assistant Adju- tant General of the First Brigade of the Kanawha Division, serving as such from August, 1861, to September, 1862; battle of Carnifax Ferry, September 10, 1861 ; to Little Sewell Mountain, September 15, 1861, and to New River, October, 1861 ; action at Cotton Mountain, November 12. and 13; at Fayette Courthouse until December 1, 1861 ; Raleigh Courthouse, December 31, 1861, to April 1, 1862; action at Bliveston, February 8, 1862; expedition to Blue Stone River, February 10. and 12; advance on Princeton, April 22. to May 1 ; action at Clark Hollow, May 1, 1862; action at Princeton, May 8, 1862; Giles Courthouse, May 10, 1862; Flat Top Mountain, July 5, 1862; Pock's Ferry, August 6, 1862; movement at Wash- ington, D. C., August 15 and 24; battle of Bull Run Bridge, August 27, 1862; assigned to duty as Assistant Adjutant General of the Second Kanawha Division on the staff of Colonel E. P. Scammon, Ninth Corps of Army of the Potomac, October, 1862; engagement at Monocacy Bridge, Maryland, September 12, 1862 ; engagement at Frederick, Maryland, Sep- tember 12, 1862; engagement at Middletown, Maryland, September 13, 1862; battle of South Mountain, Maryland, September 14, 1862; battle at Antietam, Maryland, September 16 and 17, 1862; commissioned Captain and Assistant Adjutant General of United States Volunteers and assigned to duty with Brigadier General George Crook, commanding Second Kanawha Division, Ninth Army Corps, Army of the Potomac; movement to West Virginia, October 23. to November 14, 1862; operation in West Virginia, November, 1862, to January, 1863; transferred with General George Crook to the Army of the Cumberland, Nashville, Ten- nessee, January, 1863; on duty as Adjutant General, Third Brigade, Fourth Division, Four- teenth Corps, on staff of General George Crook until June, 1863; assigned to duty as Adjutant General of the Second Division of Cavalry, Army of the Cumberland, on staff of General George Crook and General Kenner Garrard from June, 1863, to September, 1864, participating in scouting to Rome, Georgia, March 24 and 25, 1863; reconnaisance to McMinnville, April 13 and 14, 1863; Middle Tennessee and Tallahama campaigns, June 23 to July 7, 1863; Hoover's Gap, June 25 to 28, 1863 ; Shelbyville, June 27 ; battle of Chickamauga, Georgia, September 18 to 21, 1863; Thompson's Gap, Cumberland Mountains, October 3, 1863; McMinnville, October 4, 1863; Farmington, October 7, 1863; operations against guer- rillas from Shelbyville, Tennessee, to Rome, Georgia, October to December ; raid on Bragg's fortification, November 22 to 28, 1863; reconnaisance to Dalton, Georgia, February 23 to 28, 1864 ; promoted to Major and Assistant Adjutant General of United States Volunteers, April 13, 1864; Atlanta campaign, May to September, 1864; operations against Dalton, Georgia, May 5 to 13 ; battle of Resaca, May 13 to 15; near Rome, Georgia, May 15, 1864; Arundel Creek and Floyd Springs, May 16, 1864; engagement at Kingston, Georgia, May 18; battles about Dallas, New Hope Church, Pumpkin Vine Creek and Altoona Hills, May 25 to June 4; Big Shanty, June 9; operations against Pine and Kenesaw Mountains, June I to 3; McAfee's Cross Roads, June II; Moonday Creek, June 15 to 19; Lattimer's Mills and Power Springs, June 20; near Marietta, Georgia, June 23 to July 3; operations on line of Chatta- hochie River, July 5 to 17; raid to Covington, Georgia, July 27 to 31 ; Lattimer's July 27; engagement at Flat Rock, Georgia, July 28; siege of Atlanta, Georgia, August 1 to 15; engagement at Decatur, August 5; raid around Atlanta, August 18 to 20; Jonesboro, August 19 and 20; Lovejoy Station, August 20; battle of Jonesboro, August 31 to September I; retired from duty as Adjutant General with Second Cavalry, Division of the Army of the Cumberland, and ordered to report to Major General George Crook, in the Shenandoah Valley as Adjutant General and Chief of Staff of the Army of West Vir-
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ginia ; battle of Cedar Creek, October 19, 1864; breveted Lieutenant Colonel United States Volunteers, November 17, 1864; on duty in the Shenandoah Valley until February, 1865; when he was assigned to duty as Adjutant General of the Middle Military Division on the staff of Major General Winfield Scott Hancock; appointed Colonel of the One Hundred and Ninety-sixth Ohio Volunteers, April 13, 1865; on duty with regiment at Winchester, Virginia, until July, and garrison duty at Baltimore and Forts Henry and Delaware until September, 1865; breveted Brigadier General of United States Volunteers; mustered out of service and honorably discharged, September 22, 1865. During his service as Adjutant General and Chief of Staff, Army of West Virginia, he had as one of his assistants William McKniley. Before leaving the Army of the Cumberland, in 1864, he was invited by Major General George H. Thomas, commanding that army, to become a member of his staff as Chief of Cavalry of the Army of the Cumberland. The assignment of general officer of the regular army by the War Department to this position interfered with this proffered honor by General Thomas and almost immediately thereafter he was, by special order of General Grant, upon the request of Major General Crook, transferred to the Army of West Vir- ginia, as Chief of Staff of that army. In 1862, at the battle of Antietam, by the fortunes of war, he was in temporary command of a portion of the left wing of the army, and upon the review of that army by President Lincoln, on the battle-field at Antietam, he was called to the front and presented to President Lincoln as "the youngest commander in the Army of the Potomac."
Elbert Leroy Lampson,
Of Jefferson, ex-Lieutenant Governor of Ohio, is a native of the county in which he makes his home. He was born on the 30th of July, 1852, at Windsor, Ashtabula County, and is the son of Chester Lampson, a farmer, and Emerette Griswold Lampson, both of whom were native Americans, the former being born in this State and the latter in New Hampshire. Mr. Elbert L. Lampson received his education in the district schools, after which he attended the Orwell Academy, the Grand River Insti- tute at Austinburg, Ohio, and the law depart- ment of the Michigan University, graduating from the Grand River Institute in 1875, and from the latter in 1878. At the age of twenty- five he started in public life as County School Examiner of Ashtabula County, which position he filled for eight consecutive years. In 1883 he purchased the Jefferson Gazette, a news- paper now owned by E. C. and R. D. Lampson. Mr. Lampson has always been a staunch Republican and has served the party of his ELBERT LEROY LAMPSON choice in many capacities. In 1884 he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention, representing the Nineteenth Congres- sional District, and in 1900 he was Reader in the Republican National Convention at Phila- delphia, which nominated President Mckinley for his second term of office, and also in the Republican National Convention at Chicago in 1904. In 1885 Mr. Lampson was elected to
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the lower House of the General Assembly of Ohio. He represented his constituents and the people in general in such a satisfactory manner that he was re-elected two years later by an increased majority. In 1889 he was nominated by the Republican Statc Convention as Lieutenant Governor, and while he was elected to that position in the following election, he was unseated shortly after the organization of the Senate of the Sixty-ninth General Assembly by the Democratic majority for political purposes. While he was a member of the House, Mr. Lampson, in 1888, was elected Speaker of that body, serving in that position for a period of two years. In 1891 he was elected to the Senate of the Seventieth General Assembly and was chosen President pro tem of the Senate. Mr. Lampson is the author of the Ohio Automatic Coupler and Air Brake law and of various amendments to the Australian Ballot law, as well as of the original resolution adopted by the Republican State Conven- tion for biennial sessions of the Legislature, and of numerous amendments to the statutes of the State. In 1895 Mr. Lampson was appointed to his present position as Reader in the House of Representatives of the National Congress. He has made speeches in four National campaigns and in ten States' (including Missouri in 1904) under the National Republican Committee. In passing, it should be mentioned that in the Congressional Convention of 1898 for over forty ballots he had the solid support of the Ashtabula delegates, and that he gave his support on the forty-seventh ballot to General Charles Dick, which resulted in the election of that gentleman to Congress. On the 10th of May, 1904, he was a candidate to succeed General Dick at the convention, held at Warren, Ohio, and led on every ballot until the eighteenth, and only lacked four votes of a nomination. Socially, Mr. Lampson is a member of different branches of the Masonic fraternity and of the Sons of the American Revolution. His grandfather, Ebenezer Lampson, was a soldier in the War of the Revolu - tion, having enlisted in Connecticut. He came to Ohio in 1809. Mr. Lampson is financially interested in the Pennsylvania & Ohio Electric Railway Company and the Jefferson Banking Company, at Jefferson, Ohio. On the 5th of August, 1875, he was united in marriage to . Mary L. Hurlburt, of Hart's Grovc, Ohio, daughter of E. G. Hurlburt. Four children -- E. C. Lampson, L. V. Lampson, Lillian D. Lampson Anthony, and Clara M. Lampson-are the issue of their union. His son, E. C. Lampson, married Pearle May Evans, and they have two children, a daughter named Elizabeth Corolynn, and a son named Elbert Wel- lington Lampson. His daughter Lillian married Gould R. Anthony, of Scotland, Conn., a Congregational minister. Mr. Lampson resides with his family in a pleasant home in Jefferson, Ashtabula County, Ohio.
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