USA > Ohio > Ohio's progressive sons; a history of the state; sketches of those who have helped to build up the commonwealth > Part 67
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Massachusetts. While in Europe, Dr. Ayers gave special attention to the methods of education prevailing in the German gymnasia and universities. Dr. Ayers' work at the University of Cincinnati was pre-eminently successful, but on account of difficulties with the Board of University Trustees, Dr. Ayers left the institution in the spring of 1904.
Dr. Ayers is a man of fine physique, of tremendous energy, and unwavering fixity of purpose. While at the University of Michigan and at Harvard he was a member of the University foot ball teams, and he rowed on the class crew at the latter place. After his retirement, Dr. Ayers became interested in a large Cincinnati industrial enterprise.
Charles G. Heckert,
President of Wittenberg University, at Springfield, Ohio, was born in Northumber- land, Pennsylvania, on the 22d of March, 1863. His parents were Benjamin and Sarah (Durst) Heckert, who were natives of the Keystone State. When the boy was eight years of age the family moved to Sunbury, Pennsylvania, where for many years the father was promi- nently identified with the commercial interests of that city. Dr. Heckert acquired his pre- liminary education in the public schools of Sunbury, graduating from the High School with honors at the age of fifteen. Two years were then spent in business, after which, ambitious for college training, the boy of sev- enteen started for Springfield, Ohio, in 1880, to enter Wittenberg College as a member of the Freshman class. Here he pursued his studies for two years, after which he engaged in teaching for a similar period. Returning to his chosen institution, he was graduated CHARLES G. HECKERT with first honors in the class of 1886. Wishing to give his life to the work of the gospel ministry, he entered upon a course in theology in the Wittenberg Theological Seminary, being graduated in 1889.
His career as a teacher began during his last year in the seminary, when he accepted a position as instructor in the Wittenberg Academy. At the time he had not the thought in mind of making teaching his life work. After three years' work in the Academy, two of which were spent as Principal, he was advanced to the Chair of English and Logic in the college. This chair he occupied for ten years, resigning this in 1903 to accept the Presi- dency of his Alma Mater.
On the 24th of July, 1889, Dr. Heckert was united in marriage to Miss Addie R. Royer, of Lamar, Pennsylvania.
Dr. Heckert has been managing editor of the Lutheran World, one of the leading church papers of his denomination in this country. He has been Secretary and President of the Miami Synod of this State. He was for awhile a member of the Springfield Board of Education, and has always taken a strong interest in every political movement looking to increased efficiency and purity of municipal and State government. He was for three
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years President of the Springfield Law and Order League. Socially, he has been connected with the Masonic fraternity, being a thirty-second-degree Mason.
Dr. Heckert was inaugurated President of Wittenberg College in June, 1903, since which time he has devoted himself almost exclusively to the administration of the affairs of the institution. His class-room work is now confined solely to the Chair of Logic. He is a contributor to the leading papers and magazines of his denomination.
William Oxley Thompson,
The great strides taken by Ohio along educational lines and the wonderful growth of the college and university idea in this com- monwealth, is largely due to her controlling forces at the head of her educational institu- tions. The people year by year come to set greater store on higher education, and the youth are looking more and more to securing that which will benefit them in their adult life, but after all, the individual success of each college and university is largely con- trolled by the personality that directs its affairs. The Boards of Trustees manage the financial and business ends of these educa- tional enterprises, but the popularity of the President, his thoroughness as an educator, his character, and, above all, his energy in push- ing the claims of the school with which he is connected, and his ability to make good these claims, go far toward paving the way to edu- WILLIAM OXLEY THOMPSON cational and financial success. The Ohio State University at Columbus, that most important ward of the Buckeye State, has grown and expanded until to-day it stands among the foremost of its class in this country, and this condition of affairs is in a great measure due to the men who have been the dominant factors in its management and control. When the roll is called of the Presidents who have wrought well to promote the interests of this great and beneficent institution, the name of William Oxley Thompson will very nearly, if not quite, follow the example set by Abou Ben Adhem, who "led all the rest." In the six years that he has had it under his care, constant and convincing growth has been the watchword and result, until to-day it looms up as not only the greatest university in Ohio, but fast approaching the standard set by historic Oxford on the tight little island. Dr. William Oxley Thompson was not born of the purple. He had to hew his own way in the world, and he burned the midnight oil in order that he might secure an education that has since placed him in the front rank of those whose task it is to prepare for the realities of life. He was born on the 5th of November, 1855, at Cambridge, Ohio, the son of David Glenn Thompson. His parents were poor in this world's goods, and his education at home was confined to the country, district and town schools. He was ambitious, however, to secure a good education, and at the age of twelve years began to support himself by working on a farm. His mother was a superior woman mentally, and from her he inherited that love for the high things
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that afterwards marked his adult life and made him a factor in the work of education. He graduated from Muskingum College, New Concord, Ohio, with the degree of A.B. in 1878, taught school at Lawn Ridge, Illinois, one year, to get money to complete his educa- tion, and in September, 1879, he entered Western Theological Seminary, at Allegheny, Pennsylvania, graduating therefrom in 1882, receiving the degree of A.B., in 1881, from his Alma Mater. After leaving school he entered the Presbyterian ministry, accepting a charge at Odebolt, Sac County, lowa, in May, 1882, and remained until April, 1885, when he was called to the pastorate of the Presbyterian Church at Longmont, Colorado. In October of that year he was elected President of Longmont College, which position he filled in con- nection with his pastorate for four years. In 1891 he was called to Miami University, at Oxford, Ohio, beginning his work there in August of that year. Under his management the institution took on a new life and largely increased its sphere of usefulness. In 1899 Dr. Thompson was chosen President of the Ohio State University, a position he has filled with pre-eminent success. The university and its fast increasing clientele of friends and patrons are sufficient proof of Dr. Thompson's fitness for his important and responsible position. On the 21st of September, 1882, at Indiana, Pennsylvania, Dr. Thompson was united in marriage to Miss Rebecca J. Allison, who died on the 15th of August, 1886 at Longmont, Colorado. One daughter, Bessie Thompson, was the issue of that union. In October, 1887, he was wedded to Helen Starr Brown, at Longmont, and two sons, Lorin and Roger, were born to them. Mrs. Thompson died on the 27th of December, 1890. In June, 1894, Dr. Thompson married Estelle Clark, of Cleveland, a brilliantly educated and highly accomplished lady, who now graces his home. Dr. Thompson in all his educational career has been a positive force for good and progress. He is broad-minded, and has a gencrous way of looking at things. His strong executive ability, hearty co-operation with the educational growth of the State, his sound common sense and his manly character are all strong additions to his splendid personality. He is a man of great mental and physical vigor and resistless energy, and the splendid financial aid extended to the Ohio State Uni- versity by the General Assembly is largely due to the high position he occupies in the minds of the legislators.
Carl Eckert Steeb,
Secretary of the Ohio State University, at Columbus, was born on the Ioth of November, 1874, at Medina, Ohio. His father, John Steeb, was a native of Germany and his mother a native of the Buckeye State. Mr. Steeb was carefully educated, attending the public schools of his home district and the Medina High School, after which he entered the Ohio State University, graduating from that insti- tution in 1899 with the degree of B. Ph. At the age of twenty-nine years Mr. Steeb started into his career of public usefulness, accepting a position as an accountant in the Ohio State University. In the fall of 1904 he was elected
CARL ECKERT STEEB
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to his present position, that of Secretary of his Alma Mater. On the 17th of October, 1900, he was united in marriage to Miss Kathryn M. Davy. One daughter, Helen Anderson Steeb, is the issue of their union. Mr. Steeb and his family are members of the Congregational Church of Medina, Ohio. Mr. Steeb is a member of the Masonic fraternity, the Royal Arcanum, and the college fraternity, Sigma Alpha Epsilon. In political life, Mr. Steeb is a staunch Republican. His offices are located in the Administration Building of the O. S. U., and his residence is at No. 1437 Hunter Street, Columbus, Ohio.
Wilbur Henry Siebert,
Secretary of the Faculty of the O. S. U., was born on the 30th of August, 1866, in Columbus, Ohio, and is the son of Louis and Sarah A. Siebert. On his father's side he is of German descent; on his mother's his ancestry is Dutch and English. His paternal grandfather, Henry Lawrence Siebert, was a German patriot, who fought in the wars against Napoleon Bonaparte, and in the early '30's favored the liberal or constitutional movement in Germany. As the period proved to be one of political reaction, however, Mr. Siebert, like many of the better class of Ger- mans of that day, decided to emigrate to the United States, where he could be free in his 1 political beliefs, and where also his sons, of whom there were six, would not be called on to do military service in the cause of despot- ism. The Siebert family, therefore, left Frankfort-on-the-Main and came to America in 1832, settling first at Somerset, Ohio, but WILBUR HENRY SIEBERT at length removing to Columbus on the 15th of July, 1834. Professor Siebert's maternal grandfather was Henry Van De Water, a member in the fourth generation of the Dutch family of that name that settled at New York. His maternal grandmother was Sarah Brand Van De Water, who was of English stock, and a native of New Jersey. This branch of the Van De Waters removed from New York City to Columbus in 1834 by way of the Erie and Ohio Canals.
Mr. Siebert's early education was obtained in the public schools of Columbus. He graduated from the Central High School in 1883, receiving a commencement part on that occasion. In the fall of the same year he entered the Ohio State University, but was pre- vented from graduating with his class on account of severe illness at the beginning of his Junior year. He received the degree of B.A. in 1888, being chosen the commencement rep- resentative of his course by vote of the Faculty:
In September, 1888, Mr. Siebert entered Harvard University for advanced study in philosophy and history. At the end of the first year he was given the degree of B.A., with honorable mention, and at the end of the second, the degree of M.A. While in Harvard, Mr. Siebert was one of the prime movers in the organization of the Graduate Club of Har- vard, which now numbers two hundred and fifty members. He was chosen to be first President of this society, which has since been patterned after in many of the leading
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universities of the country, the various clubs combining into a general association for the promotion of graduate studies, degrees, etc.
The academic year of 1890-1891 Mr. Siebert spent in German universities, taking lec- tures in history and philosophy under Von Holst, Riehl and others in Freiberg in Baden, and under von Freitschke, Schaeffer-Boichorst, Marcks and others in Berlin. In the fall of 1891 he accepted a position as assistant in history and political science in the Ohio State University. He was made assistant professor two years later, associate professor of European history in 1898, and promoted to a full professorship in 1902. He was also made Secretary of the General Faculty in the last-named year.
The years 1895 and 1896 he was absent from the State University on leave, doing advanced work in European history at Harvard, and completing his investigations con- cerning the Underground Railroad, so-called, a most curious and notable feature of the American anti-slavery movement. The results of Professor Sicbert's researches on this subject appear in his volume, "The Underground Railroad from Slavery to Freedom," published by the Macmillan Company in 1898 and reprinted in 1899. Of this work the American historian, Professor A. B. Hart, of Harvard, says: "Professor Siebert has rescued and put on record events which in a few years will have ceased to be in the memory of living men. He has done for the history of slavery what the students of ballad and folk- lore have done for literature ; he has collected perishing materials. . . . The ground has been carefully traversed, and it is not likely that much will ever be added to the body of information collected by Professor Siebert." Mr. Siebert is also the author of "The Government of Ohio, Its History and Administration," shortly to be published_by the Mae- millans, besides articles and reviews in various magazines.
In college, Mr. Siebert was a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. He was a charter member of the chapter at Ohio State University. He was made chief of the New England district on going to Harvard (1888-1890) ; Catalogue Secretary, 1892-1893 ; Keeper of the Rolls, 1893-1896, and member of the Board of Trustees and Secretary of the Board, 1893-1895. Mr. Siebert also belongs to a number of learned societies. He is a Fellow of the American Geographical Society and member of the American Historical Society, the American Academy of Political and Social Science, American Bibliographical Society, and the American Political Science Association. He is President of the Harvard Club of Central Ohio, and was member of the Council of the Associated Harvard Clubs in 1902.
During the past six years Mr. Siebert has been connected with the Governing Board of the Godman Guild House, a social settlement of Columbus, which he helped to organ- ize, and which now owns extensive grounds, a commodious building and an endowment through the generosity of Mr. and Mrs. Henry C. Godman. For the past five years Mr. Siebert has been President of the Guild. He is also a member of the Board of Associated Charities of Columbus.
On the 16th of August, 1893, Mr. Siebert married Annie Ware Sabine, daughter of Hon. Hylas Sabine, and graduate in arts of the Ohio State University, and in science of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Mr. Siebert is a member of the First Congregational Church of Columbus. His resi- dence is at 182 West Tenth Avenue, and his office Room 36, University Hall, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.
George Wells Knight, Ph. D.,
Chairman of the Administrative Board of the Graduate School, Ohio State University, at Columbus, Ohio; Professor of History and Political Science and acting Dean of the
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Law Department in the same University, was born on the 25th of June, 1858, at Ann Arbor, Michigan. He is of New York and New Eng- land parentage, and through his mother is a lineal descendant of William Bradford, second Governor of the Plymouth colony. Dr. Knight was educated in the public schools of Ann Arbor, graduating from the High School in 1874, after which he entered - Michigan University at his home city, taking a classical course and graduating from that institution in 1878. He then for one year studied law at the University. The following two years he was Principal of the High School at Lansing, Michigan. Having had from his youth a speciai fondness for history and political science, he returned to Ann Arbor and con- tinued his studies in those lines at the Uni- versity, receiving the degree of Doctor of GEORGE WELLS KNIGHT, PH. D. Philosophy in 1884. After teaching history for a year in Ann Arbor, Dr. Knight was elected Professor of History and English Literature in the Ohio State University at Colun- bus, and in 1887, by a re-arrangement of the teaching force, became Professor of History and Political Science in the same institution. He then went abroad, and in the years of 1889-1890 took a special course of studies at the Universities of Halle, Berlin and Freiberg. Since 1898 Dr. Knight has occupied the Chair of American History, Political Science and Law. In 1885 he published, through the American Historical Association, a work on "The History and Management of Land Grants for Education in the Northwest Ter- ritory." In 1887 he was made managing editor of the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly, the official publication of the State Historical Society, which position he has held for a number of years. After the death of Mr. William F. Hunter, in 1903. Dr. Knight became acting Dean of the Law Department of the O. S. U. In 1882 Dr. Knight was mar- ried to Miss Marietta A. Barnes, of Lansing, a graduate of Vassar College.
George Beecher Kauffman,
Professor of Pharmacy, and Dean of the College of Pharmacy, of the Ohio State Uni- versity, at Columbus, Ohio, was born on the 19th of September, 1854, at Lancaster, Ohio. Both parents of Mr. Kauffman were natives of this country. his father, George Kauffman,
GEORGE BEECHER KAUFFMAN
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being born in Maryland, and his mother, Henrietta Parnel Beecher, in Connecticut. Receiving his early education in the common schools of the district in which he was brought up, he later entered the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, Ohio, from which cele- brated institution he graduated in 1875, with the degree of B. Sc. He also holds the degree of Pharm. D. At the age of thirty-one years Mr. Kauffman became connected with the Ohio State University in the capacities above mentioned. For many years he has been closely identified with the wholesale and retail drug business of Columbus, and at the pres- ent writing he is General Manager and director of the Kauffman-Lattimer Company, one of the largest drug firms in the State. He also is interested in other industrial enterprises, and is Vice President of The Pioneer Stove Company, as well as The Lattimer-Williams Stove Company. On the 5th of September, 1877, Dr. Kauffman was united in marriage to Miss Eunice Hughes. Five children are the result of this union, as follows: Margaret Glenn, Henrietta Christine, Myros Beecher, George Hughes and Linns Lee Kauffman. In political belief, Dr. Kauffman is a staunch Republican. He occupies a pretty residence on the State University grounds, and while not engaged in his professional capacity in the University, can be found at his private office in the building of the Kauffman-Lattimer Company, located on the corner of Front and Chestnut Streets, Columbus, Ohio. He and his family attend the Methodist King Avenue Church in his home city.
David Stuart White,
Dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine of the Ohio State University, at Columbus, Ohio, since 1895, is a native of Staten Island, New York, at which place he was born on the 28th of September, 1869. He is of Scotch- Irish ancestry, and the son of William Henry White, a retired merchant, born in Louisiana, and Catherine Ann Elliott, a native of New York. The grandfather of Dr. White was a New Englander. In the public and private schools of New York he received his educa- tion, after which he attended the Ohio State University, graduating with the class of 1890, receiving the degree of D.V.S. He then went abroad and became a student in the Royal Veterinary Schools at Hanover and Berlin, remaining there during the years of 1890 and 1891. At the Imperial Veterinary Institute at Vienna he was a student in 1892, and in 1893 he attended the Royal Veterinary College of Dresden. His course of foreign study DAVID STUART WHITE occupied a period of three years, at the termi- nation of which time he returned to America Photo by Baker, Columbus. O. and became assistant in Veterinary Medicine in the Ohio State University. This position hc held from 1893 to 1895, when he was elevated to the Deanship of the Veterinary College of the same University. Dr. White has written several monographs, and is the translator of a work on veterinary medicine. In 1898 Dr. White was appointed by Governor Bushneil Secretary of the State Board of Veterinary Examiners. He was elected in 1903 President
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of the Council of Marble Cliff, of which body he had served as a Trustee previously. He is a leading Mason, and was a member of the old Fourteenth Ohio Regiment, O. N. G. In 1896 Dr. White was united in marriage to Miss Nellie Smith, of Marietta, Ohio. By this union he is the father of one daughter. The position occupied by Dr. White is an evidence of his deep learning and broad experience in veterinary medicine, in which science he is considered an authority of National reputation. His residence is located on West Fifth Avenue, outside of the city limits of Columbus, Ohio.
Stillman W. Robinson, C. E., D. Sc.,
Professor Emeritus in Mechanical Engin- eering in the Ohio State University, was born on a farm in Reading, Vermont, in 1838. From the earliest age when a child begins to notice construction he was interested in mechanical appliances, thus giving evidence of the natural trena of his mind, and soon he began the work of construction, making little water- wheels, which were put in motion in the water guzzles. After he had attained the age of eight years he had not the privilege of attend- ing the district schools except during the three months of winter, when his labors were not needed in clearing and developing the fields. He had no time to devote to the mechanical pursuits which he so much enjoyed, except the few moments which he could gain by running ahead of the workmen going to dinner. Thus he managed to have a brief space for shop work, which was a source of far greater inter- STILLMAN W. ROBINSON, C.E., D. Sc. est to him than the raising of crops. When fifteen years of age he made a violin, which was prized far above most other musical instruments of the kind for energy and quality of tone. His sixteenth year was devoted to the operation of a sawmill, the erection of a furniture factory and grist-mill. Although he worked hard, his labor was lightened by the delight which he took in it, the opposite to his experience in the farm work.
At the end of that year Professor Robinson entered upon a four years' apprenticeship to the machinist's trade, and that time was pleasantly and profitably passed. Instead of beginning work at his trade, however, he began to supplement his meager education, acquired in early youth, by subsequent study, meeting the expenses of his school courses by occasional machine job work.
In 1860 he left the Green Mountain State with a capital of eight dollars and stencil tools, and by cutting stencils in the towns along the way, increased his capital to fifty dollars, with which to take up his studies at the State University. In Ann Arbor, by making stethoscopes and by graduating thermometer scales, he managed to meet his board bills and other living expenses up to the time of his graduation from the University, in 1863, with the degree of Civil Engineer.
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On leaving the University he was made assistant engineer in the United States Lake Survey, acting in that capacity from 1863 until 1866. In the latter year he became a teacher in mechanical and civil engineering lines, being employed as instructor in engineering in the University of Michigan in 1866 and 1867, after which he was assistant in the same institution in mining engineering and geodesy from 1867 until 1870. His next position was that of professor of mechanical engineering and physics in the University of Illinois from 1870 until 1878, and in the last-mentioned year he was Dean of the College of Engineering in that institution.
From 1878 until 1881 he was Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Physics in the Ohio State University, and from 1881 until 1895 Professor of Mechanical Engineering in the same institution, and then resigned in order to serve as inventor and mechanical engineer, notably for the Wire Grip and McKay Shoe Machinery Companies. His first invention was a thermometer graduating machine, made while in college." Various other inventions have yielded more than forty patents, several being for shoe manufacturing machines. On several of these machines awards and medals were granted by expositions, including three by the Centennial and one by the Columbian Exposition.
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