USA > Ohio > Hardin County > Portrait and biographical record of Marion and Hardin counties, Ohio > Part 6
USA > Ohio > Marion County > Portrait and biographical record of Marion and Hardin counties, Ohio > Part 6
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ULYSSES S. GRANT. r
87
ULYSSES S. GRANT.
LYSSES S. GRANT, the eighteenth Presi- dent of the United States, was born on the 29th of April, 1822, of Christian parents, ill a humble home at Point Pleasant, on the banks of the Ohio. Shortly after, his father moved to Georgetown, Brown County, Ohio. In this re- mote frontier hamlet, Ulysses received a common- school education. At the age of seventeen, in the year 1839, he entered the Military Academy at West Point. Here he was regarded as a solid, sensible young man, of fair ability, and of sturdy, honest character. He took respectable rank as a scholar. In June, 1843, he graduated about the middle in his class, and was sent as Lieutenant of Infantry to one of the distant military posts in the Missouri Territory. Two years he passed in these dreary solitudes, watching the vagabond Indians.
The war with Mexico came. Lieut. Grant was sent with his regiment to Corpus Christi. His first battle was at Palo Alto. There was no chance here for the exhibition of either skill or heroism, nor at Resaca de la Palma, his second battle. At the battle of Monterey, his third en- gagement, it is said that he performed a signal service of daring and skillful horsemanship.
At the close of the Mexican War, Capt. Grant returned with his regiment to New York, and was again sent to one of the military posts on the frontier. The discovery of gold in California causing an immense tide of emigration to flow to the Pacific shores, Capt. Grant was sent with a battalion to Ft. Dallas, in Oregon, for the protec- tion of the interests of the immigrants. But life was wearisome in those wilds, and he resigned his commission and returned to the States. Hav- ing married, he entered upon the cultivation of a small farm near St. Louis, Mo., but having little
skill as a farmer, and finding his toil not re- munerative, he turned to mercantile life, entering into the leather business, with a younger brother at Galena, Ill. This was in the year 1860. As the tidings of the rebels firing on Ft. Sumter reached the ears of Capt. Grant in his counting- room, he said : "Uncle Sam has educated nie for the army; though I have served him through one war, I do not feel that I have yet repaid the deht. I am still ready to discharge my obliga- tions. I shall therefore buckle on my sword and see Uncle Samı through this war too."
He went into the streets, raised a company of volunteers, and led them as their Captain to Springfield, the capital of the State, where their services were offered to Gov. Yates. The Gov- ernor, impressed by the zeal and straightforward executive ability of Capt. Grant, gave him a desk in his office to assist in the volunteer organiza- tion that was being formed in the State in belialf of the Government. On the 15th of June, 1861, Capt. Grant received a commission as Colonel of the Twenty-first Regiment of Illinois Volunteers. His merits as a West Point graduate, who had served for fifteen years in the regular army, were such that he was soon promoted to the rank of Brigadier-General, and was placed in command at Cairo. The rebels raised their banner at Padu- cah, near the mouth of the Tennessee River. Scarcely had its folds appeared in the breeze ere Gen. Grant was there. The rebels fled, their banner fell, and the Stars and Stripes were un- furled in its stead.
He entered the service with great determina- tion and immediately began active duty. This was the beginning, and until the surrender of Lee at Richmond he was ever pushing the enemy
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ULYSSES S. GRANT.
with great vigor and effectiveness. At Belmont, a few days later, he surprised and routed the rebels, then at Ft. Henry won another victory. Then came the brilliant fight at Ft. Donelson. The nation was electrified by the victory, and the brave leader of the boys in blue was immediately made a Major-General, and the military district of Tennessee was assigned to him.
Like all great captains, Gen. Grant knew well how to secure the results of victory. He imme- diately pushed on to the enemies' lines. Then came the terrible battles of Pittsburg Landing, Corinth, and the siege of Vicksburg, where Gen. Pemberton made an unconditional surrender of the city with over thirty thousand men and one hundred and seventy-two cannon. The fall of Vicksburg was by far the most severe blow which the rebels had thus far encountered, and opened up the Mississippi from Cairo to the Gulf.
Gen. Grant was next ordered to co-operate with Gen. Banks in a movement upon Texas, and pro- ceeded to New Orleans, where he was thrown from his horse, and received severe injuries, from which he was laid up for months. He then rushed to the aid of Gens. Rosecrans and Thomas at Chattanooga, and by a wonderful series of strategic and technical measures put the Union army in fighting condition. Then followed the bloody battles at Chattanooga, Lookout Moun- tain and Missionary Ridge, in which the rebels were routed with great loss. This won for him unbounded praise in the North. On the 4th of February, 1864, Congress revived the grade of lieutenant-general, and the rank was conferred on Gen. Grant. He repaired to Washington to receive his credentials and enter upon the duties of his new office.
Gen. Grant decided as soon as he took charge of the army to concentrate the widely-dispersed National troops for an attack upon Richmond, the nominal capital of the rebellion, and endeavor there to destroy the rebel armies which would be promptly assembled from all quarters for its de- fense. The whole continent seemed to tremble under the tramp of these majestic armies, rushing to the decisive battle-field. Steamers were crowd- ed with troops. Railway trains were burdened
with closely-packed thousands. His plans were comprehensive, and involved a series of cam- paigns, which were executed with remarkable energy and ability, and were consummated at the surrender of Lee, April 9, 1865.
The war was ended. The Union was saved. The almost unanimous voice of the nation de- clared Gen. Grant to be the most prominent in- strument in its salvation. The eminent services he had thus rendered the country brought him conspicuously forward as the Republican candi- . date for the Presidential chair.
At the Republican Convention held at Chicago, May 21, 1868, he was unanimously nominated for the Presidency, and at the autumn election received a majority of the popular vote, and two hundred and fourteen out of two hundred and ninety-four electoral votes.
The National Convention of the Republican party, which met at Philadelphia on the 5th of June, 1872, placed Gen. Grant in nomination for a second term by a unanimous vote. The selec- tion was emphatically indorsed by the people five months later, two hundred and ninety-two elect- oral votes being cast for him.
Soon after the close of his second term,. Gen. Grant started upon his famous trip around the world. He visited almost every country of the civilized world, and was everywhere received with such ovations and demonstrations of respect and honor, private as well as public and official, as were never before bestowed upon any citizen of the United States.
He was the most prominent candidate before the Republican National Convention in 1880 for a renomination for President. He went to New York and embarked in the brokerage business under the firm name of Grant & Ward. The latter proved a villain, wrecked Grant's fortune, and for larceny was sent to the penitentiary. The General was attacked with cancer in the throat, but suffered in liis stoic-like manner, never complaining. He was re-instated as General of the Army, and retired by Congress. The cancer soon finished its deadly work, and July 23, 1885, the nation went in mourning over the death of the illustrious General.
RUTHERFORD B. HAYES.
91
RUTHERFORD B. HAYES.
UTHERFORD B. HAYES, the nineteenth President of the United States, was born in Delaware, Ohio, October 4, 1822, almost three months after the death of his father, Rutlier- ford Hayes. His ancestry on both the paternal and maternal sides was of the most honorable char- acter. It can be traced, it is said, as far back as 1280, when Hayes and Rutherford were two Scottish chieftains, fighting side by side with Baliol, William Wallace and Robert Bruce. Both families belonged to the nobility, owned extensive estates, and had a large following. Misfortune overtaking the family, George Hayes left Scotland in 1680, and settled in Windsor, Conn. His son George was born in Windsor, and remained there during his life. Daniel Hayes, son of the latter, married Sarah Lee, and lived from the time of his marriage until his death in Simsbury, Conn. Ezekiel, son of Daniel, was born in 1724, and was a manufacturer of scythes at Bradford, Conn. Rutherford Hayes, son of Ezekiel and grandfather of President Hayes, was born in New Haven, in August, 1756. He was a farmer, blacksmith and tavern-keeper. He emigrated to Vermont at an unknown date, settling in Brattleboro, where he established a hotel. Here his son, Rutherford Hayes, the father of President Hayes, was born. He was married, in September, 1813, to Sophia Birchard, of Wilmington, Vt., whose ancestors emigrated thither from Connecticut, they having been among the wealthiest and best families of Norwich. Her ancestry on the male side is traced back to 1635, to John Birchard, one of the principal founders of Norwich. Both of her grand- fathers were soldiers in the Revolutionary War.
The father of President Hayes was an industri- ous, frugal, yet open-hearted man. He was of a
mechanical turn of mind, and could mend a plow, knit a stocking, or do almost anything else that he chose to undertake. He was a member of the churchi, active in all the benevolent enterprises of the town1, and conducted his business on Chris- tian principles. After the close of the War of 1812, for reasons inexplicable to his neighbors, he resolved to emigrate to Ohio.
The journey from Vermont to Ohio in that day, when there were no canals, steamers, or rail- ways, was a very serious affair. A tour of in- spection was first made, occupying four months. Mr. Hayes decided to move to Delaware, where the family arrived in 1817. He died July 22, 1822, a victim of malarial fever, less than three months before the birth of the son of whom we write. Mrs. Hayes, in her sore bereavement, found the support she so much needed in her brother Sardis, who had been a member of the household from the day of its departure from Vermont, and in an orphan girl, whom she had adopted some time before as an act of charity.
Rutherford was seven years old before he went to school. His education, however, was not neg- lected. He probably learned as much from his mother and sister as he would have done at school. His sports were alinost wholly within doors, his playmates being his sister and her asso- ciates. These circumstances tended, no doubt, to foster that gentleness of disposition and that del- icate consideration for the feelings of others which were marked traits of his character.
His uncle, Sardis Birchard, took the deepest interest in his education; and as the boy's health had improved, and he was making good progress in his studies, he proposed to send him to college. His preparation commenced with a tutor at home;
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RUTHERFORD B. HAYES.
but he was afterwards sent for one year to a pro- fessor in the Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn. He entered Kenyon College in 1838, at the age of sixteen, and was graduated at the head of his class in 1842.
Immediately after his graduation he began the study of law in the office of Thomas Sparrow, Esq., in Columbus. Finding his opportunities for study in Columbus somewhat limited, he de- termined to enter the Law School at Cambridge, Mass., where he remained two years.
In 1845, after graduating at the Law School, he was admitted to the Bar at Marietta, Ohio, and shortly afterward went into practice as an at- torney-at-law with Ralph P. Buckland, of Fre- mont. Here he remained three years, acquiring but a limited practice, and apparently unambitious of distinction in his profession.
In 1849 he moved to Cincinnati, where his am- bition found a new stimulus. For several years, however, his progress was slow. Two events occurring at this period had a powerful influence upon liis subsequent life. One of these was his marriage with Miss Lucy Ware Webb, daughter of Dr. James Webb, of Chillicothe; the other was his introduction to the Cincinnati Literary Club, a body embracing among its members such men as Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, Gen. John Pope, Gov. Edward F. Noyes, and many others hardly less distinguished in after life. The mar- riage was a fortunate one in every respect, as everybody knows. Not one of all the wives of our Presidents was more universally admired, reverenced and beloved than was Mrs. Hayes, and no one did more than she to reflect honor upon American womanhood. The Literary Club brought Mr. Hayes into constant association with young men of high character and noble aims, and lured him to display the qualities so long hidden by his bashfulness and modesty.
In 1856 he was nominated to the office of Judge . of the Court of Common Pleas, but he declined to accept the nomination. Two years later, the of- fice of City Solicitor becoming vacant, the City Council elected him for the unexpired terin.
In 1861, when the Rebellion broke out, he was at the zenith of his professional life. His rank at
the Bar was among the first. But the news of the attack on Ft. Sumter found him eager to take up arms for the defense of his country.
His military record was briglit and illustrious. In October, 1861, he was made Lieutenant-Colo- nel, and in August, 1862, promoted Colonel of the Seventy-ninth Ohio Regiment, but he refused to leave his old contrades and go among strangers. Subsequently, however, he was made Colonel of his old regiment At the battle of South Moun- tain he received a wound, and while faint and bleeding displayed courage and fortitude that won admiration from all.
Col. Hayes was detached from his regiment, after his recovery, to act as Brigadier-General, and placed in command of the celebrated Kanawha division, and for gallant and nieritorious services in the .battles of Winchester, Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek, he was promoted Brigadier-General. He was also breveted Major-General, "for gallant and distinguished services during the campaigns of 1864, in West Virginia." In the course of his arduous services, four horses were slot from un- der him, and he was wounded four times.
In 1864, Gen. Hayes was elected to Congress from the Second Ohio District, which had long been Democratic. He was not present during tlie campaign, and after the election was importuned to resign his commission in the army; but he fi- nally declared, " I shall never come to Washing- ton until I can come by way of Richmond." He was re-elected in 1866.
In 1867, Gen. Hayes was elected Governor of Ohio, over Hon. Allen G. Thurman, a popular Democrat, and in 1869 was re-elected over George H. Pendleton. He was elected Governor for the third term in 1875,
In 1876 he was the standard-bearer of the Re- publican party in the Presidential contest, and after a hard, long contest was chosen President, and was inaugurated Monday, March 5, 1877. He served his full term, not, however, with satis- faction to his party, but his administration was an average one. The remaining years of his life were passed quietly in his Ohio home, where he passed away January 17, 1893.
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JAMES A. GARFIELD.
95
JAMES A. GARFIELD.
AMES A. GARFIELD, twentieth President of the United States, was born November 19, 1831, in the woods of Orange, Cuyahoga County, Ohio. His parents were Abram and Eliza (Ballou) Garfield, both of New England ancestry, and from families well known in the early history of that section of our country, but who had moved to the Western Reserve, in Ohio, early in its settlement.
The house in which James A. was born was not unlike the houses of poor Ohio farmers of that day. It was about 20 x 30 feet, built of logs, with the spaces between the logs filled with clay. His father was a hard-working farmer, and he soon had his fields cleared, an orchard planted, and a log barn built. The household comprised the father and mother and their four children, Mehetabel, Thomas, Mary and James. In May, 1823, the father died from a cold contracted in helping to put out a forest fire. At this time James was about eighteen months old, and Thomas about ten years old. No one, perhaps, can tell how much James was indebted to his brother's toil and self-sacrifice during the twenty years succeeding his father's death. He now lives in Michigan, and the two sisters live in Solon, Ohio, near their birthplace.
The early educational advantages young Gar- field enjoyed were very limited, yet he made the most of them. He labored at farm work for others, did carpenter work, chopped wood, or did anything that would bring in a few dollars to aid his widowed mother in her struggles to keep the little family together. Nor was Gen. Garfield ever ashamed of his origin, and he never forgot the friends of his struggling childhood, youth and manhood; neither did they ever forget him. When in the highest seats of honor, the humblest friend of his boyhood was as kindly greeted as ever. The poorest laborer was sure of the sym- pathy of one who had known all the bitterness of
want and the sweetness of bread earned by the sweat of the brow. He was ever the simple, plain, modest gentleman.
The highest ambition of young Garfield until he was about sixteen years old was to be cap- tain of a vessel on Lake Erie. He was anxious to go aboard a vessel, but this his mother strongly opposed. She finally consented to his going to Cleveland, with the understanding, however, that he should try to obtain some other kind of em- ployment. He walked all the way to Cleveland. This was his first visit to the city. After making many applications for work, and trying to get aboard a lake vessel and not meeting with suc- cess, he engaged as a driver for his cousin, Amos Letcher, on the Ohio & Pennsylvania Canal. He remained at this work but a short time, when he went home, and attended the seminary at Chester for about three years. He then entered Hiram and the Eclectic Institute, teaching a few terms of school in the mean time, and doing other work. This school was started by the Disciples of Christ in 1850, of which body he was then a member. He became janitor and bell-ringer in order to help pay his way. He then became both teacher and pupil. Soon "exhausting Hiram," and needing a higher education, in the fall of 1854 he entered Williams College, from which he grad- uated in 1856, taking one of the highest honors of his class. He afterwards returned to Hiram Col- lege as its President. As above stated, he early united with the Christian, or Disciples, Church at Hiram, and was ever after a devoted, zealous member, often preaching in its pulpit and places where he happened to be.
Mr. Garfield was united in marriage, Novem- ber 11, 1858, with Miss Lucretia Rudolph, who proved herself worthy as the wife of one whom all the world loved. To them were born seven children, five of whom are still living, four boys and one girl.
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JAMES A. GARFIELD.
Mr. Garfield made his first political speeches in 1856, in Hiram and the neighboring villages, and three years later he began to speak at county mass-meetings, and became the favorite speaker wherever he was. During this year he was elected to the Olio Senate. He also began to study law at Cleveland, and in 1861 was admitted to tlre Bar. The great Rebellion broke out in the early part of this year, and Mr. Garfield at once resolved to fight as he liad talked, and enlisted to defend the Old Flag. He received his commission as Lieutenant-Colonel of the Forty-second Regi- ment of Ohio Infantry August 14, 1861. He was immediately put into active service, and be- fore he had ever seen a gun fired in action, was placed in command of four regiments of infantry and eight companies of cavalry, charged with the work of driving out of his native State the able rebel officer, Humphrey Marshall, of Kentucky. This work was bravely and speedily accomplished, although against great odds, and President Lin- coln commissioned him Brigadier-General, Janu- ary 10, 1862; and "as he had been. the youngest man in the Ohio Senate two years before, so now he was the youngest General in the army." He was with Gen. Buell's army at Shiloh, in its operations around Corinth and its march through Alabama. He was then detailed as a member of the general court martial for the trial of Gen. Fitz-John Porter. He was next ordered to re- port to Gen. Rosecrans, and was assigned to the "Chief of Staff." The military history of Gen. Garfield closed with his brilliant services at Chick- amauga, where he won the rank of Major-General.
Without an effort on his part, Gen. Garfield was elected to Congress in the fall of 1862, from the Nineteenth District of Ohio. This section of Ohio had been represented in Congress for sixty years mainly by two men-Elisha Whittlesey and Joshua R. Giddings. It was not without a strug- gle that he resigned his place in the army. At the time he entered Congress he was the youngest member in that body. There he remained by successive re-elections until he was elected Presi- dent, in 1880. Of his labors in Congress, Senator Hoar says: "Since the year 1864 you cannot think of a question which has been debated in
Congress, or discussed before a tribunal of the American people, in regard to which you will not find, if you wish instruction, the argument on one side stated, in almost every instance better than by anybody else, in some speech made in the House of Representatives or on the hustings by Mr. Garfield."
Upon January 14, 1880, Gen. Garfield was elect- ed to the United States Senate, and on the 8th of June, of the same year, was nominated as the candidate of his party for President at the great Chicago Convention. He was elected in the fol- lowing November, and of March 4, 1881, was inaugurated. Probably no administration ever opened its existence under brighter auspices than that of President Garfield, and every day it grew in favor with the people. By the Ist of July he had completed all the initiatory and prelimi- nary work of his administration, and was prepar- ing to leave the city to meet his friends at Will- iams College. While on his way and at the depot, in company with Secretary Blaine, a man stepped behind him, drew a revolver, and fired directly at his back. The President tottered and fell, and as he did so the assassin fired a second shot, the bullet cutting the left coat sleeve of his victim, but inflicting no further injury. It has been very truthfully said that this was "the shot that was heard around the world." Never before in the history of the nation had anything occur- red which so nearly froze the blood of the people for the moment as this awful deed. He was smitten on the brightest, gladdest day of all his life, at the summit of his power and hope. For eighty days, all during the hot months of July and August, he lingered and suffered. He, how- ever, remained master of himself till the last, and by his magnificent bearing taught the country and the world one of the noblest of human les- sons-how to live grandly in the very clutch of death. Great in life, he was surpassingly great in death. He passed serenely away September 19, 1883, at Elberon, N. J., on the very bank of the ocean, where he had been taken shortly be- fore. The world wept at his death, as it rarely ever had done on the death of any other great and noble man.
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CHESTER A. ARTHUR.
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CHESTER A. ARTHUR.
HESTER A. ARTHUR, twenty-first Presi- dent of the United States, was born in Frank- lin County, Vt., on the 5th day of October, 1830, and was the eldest of a family of two sons and five daughters. His father was the Rev. Dr. William Arthur, a Baptist clergyman, who emi- grated to this country from County Antrim, Ire- land, in his eighteenth year, and died in 1875, in Newtonville, near Albany, after a long and suc- cessful ministry.
Young Arthur was educated at Union College, Schenectady, where he excelled in all his studies. After his graduation he taught school in Ver- mont for two years, and at the expiration of that time came to New York, with $500 in his pocket, and entered the office of ex-Judge E. D. Culver as a student. After being admitted to the Bar, he formed a partnership with his intimate friend and room-mate, Henry D. Gardiner, with the inten- tion of practicing in the West, and for three months they roamed about in the Western States in search of an eligible site, but in the end re- turned to New York, where they liung out their shingle, and entered upon a successful career al- most from the start. Gen. Arthur soon after mar- ried the daughter of Lieut. Herndon, of the United States Navy, who was lost at sea. Con- gress voted a gold medal to his widow in recog- nition of the bravery he displayed on that occa- . sion. Mrs. Arthur died shortly before Mr. Arthur's nomination to the Vice-Presidency, leav- ing two children.
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