USA > Ohio > Hardin County > Portrait and biographical record of Marion and Hardin counties, Ohio > Part 7
USA > Ohio > Marion County > Portrait and biographical record of Marion and Hardin counties, Ohio > Part 7
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Gen. Arthur obtained considerable legal celeb- rity in his first great case, the famous Lemmon suit, brought to recover possession of eight slaves who had been declared free by Judge Paine, of the Superior Court of New York City. It was in
1852 that Jonathan Lemmon, of Virginia, went to New York with his slaves, intending to ship them to Texas, when they were discovered and freed. The Judge decided that they could not be held by the owner under the Fugitive Slave Law. A howl of rage went up from the South, and the Virginia Legislature authorized the Attorney-General of that State to assist in an appeal. William M. Evarts and Chester A. Arthur were employed to represent the people, and they won their case, which then went to the Supreme Court of the United States. Chiarles O'Conor here espoused the cause of the slaveliolders, but he, too, was beaten by Messrs. Evarts and Arthur, and a long step was taken toward the emancipation of the black race.
Another great service was rendered by Gen. Arthur in the satne cause in 1856. Lizzie Jen- nings, a respectable colored woman, was put off a Fourth Avenue car with violence after she had paid her fare. Gen. Arthur sued on her behalf, and secured a verdict of $500 damages. The next day the company issued an order to admit colored persons to ride on their cars, and the other car companies quickly followed their example. Be- fore tliat the Sixth Avenue Company ran a few special cars for colored persons, and the other lines refused to let them ride at all.
Gen. Arthur was a delegate to the convention at Saratoga that founded the Republican party. Previous to the war he was Judge-Advocate of the Second Brigade of the State of New York, and Gov. Morgan, of that State, appointed him Engineer-in-Chief of his staff. In 1861, he was made Inspector-General, and soon afterward be- canie Quartermaster-General. In each of these offices he rendered great service to the Govern-
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CHESTER A. ARTHUR.
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ment during the war. At the end of Gov. Mor- gan's terin he resumed the practice of law, form- ing. a partnership with Mr. Ransom, and tlien Mr. Phelps, the District Attorney of New York, was added to the firm. The legal practice of this well-known firm was very large and lucrative, as each of the gentlemen composing it was an able lawyer, and possessed a splendid local reputa- tion, if not, indeed, one of national extent.
Mr. Arthur always took a leading part in State and city politics. He was appointed Collector of the Port of New York by President Grant, No- vember 21, 1872, to succeed Thomas Murphy, and he held the office until July 20, 1878, when he was succeeded by Collector Merritt.
Mr. Arthur was nominated on the Presidential ticket, with Gen. James A. Garfield, at the famous National Republican Convention held at Chicago in June, 1880. This was perliaps the greatest political convention that ever assembled on the continent. It was composed of the lead- ing politicians of the Republican party, all able men, and each stood firm and fought vigorously and with signal tenacity for his respective can- didate that was before the convention for the nomination. Finally Gen. Garfield received the nomination for President, and Gen. Arthur for Vice-President. The campaign which followed was one of the most animated known in the his- tory of our country. Gen. Hancock, the stand- ard-bearer of the Democratic party, was a popular man, and his party made a valiant fight for his election.
Finally the election came, and the country's choice was Garfield and Arthur. They were in- augurated March 4, 1881, as President and Vice- President. A few months only had passed ere the newly-chosen President was the victim of the assassin's bullet. Then came terrible weeks of suffering-those moments of anxious suspense, when the hearts of all civilized nations were throbbing in unison, longing for the recovery of the noble, the good President. The remarkable patience that he manifested during those ltours and weeks, and even months, of the most terrible suffering ttan has ever been called upon to en- dure, was seemingly more than human. It was
certainly godlike. During all this period of deepest anxiety Mr. Arthur's every move was watched, and, be it said to his credit, that his every action displayed only an earnest desire that the suffering Garfield might recover to serve the re- mainder of the term he had so auspiciously be- gun. Not a selfish feeling. was manifested in deed or look of this man, even though the most honored position in the world was at any moment likely to fall to him.
At last God in his mercy relieved President Garfield from further suffering, and the world, as never before in its history over the death of any other man, wept at his bier. Then it became the duty of the Vice-President to assume the respon- sibilities of the high office, and he took the oatlı in New York, September 20, 1881. The position was an embarrassing one to him, miade doubly so from the fact that all eyes were on him, anxious to know what he would do, what policy he would pursue, and whom he would select as advisers. The duties of the office had been greatly neglected during the President's long illness, and many im- portant measures were to be immediately decided by him; and to still further embarass hint lte did not fail to realize under what circumstances he became President, and knew the feelings of many on this point. Under these trying circumstances, President Arthur took tlie reins of the Govern- ment in his own hands, and, as embarrassing as was the condition of affairs, he happily surprised the nation, acting so wisely that but few criticized his administration. He served the nation well and faithfully until the close of his administra- tion, March 4, 1885, and was a popular candidate before his party . for a second term. His name was ably presented before the convention at Chi- cago, and was received with great favor, and doubtless but for the personal popularity of one of the opposing candidates, he would have been selected as the standard-bearer of his party for another campaign. He retired to private life, car- rying with him the best wishes of the American people, whom he had served in a manner satisfac- tory to thent and with credit to himself. One year later he was called to his final rest.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
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STEPHEN GROVER CLEVELAND.
TEPHEN GROVER CLEVELAND, the twenty-second President of the United States, was born in 1837, in the obscure town of Caldwell, Essex County, N. J., and in a little two-and-a-half-story white house, which is still standing to characteristically mark the humble birtliplace of one of America's great inen, in striking contrast with the Old World, where all men high in office must be high in origin and · born in the cradle of wealth. When the subject of this sketch was three years of age, his father, who was a Presbyterian minister with a large family and a small salary, moved, by way of the Hudson River and Erie Canal, to Fayetteville, N. Y., in search of an increased income and a larger field of work. Fayetteville was then the most straggling of country villages, about five miles from Pompey Hill, where Governor Seymour was born.
At the last-mentioned place young Grover com- menced going to school in the good, old-fashioned way, and presumably distinguished himself after the manner of all village boys -- in doing the things he ought not to do. Such is the dis- tinguisliing trait of all geniuses and independent thinkers. When he arrived at the age of four- teen years, he had outgrown the capacity of the village school, and expressed a most emphatic de- sire to be sent to an academy. To this his fa- ther decidedly objected. Academies in those days cost money; besides, his father wanted him to become self-supporting by the quickest pos- sible means, and this at that time in Fayetteville seemed to be a position in a country store, where his father and the large family on his hands had
considerable influence. Grover was to be paid $50 for his services the first year, and if he proved trustworthy he was to receive $100 the second year. Here the lad commenced his career as salesman, and in two years he had earned so good a reputation for trustworthiness that his employ- ers desired to retain him for an indefinite lengtb of time.
But instead of remaining with this firm in Fayetteville, he went with the family in their re- moval to Clinton, where he had an opportunity of attending a High School. Here he industri- ously pursued his studies until the family re- moved with him to a point on Black River known as the "Holland Patent," a village of five or six hundred people, fifteen miles north of Utica, N. Y. At this place his father died, after preaching but three Sundays. This event broke up the family, and Grover set out for New York City to accept, at a small salary, the position of under-teacher in an asylum for the blind. He taught faithfully for two years, and although he obtained a good reputation in this capacity, he concluded that teaching was not his calling in life, and, revers- ing the traditional order, he left the city to seek his fortune, instead of going to the city. He first thought of Cleveland, Ohio, as there was some charm in that name for him; but before proceed- ing to that place he went to Buffalo to ask advice of his uncle, Lewis F. Allan, a noted stock- breeder of tliat place. The latter did not speak enthusiastically. "What is it you want to do, my boy?" he asked. "Well, sir, I want to study law," was the reply "Good gracious!" remarked the old gentleman; "do you, indeed? Whatever
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STEPHEN GROVER CLEVELAND.
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put that into your head? How much money have you got?" "Well, sir, to tell the truth, I haven't got any."
After a long consultation, his uncle offered him a place temporarily as assistant herd-keeper, at $50 a year, while he could look around. One day soon afterward he boldly walked into the of- fice of Rogers, Bowen & Rogers, of Buffalo, and told them what he wanted. A number of young nien were already engaged in the office, but Gro- ver's persistency won, and he was finally per- mitted to come as an office boy and have the use of the law library, receiving as wages the suni of $3 or $4 a week. Out of this he had to pay for his board and washing. The walk to and from his uncle's was a long and rugged one; and althoughi the first winter was a memorably severe one, his shoes were out of repair, and as for his overcoat he had none; yet lie was, nevertheless, prompt and regular. On the first day of his service there, his senior employer threw down a copy of Black- stone before him, with a bang that made the dust fly, saying "That's where they all begin." A titter ran around the little circle of clerks and students, as they thought that was enough to scare young Grover out of his plans; but in due time he mastered tliat cumbersome volume. Then, as ever afterward, however, Mr. Cleve- land exhibited a talent for executiveness rather than for chasing principles through all their metaphysical possibilities. "Let us quit talking and go and do it," was practically his motto.
The first public office to which Mr. Cleveland was elected was that of Sheriff of Erie County, N. Y., in which Buffalo is situated; and in such capacity it fell to his duty to inflict capital punish- ment upon two criminals. In 1881 he was elected Mayor of the City of Buffalo, on the Democratic ticket, with especial reference to bring- · ing about certain reforms in the administration of the municipal affairs of that city. In this of- fice, as well as in that of Sheriff, his performance of duty has generally been considered fair, with possibly a few exceptions, which were ferreted out and magnified during his Presidential can- paign. As a specimen of his plain language in a veto message, we quote from one vetoing an
iniquitous street-cleaning contract: "This is a time for plain speechi, and my objection to your action shall be plainly stated. I regard it as the culmination of a most bare-faced, impudent and shameless scheme to betray the interests of the people and to worse than squander the people's money." The New York Sun afterward very higlily commended Mr. Cleveland's adıninistra- tion as Mayor of Buffalo, and thereupon recoin- mended him for Governor of the Empire State. To the latter office he was elected in 1882, and his administration of the affairs of State was generally satisfactory. The mistakes he made, if any, were made very public throughout the na- tion after he was nominated for President of the United States. For this high office he was nominated July 11, 1884, by the National Demo- cratic Convention at Chicago, when other com- petitors were Thomas F. Bayard, Roswell P. Flower, Thomas A. Hendricks, Benjamin F. Butler, Allen G. Thurman, etc .; and he was elected by the people, by a majority of about a thousand, over the brilliant and long-tried Re- publican statesman, James G. Blaine. President Cleveland resigned his office as Governor of New York in January, 1885, in order to prepare for his duties as the Chief Executive of the United States, in which capacity his term commenced at noon on the 4th of March, 1885.
The silver question precipitated a controversy between those who were in favor of the continu- ance of silver coinage and those who were op- posed, Mr. Cleveland answering for the latter, even before his inauguration.
On June 2, 1886, President Cleveland married Frances, daughter of his deceased friend and part- ner, Oscar Folsom, of the Buffalo Bar. Their union has been blessed by the birtli of two daugh- ters. In the campaign of 1888, President Cleve- land was renominated by his party, but the Republican candidate, Gen. Benjamin Harrison, was victorious. In the nominations of 1892 these two candidates for the highest position in the gift of the people were again pitted against each other, and in the ensuing election President Cleveland was victorious by an overwhelming majority.
BENJAMIN HARRISON.
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BENJAMIN HARRISON.
ENJAMIN HARRISON, the twenty-third President, is the descendant of one of the historical families of this country. The first known head of the family was Maj .- Gen. Harrison, one of Oliver Cromwell's trusted followers and fighters. In the zenitli of Cromwell's power it be- came the duty of this Harrison to participate in the trial of Charles I., and afterward to sign the death warrant of the king. He subsequently paid for this with his life, being hung October 13, 1660. His descendants came to America, and the next of the family that appears in history is Benjamin Harrison, of Virginia, great-grandfa- ther of the subject of this sketch, and after whom he was named. Benjamin Harrison was a mem- ber of the Continental Congress during the years 1774, 1775 and 1776, and was one of the original signers of the Declaration of Independence. He was three times elected Governor of Virginia.
Gen. William Henry Harrison, the son of the distinguished patriot of the Revolution, after a successful career as a soldier during the War of 1812, and with a clean record as Governor of the Northwestern Territory, was elected President of the United States in 1840. His career was cut short by death within one month after his in- auguration.
President Harrison was born at North Bend, '
Hamilton County, Ohio, August 20, 1833. His life up to the time of his graduation from Miami University, at Oxford, Ohio, was the uneventful one of a country lad of a family of small means. His father was able to give him a good education, and nothing more. He became engaged while at college to the daughter of Dr. Scott, Principal of a female school at Oxford. After graduating, he determined to enter upon the study of law. He went to Cincinnati and there read law for two years. At the expiration of that time young Har- rison received the only inheritance of his life-his aunt, dying, left him a lot valued at $800. He regarded this legacy as a fortune, and decided to get married at once, take this money and go to some Eastern town and begin the practice of law. He sold his lot, and, with the money in his pocket, he started out with his young wife to fight for a place in the world. He decided to go to Indian -.. apolis, which was even at that time a town of promise. He met with slight encouragement at first, making scarcely anything the first year. He worked diligently, applying himself closely to his calling, built up an extensive practice and took a leading rank in the legal profession.
In 1860, Mr. Harrison was nominated for the position of Supreme Court Reporter, and then be- gan his experience as a stump speaker. He can.
BENJAMIN HARRISON.«
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vassed the State thoroughly, and was elected by a handsome majority. In 1862 he raised the Seventeenth Indiana Infantry, and was chosen its Colonel. His regiment was composed of the raw- est material, but Col. Harrison employed all his time at first in mastering military tactics and drill- ing his men, and when he came to move toward the East with Sherman, his regiment was one of the best drilled and organized in the army. At Resaca he especially distinguished himself, and jor his bravery at Peachtree Creek he was made a Brigadier-General, Gen. Hooker speaking of him in the most complimentary terms.
During the absence of Gen. Harrison in the field, the Supreme Court declared the office of Supreme Court Reporter vacant, and another person was elected to the position. From the time of leaving Indiana with his regiment until the fall of 1864 he had taken no leave of absence, but having been nominated that year for the same office, he got a thirty-day leave of absence, and during that time made a brilliant canvass of the State, and was elected for another term. He then started to rejoin Sherman, but on the way was stricken down with scarlet fever, and after a most trying attack made his way to the front in time to participate in the closing incidents of the war.
In 1868 Gen. Harrison declined a re-election as Reporter, and resumed the practice of law. In 1876 he was a candidate for Governor. Although defeated, the brilliant campaign he made won for him a national reputation, and he was much sought after, especially in the East, to make speeches. In 1880, as usual, he took an active part in the campaign, and was elected to the United States Senate. Here he served for six years, and was known as one of the ablest men, best lawyers and strongest debaters in that body. With the ex- piration of his senatorial term he returned to the practice of his profession, becoming the head of one of the strongest firms in the State.
The political campaign of 1888 was one of the most memorable in the history of our country. The convention which assembled in Chicago in June and named Mr. Harrison as the chief stund- ard-bearer of the Republican party was great in every particular, and on this account, and the at-
titude it assumed upon the vital questions of the day, chief among which was the tariff, awoke a deep interest in the campaign throughout the nation. Shortly after the nomination, delegations began to visit Mr. Harrison at Indianapolis, his home. This movement became popular, and from all sections of the country societies, clubs and delegations journeyed thither to pay their re- spects to the distinguished statesman.
Mr. Harrison spoke daily all through the sum- mer and autumn to these visiting delegations, and so varied, masterly, and eloquent were his speeches that they at once placed him in the fore- most rank of American orators and statesmen. Elected by a handsome majority, he served his country faithfully and well, and in 1892 was nom- inated for re-election; but the people demanded a change and he was defeated by his predecessor in office, Grover Cleveland.
On account of his eloquence as a speaker and his power as a debater, Gen. Harrison was called upon at an early age to take part in the dis- cussion of the great questions that then began to agitate the country. He was an uncompromising anti-slavery man, and was matched against some of the most eminent Democratic speakers of his State. No man who felt the touch of his blade desired to be pitted with him again. With all his eloquence as an orator he never spoke for ora- torical effect, but his words always went like bul- lets to the mark. He is purely American in his ideas, and is a splendid type of the American statesman. Gifted with quick perception, a logi- cal mind and a ready tongue, he is one of the most distinguished impromptu speakers in the nation. Many of these speeches sparkled with the rarest eloquence and contained arguments of great weight, and many of his terse statements have already become aphorisms. Original in thought. precise in logic, terse in statement, yet withal faultless in eloquence, he is recognized as the sound statesinan and brilliant orator of the day. During the last days of his administration Presi- dent Harrison suffered an irreparable loss in the death of his devoted wife, Caroline (Scott) Har- rison, a lady of many womanly charms and vir- tues. They were the parents of two children,
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MARION AND HARDIN .. COUNTIES
OHIO
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INTRODUCTORY.
HE time has arrived when it becomes the duty of the people of this county to per- petuate the names of their pioneers, to furnish a record of their early settlement, and relate the story of their progress. The civilization of our day, the enlightenment of the age and the duty that men of the pres- ent time owe to their ancestors, to themselves and to their posterity, demand that a record of their lives and deeds should be made. In bio- graphical history is found a power to instruct man by precedent, to enliven the mental faculties, and to waft down the river of time a safe vessel in which the names and actions of the people who contributed to raise this country from its primitive state may be preserved. Surely and rapidly the great and aged men, who in their prime entered the wilderness and claimed the virgin soil as their heritage, are passing to their graves. The number re- maining who can relate the incidents of the first days of settlement is becoming small indeed, so that an actual necessity exists for the collection and preser- vation of events without delay, before all the early settlers are cut down by the scythe of Time.
To be forgotten has been the great dread of mankind from remotest ages. All will be forgotten soon enough, in spite of their best works and the most earnest efforts of their friends to perserve the memory of their lives. The means employed to prevent oblivion and to perpetuate their memory has been in propor- tion to the amount of intelligence they possessed. The pyramids of Egypt were built to perpetuate the names and deeds of their great rulers. The exhu- mations made by the archeologists of Egypt from buried Memphis indicate a desire of those people
to perpetuate the memory of their achievements. The erection of the great obelisks were for the same purpose. Coming down to a later period, we find the Greeks and Romans erecting mausoleums and monu- ments, and carving out statues to chronicle their great achievements and carry them down the ages. It is also evident that the Mound-builders, in piling up their great mounds of earth, had but this idea- to leave something to show that they had lived. All these works, though many of them costly in the ex- treme, give but a faint idea of the lives and charac- ters of those whose memory they were intended to perpetuate, and scarcely anything of the masses of the people that then lived. The great pyramids and some of the obelisks remain objects only of curiosity ; the mausoleums, monuments and statues are crum- bling into dust.
It was left to modern ages to establish an intelli- gent, undecaying, immutable method of perpetuating a full history-immutable in that it is almost un- limited in extent and perpetual in its action; and this is through the art of printing,
To the present generation, however, we are in- debted for the introduction of the admirable system of local biography. By this system every man, though he has not achieved what the world calls greatness, has the means to perpetuate his life, his history, through the coming ages.
The scythe of Time cuts down all ; nothing of the physical man is left. The monument which his chil. dren or friends may erect to his memory in the ceme. tery will crumble into dust and pass away; but his life, his achievements, the work he has accomplished, which otherwise would be forgotten, is perpetuated by a record of this kind.
To preserve the lineaments of our companions we engrave their portraits, for the same reason we col- lect the attainable facts of their history. Nor do we think it necessary, as we speak only truth of them, to wait until they are dead, or until those who know them are gone: to do this we are ashamed only to publish to the world the history of those whose lives are unworthy of public record.
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