USA > Ohio > Lucas County > Toledo > Portrait and biographical record of city of Toledo and Lucas and Wood Counties, Ohio : containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the locality, together with biographies and portraits of all the Presidents of the United States > Part 8
USA > Ohio > Wood County > Portrait and biographical record of city of Toledo and Lucas and Wood Counties, Ohio : containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the locality, together with biographies and portraits of all the Presidents of the United States > Part 8
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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 lis deceased friend and part- ner, Oscar Folsom, of the Buffalo Bar. Their union has been blessed by the birth 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.
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 zenith 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.
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BENJAMIN HARRISON.
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 for 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 st.und- 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 statesman 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,
CITY OF TOLEDO
AND
LUCAS AND WOOD COUNTIES, OHIO.
HON. MORRISON R. WAITE.
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.
Biographical.
H ON. MORRISON REMICK WAITE was born at Lyme, Conn., November 29, 1816. His father, Henry Matson Waite, was also a native of Lyme, the date of his birth being Feb- ruary 9, 1787. The father was graduated at Yale College, and, after completing the study of his profession, entered upon the practice of law at Lyme, in which he soon attained a prominent po- sition. He was chosen successively as Represent- ative and Senator in the State Legislature. In 1834 his qualities as a jurist were recognized in his appointment as Associate Judge of the Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut, and subsequently in his unanimous election by the Legislature to the Chief Justiceship of the state, from which po- sition he was withdrawn in 1857, by the constitu- tional age limit of seventy years for incumbents of that office. The Waite family settled before 1700 at Lyme, where its members have for nearly two hundred years held prominent positions in different spheres of active life. These ineluded Marvin Waitc, who, as Presidential Elector, cast a vote for Washington at his first election in 1789. He was one of the commissioners appointed to sell lands belonging to Connecticut in the Connecti- cut Western Reserve, Ohio, the proceeds of whichi sale now constitute the Connecticut School Fund.
The mother of our subject was a granddaughter of Col. Samuel Selden, commander of a Connecticut regiment in the Army of the Revolution, who was made prisoner September 17, 1776, at the evacua- tion of New York. He died October 11 following, in the "Old Provost," and was buried in the old "Brick Church" yard, where the New York Times office now stands, his fellow-prisoners by special permission being allowed to attend his funeral in uniform.
Morrison R. Waite was graduated at Yale in 1837, his class including several men who subse- quently achieved a national reputation, among whom were William M. Evarts, Edwards Pierre- pont and Benjamin Silliman, Jr. Samuel J. Til- den was of the same class, though from poor health was unable to graduate with those here named. Selecting the profession of the law as his life work, Mr. Waite commenced reading in his father's of- fice; but, accepting the view then so prevalent in the East as to wider and more hopeful fields for activity in the then Far West, he left Lyme in Oc- tober, 1838, for the Maumee Valley, settling at Maumee City. Here he at onee renewed his law reading in the office of Samucl M. Young, who had preceded him to that locality in 1835. Upon his admission to the Bar in 1839, the firm of Young
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PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
& Waite was formed, the junior partner at once taking upon himself the larger portion of detail in work. This included much horseback travel and other severe labor in attendance at courts in other counties, in the collection of claims from scattered debtors, and other business. In 1850 Mr. Waite removed to Toledo, where the firm opened an of- fice and continued in practice until January, 1856, when, upon the retirement of Mr. Young, a brother, Richard Waite, became a partner, and the firm of M. R. & R. Waite was formed, which continued for a period of eighteen years, or until the senior brother was appointed Chief Justice, when it was succeeded by that of R. & E. T. Waite, the junior member being a son of the retiring partner.
Thoughi never a partisan in any objectionable sense of the term, Mr. Waite from early life had clear convictions upon questions of public policy, and took an active part in support of the same. A Whig in sentiment, he co-operated with that party until it was merged into the Republican or- ganization in 1854, since which time he has acted with the latter. The, different public positions held by him were all conferred without his seek- ing. As shown by the political record elsewhere given, he was early active in local political affairs. He was first a candidate for public office in 1846, as the Whig nominee for Congress in a strongly Democratic district, his opponent, William Sawyer, being elected. In 1849 Mr. Waite was chosen as Representative to the State Legislature, serving in that body with special credit. He was a candidate for delegate to tlic State Constitutional Conven- tion in 1850, failing of an election in consequence of the strongly adverse political majority.
Mr. Waite's most prominent relation to polit- ical matters was that held in 1862, and was inci- dent to the question then arising in regard to the war policy of the Government. In common with a large portion of the Republicans and many Dem- ocrats of the Toledo Congressional District, he was in full sympathy with President Lincoln's purpose to make the preservation of the Union, through the suppression of the rebellion, the para- mount end of all war measures in that connection. Opposed to such policy was a large portion of the Republican party in the district, who held that
abolition of slavery in the South should be made a condition in any terms for peace. As a result of such disagreement, two District Conventions were held, representing these two adverse policies. The one composed of Republicansand what were known as War Democrats nominated Mr. Waite for Con- gress, and he, with much hesitation, accepted the position. The other convention selected James M. Ashley, the Republican incumbent, as its can- didate. While the Democrats of Lucas, Wood and Fulton Counties, with great unanimity, sup- ported Mr. Waite, the members of that party in the other counties of the district, from considera- tions of party strategy, voted for a third candi- date, the result being the re-election of Mr. Ash- ley. In Toledo Mr. Waite then received eighteen hundred and six votes out of twenty-four hundred and forty-seven votes cast, while his plurality in the county was thirteen hundred and forty-six in a total vote of forty-one hundred and sixty-three. No other popular endorsement of equal emphasis had been given a citizen of that county. Upon the refusal of Hocking H. Hunter to accept the seat on the State Supreme Bench, to which he was elected in 1863, Governor Brough tendered the position to Mr. Waite, by whom it was declined. His reputation as a sound and able lawyer and conservative citizen had become so far national, that in December, 1871, President Grant selected him as one of the counsel for the United States in the arbitration at Geneva, involving the settle- ment of what were known as the "Alabama Claims" of the Government against Great Britain. For such position Mr. Waite possessed the special qual- ities of great industry and ability in research and argument, qualities which were made conspicuous and effective on that memorable occasion, and se- cured for his labors historical recognition. His presentation of the question of Great Britain's li- ability in permitting the Confederate war steamers to obtain in British ports supplies for hostilities against American shipping commanded marked at- tention both from that tribunal and from the world. Entering that service with a reputation more hmited than was that of either of his associate counsel, the close of the trial found him in that respect second to none.
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PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
Returning to Toledo in 1872, Mr. Waite resumed his practice. In 1873 he was elected without op- position as a member of the convention called to revise the State Constitution, and upon the assem- bling of that body he was chosen as its President. It was during the session of this convention at Cincinnati, in January, 1874, that the successive nominations of George H. Williams and Caleb Cushing for Chief Justice, to succeed Salmon P. Chase, deceased, were presented and withdrawn by President Grant. The third name communicated to the Senate was that of Mr. Waite, which was done without the knowledge of that gentleman, who had positively withheld his approval of any steps by his friends in that direction. The an- nouncement of the nomination was received by the Constitutional Convention with special dem- onstration of pleasure, and a resolution strongly approving the same was at once introduced to that body, and by him, as its presiding officer, ruled ont of order. The Senate, by a unanimous vote, ap- proved the nomination. It so happened that only a year previous to his appointment as Chief Jus- tice, Mr. Waite was admitted to practice in the Su- perior Court, and upon the motion of Mr. Cushing. His appointment was received by the citizens of Toledo with marks of special gratification. The Bar at once met and made expression both of ap- proval and of its high appreciation of Mr. Waite's personal and professional worth. A proposition for a banquet was, at his request, changed to an informal reception, held at the residence of Will- iam Baker, Esq., February 3, 1874, which was at- tended by large numbers of citizens, glad to con- gratulate the appointee on the high honor con- ferred, and to assure him of their wish for success in his new position. He left Toledo for Wash- ington on the 13th of February, and assumed the office of Chief Justice by taking the prescribed oath, March 4 following.
In the administration of the position to which he had been appointed the higliest judicial posi- tion in the world, Mr. Waite was eminently suc- cessful. His capacity of mind and his endurance, which throughout had distinguished his profes- sional life, were only made more conspicuous and effective in his judicial position. The excessive
labor demanded for the research and study of facts, authorities and principles of jurisprudence, and their just application, could be properly met only with resources to be supplied by long practice of energy and self-denying toil; and it may be men- tioned here, for the benefit of young men in all departments of active life, that Chief Justice Waite recognizes in his present capacity for labor the di- rect result and chief reward of the years of severe work, withont apparent return, spent in his early practice. The result has been all that he or the country could ask. During no equal period have adjudications of that august tribuual been attend- ed with more complete success, either in the cor- reetness of its decisions, or in their acceptance by parties and the public. Its action has involved points of special delieaey in connection with con- troverted political and constitutional questions, with no instance in which the result was not promptly accepted as final and just. In this con- nection will be appropriate the testimony of a member of the Supreme Court, given after he had retired from that Bench. Of Chief Justice Waite he said: "From the day of his entrance into office as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, he has been indefatigable in his discharge of its great duties- patient, industrious and able. His administrative ability is remarkable. None of his predecessors more steadily and wisely superintended the Court, or more carefully observed all that is necessary to its working. Nothing under his administration has been neglected or overlooked. He has written many of the most important decisions of the Court -too many to be particularized. Among the more recent of his opinions may be mentioned those de- livered in the cases of Antoni vs. Greenhow, Lou- isiana vs. Jumel and Elliott vs. Wiltz, each of them involving questions arising under the Constitution of the United States."
In nothing has Chief Justice Waite more clearly indicated fitness for the office he holds than in the exalted estimate which be has ever manifested of its grave responsibilities and dignified character. Occasion for such manifestation was furnished in 1875. Hle then had held the position of Chief Justice long enough for his special fitness therefor to become known. So high had this appreciation
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PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
become at the date named that the matter of his nomination for the Presidency came to be earnest- ly canvassed in prominent and influential quar- ters. This was especially true of many leading public journals. From the first suggestion of that sort, however, those most familiar with his real feelings and sentiments in regard to public life could see no encouragement for yielding to, -much less for co-operating with, such movement. These knew too well his strong attachment to his profes- sion; his repugnance to the life of the political as- pirant; and his eminently conservative habit of mind, to find the slightest warrant for such sug- gestion. His friends did not have long to wait for the fullest justification of their assumption in the casc. The matter having, in November. 1875, been presented to him in such form as to invite definite response, he addressed to a relative, Hon. John T. Waite, then Member of Congress from Connecticut, a private letter, which afterward, by request, he permitted to be published. In that letter he said: "Of course, I am grateful to my friends for any efforts on my behalf; and no one ever had friends more faithful or more indulgent. But do you think it quite right for one occupying the first judicial position in the land to permit the use of his name for political position? The office I hold came to me covered with honor; and when I accepted it my chief duty was not to make it a stepping-stone to something else, but to preserve its purity, and, if that might be, to make my name as honorable as are those of my predecessors. No man ought to accept this place unless he take the vow to leave it as honorable as he found it. There ought never to be a necessity for rebuilding from below, all additions should be above. In my judg- ment, the Constitution might wisely have prohibit- ed the clection of a Chief Justice to the Presidency. Entertaining such view, could I properly or consist- ently permit my name to be used for the promo- tion of a political combination, as now suggested? If I should do so, could I at all times and in all cases remain an unbiased judge in the estimation of the people? There canuot be a doubt that in these days of politico-judicial questions it would be specially dangerous to have a judge who could look beyond the judiciary in his personal ambi-
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