USA > Ohio > Representative citizens of Ohio : memorial-genealogical > Part 10
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When the Civil War broke out in 1861, he enlisted in tlie Union army and served his country faithfully for a period of five months, during the first year of the war.
Professor Wright has been twice married, first, on August 28, 1862, to Huldah Maria Day, whose death occurred in 1899. He
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6. Frederick Wright
was united in marriage with Florence Eleanor Bedford, in Sep- tember, 1904.
The career of Professor Wright has been a busy and suc- cessful one, as only a cursory glance at his record will show. He was pastor of the Congregational Church at Bakersfield, Vermont, from 1861 to 1872; he was then pastor of the church of this de- nomination at Andover, Massachusetts, from 1872 to 1881. From 1881 to 1892 he was professor of New Testament language and literature in the Oberlin Theological Seminary, also taught the harmony of science and religion at Oberlin, from 1902 to 1907, when he was made professor emeritus and retired on a Carnegie pension. He was assistant geologist on the Pennsylvania Survey in 1881 and 1882, and on the United States Survey from 1884 to 1892. He has been president of the Ohio Historical and Arch- aeological Society since 1907, in which he is doing a most com- mendable work. In pursuit of his investigations he has visited every portion of the north temperate zone. He was a pioneer in the investigation of the glaciers of Alaska, in 1886. He spent a summer in Greenland in 1894. Besides seasons spent in Europe and the Rocky Mountains, for fourteen months he traveled through China, Mongolia, Manchuria, Siberia, Turkestan, and the Caucasus and Lebanon mountains, gathering original information for the books he has published. At three different times he was invited to give courses of Lowell Institute lectures in Boston, numbering twenty-eight in all.
Both as pastor and professor, Mr. Wright won a reputation second to none of his compeers, being both an instructor and enter- tainer at the same time, a vigorous and independent thinker, fear- less in his researches, and ever having the courage of his convic- tions. As a speaker he is logical, convincing and, at times, truly eloquent. A man of profound scholarship, he is familiar with the world's best literature and useful sciences, leaving no field un- investigated, no region unexplored in the realms of the mind, ever keeping fully abreast of the times in modern thought and inven- tion, and ever striving to inculcate such principles as make for the amelioration of humanity in any way possible, being broad- minded and progressive, altruistic and humanitarian in all that the terms imply.
As an author, Professor Wright stands deservedly high among modern men of letters, the products of his versatile and graceful pen having reached a world-wide and highly appreciative audi- ence, his style being that of the master-clear, forceful, elegant, never prolix or uninteresting. He is the author of the following publications: "Logic of Christian Evidences," 1880; "Studies in
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®. Frederick Wright
Science and Religion," 1882; "The Relation of Death to Proba- tion," 1882; "The Divine Authority of the Bible," 1884; "Glacial Boundary in Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky"; "Ice Age in North America," 1889; "Charles Grandison Finney," 1891; "Man and the Glacial Period," 1892; "Greenland Ice Fields and Life in the North Atlantic," 1896; "Scientific Aspects of Christian Evi- dences," 1898; "Asiatic Russia," (two volumes) 1902; "Scien- tific Confirmations of Old Testament History," 1906; "Origin and Antiquity of Man," 1912. He has been editor of "Bibliotheca Sacre" since 1884; also editor of "Records of the Past," since 1905.
Professor Wright is essentially cosmopolitan in his ideas, a man of the people in the fullest sense, and a representative type of that strong American manhood which commands and retains respect by reason of inherent merit, sound sense and correct con- duct. He has so impressed his individuality upon his fellow men wherever his lot has been cast as to win their highest esteem and become a strong and influential power in leading them to high and noble things. Measured by the accepted standard of excellence, his career has been eminently honorable and useful, and his life fraught with great good to humanity and to the world.
Ulrich Swan
Judge Alric Sloane
HE efforts of the late Judge Ulric Sloane, universally known for a number of decades as one of Ohio's ablest and most distinguished lawyers, proved of the greatest value to his fellow-citizens as well as to himself. He shaped his career along worthy lines, and his talents were dis- cerningly directed along well defined channels of endeavor. He was a man of distinct and forceful individuality, of marked sa- gacity, of undaunted enterprise, and in manner he was genial, courteous, and easily approached. His career was ever such as to warrant the trust and confidence of the public and his activity in legal circles forms no unimportant chapter in the history of the Buckeye State. He was a scion of a long line of sterling ancestry on both sides of the house, some of them eminent Irish jurists of their day, and many of their commendable characteristics seemed to have outcropped in our subject. The public is seldom mistaken in its estimation of a man, and had Judge Sloane not been most worthy he could not have gained the eminent position he so long held in legal, public, and social life, having long main- tained the same without any abatement of his popularity. By his own persistent and legitimate efforts he won for himself a name whose luster the future years shall only augment.
Judge James Sloane for some time occupied the common pleas bench, and was on the bench when he died. He resided in the judicial subdivision including Highland County in the southwest- ern section of the State, and he ranked as one of the leading jurists of his day and generation in the Middle West, and was prominent in public life. The mother of the subject was noted for her refinement, culture, and intellectual attainments, being a woman of poetic temperament, and possessing such charms of manner and graces as made her popular in the best social circles a half century or more ago.
Ulric Sloane was descended from a sterling line of ancestry. His maternal grandfather, Joseph White, married Mary Platter, a sister of Mrs. Barbara Stockton, and they became the parents of the following children: (1) Margrete became the wife of James Hamilton, of Mt. Sterling, Kentucky. (2) Mary married Jesse Fenton, of Memphis, Tennessee, and they had children, Hamilton and Jessie. (3) Anna became the wife of Richard J.
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Judge Eric Sloane
Oglesby, of Decatur, Illinois, who was colonel of the Eighth Illi- nois Volunteer Infantry, and subsequently became a major-gen- eral of volunteers. They had two children, Dick, who died during the Civil War, and Robert. Mrs. Oglesby died in 1868. (4) Kate became the wife of James Sloane in 1849, and to them was born Ulric, the immediate subject of this sketch, at Hillsboro, High- land County, Ohio, on December 18, 1850. (5) Hattie married Major Frank Hayes, and they had children, Harry, Robert, Frank, and Marjorie.
Judge Ulric Sloane received a good education and he began life for himself by teaching school when only seventeen years of age, and he would have, no doubt, become a noted educator had he continued in that field of endeavor. Early in life he manifested an ambition to follow a literary career, but circumstances com- pelled him to relinquish this plan, and apply himself to the secur- ing of an education. Eventually he decided to study law, and with this end in view, he went to Decatur, Illinois, there reading law with a relative, Judge Emerson, with whom he made rapid progress and was admitted to the bar when only eighteen years of age, three years earlier than would have been possible in Ohio, there being at that time no age limit in the former State, a knowl- edge of the fundamental principles of law being the necessary requirement. He was first admitted to practice at the bar of Macon County, Illinois, on April 8, 1868; to the bar of Missouri, . May 21, 1868; to the Ohio bar on January 13, 1874, and to the bar of New York State on September 8, 1890. From the time of his admittance to the bar in 1868, until his death he enjoyed a large and lucrative practice, which increased with the years. He first began practice at Chillicothe, Missouri, remaining there six years. Returning to Hillsboro, Ohio, upon the death of his father, he continued his profession there until 1898, being one of the most active and best known attorneys in that section of the State, in which year he moved to Columbus. His fame as a criminal lawyer had preceded him, indeed, had by that time penetrated to all parts of the State and he found his services in great demand from the start, and became in due course of time probably the greatest and most successful criminal lawyer in Ohio. He was much sought after, upon coming here, to act as toastmaster and in other public and semi-public functions. He came to the capital city at the suggestion of the late Judge Wil- liam J. Gilmore, of the State Supreme Court, with whom he formed a partnership. This lasted but a short time, when he returned to Hillsboro, where he was again retained in most of the notable cases held in Highland and adjoining counties. Later
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Judge Alric #Sloane
returning to Columbus, he was associated at different times with Judge R. A. Harrison, Judge Samuel L. Black, and Thomas E. Steele. From Columbus he went to Cincinnati, where the greater part of his later life was spent. He was at one time a law partner of ex-Senator Foraker. He represented the defense in more than two hundred murder cases, and he had the remarkable record of only one of his clients being sentenced to death. He was one of the leading counsel for the defense when Colonel A. B. Colt, com- mander of the Fourteenth Regiment, was tried for murder in the first degree, by reason of his having issued the command to fire that resulted in the death of several people at Washington Court House during a riot. Colonel Colt was acquitted. He was ranked among the three leading criminal experts in the State. He was a very strong advocate before the court or a jury, being a logical, earnest, and forceful speaker, and, having remained a profound student of all phases of the underlying principles of jurisprudence, he was always a master of his theme and well prepared, leaving nothing undone for the interests of his clients. Indeed, all who knew him will readily acquiesce that he had few equals and no superiors in his field of legal science. It will thus be seen that he was a most worthy representative of an honored ancestry, and a man of whom his descendants, his innumerable friends, even the State itself, may well be proud.
Politically, Mr. Sloane was loyal in his support of the Demo- cratic party, and he took an active part in each campaign, being a potent factor in the success of Democracy in his locality since 1868. He was well fortified in his political and public opinions, well versed upon the questions which were to the statesnian and the man of affairs of vital import, and on all important issues kept in close touch with the best thinkers of the period in which he lived. As a political speaker he wielded a great influence, always holding his vast audiences spell-bound with his weight of argument and his eloquence. His political and legal associates and friends all speak of his career in the highest terms.
Ulric Sloane was twice married, first, to Sarah Buckingham, the daughter of Hon. C. P. Buckingham, of Zanesville, Ohio, who was adjutant-general of Ohio under Governors Dennison and Tod. Mrs. Sloane was also a niece of Colonel Trimble, of Highland County, Ohio. Subsequently, Judge Ulric Sloane married Mary Duffy, the accomplished daughter of John Duffy, a prominent Columbus family, living at No. 319 East Gay Street. To Judge Sloane and wife one child was born, Ulric Sloane, the second, whose birth occurred on Sunday, September 5, 1909, in Columbus. He gives unusual promise of a brilliant future.
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Judge Aric Sloane
The death of Judge Ulric Sloane occurred on Sunday, Janu- ary 21, 1912, in a hospital in Cincinnati, after a comparatively brief illness, although he had been in failing health for some time and was on the eve of departing for Florida for the benefit of the same, when he was stricken fatally. He was sixty-one years of age, which was the age of his father at the time of his death. Thus passed to a higher plane of endeavor, one of Ohio's greatest and most noted men, but his influence will continue to pervade the lives of men for many a year to come, for the forces set in motion by such a life of usefulness, strength and honor cannot be quenched when the little flame of mortal life vanishes into nothingness and fades into the primordial dream.
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Eng. by E & Beiuns & Bre MY
Robert Rogers
Robert Rodgers, M.D.
O RESCUE from fading tradition the personal annals of the pioneers of our country is a pleasing but laborious task; not so laborious, perhaps, as perplexing, by reason of memoirs from which many impressions of the early days have long since faded. To gather up the broken threads of strange yet simple stories of individual lives, to catch the fleeting fireside histories and hand them down to posterity is a laudable ambition worthy of encouragement on the part of every one interested in his community. Dr. Robert Rodgers, long since a traveler to that "undiscovered bourne," of which the world's greatest poet wrote, was one of the prominent and most successful general physicians and surgeons of the State of Ohio in the century that has recently passed, being numbered among those who were in the van of civilization moving westward, who passed through years of arduous toil and hardship, such as few now living have ever experienced. A man of action and progress in the broadest sense of the terms, he realized the wants of the people and with strong hand and an active brain supplied the demand generously and unsparingly. His life was an open book, known and read by his many friends, who found therein no blank or soiled pages and nothing to offend; for Doctor Rodgers always endeavored to measure his life by strict principles of rectitude, and few of his contemporaries could present a character so nearly flawless or a reputation against which so little in the way of criti- cism could be uttered. He ranked high among the medical men of the Middle West, and was in every respect a most commendable example of the successful, self-made man and unselfish, sturdy and helpful pioneer, and although he has now for more than three decades been absent from the arena of earthly action, the good he did still lives.
Doctor Rodgers was born in Shippensburg, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, September 24, 1807, of Scotch-Irish ances- try. He was a son of James Rodgers, born in 1775 and he died in 1831. He was also a native of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. He was a farmer and lived and died at the old homestead there, not very old when summoned to his reward. He was a son of Richard Rodgers, who was born in 1733 and who died in 1804. He married Rachael Denny; both were born in Pennsylvania and spent their lives there, at Shippensburg. He was a soldier in the Revolution-
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Robert Rodgers, M.D.
ary War. He was twice married, his first wife having been Jane Quigly, who was born in 1774 and died in Pennsylvania on October 14, 1832, in Cumberland County. She was the mother of our sub- ject, and at her death left these children, Richard, Robert, Wil- liam, Mary and Rachel. James Rodgers married for his second wife Jane Linn, a native of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, who was born there in 1793 and whose death occurred in 1860 in that State, leaving Jane Linn Rodgers who died in Springfield, and Andrew Denny Rodgers who now lives in Columbus, Ohio, where he is prominent; during the Civil War he was paymaster. He is married and has a family. He was a lawyer. James Rodgers was a soldier in the War of 1812, and with the money he earned while in the service he purchased, in the city of Baltimore, a set of silver spoons which has been kept in the family ever since and which are now owned by Miss Frances Rodgers and her brother, Isaac Ward Rodgers, the children of Doctor Rodgers of this sketch, and these heirlooms are highly prized by them.
Doctor Rodgers was the only member of his family who was really professional, although he had a brother, Rev. James Linn Rodgers, who was a Presbyterian clergyman, prominent as a min- ister in his day in both Pennsylvania and Ohio. Doctor Rodgers grew to manhood on the home farm and in his neighborhood re- ceived such schooling as he could, later studying medicine in Phila- delphia, Pennsylvania. He began practicing at New Hope, Cum- berland County, his native State, in 1828, remaining there three years, then came to Portsmouth, Ohio, in 1832, and in 1833 came to Springfield at the time the government was building the National Pike. He built his home at what is now the site of the St. James Hotel, and on the site of his second home is now to be seen the Com- mercial Building, and this latter place was where all the children were born, and he finally purchased a fine old colonial home at what is now 206 N. Limestone Street. While in Springfield, Doc- tor Rodgers became the best known physician in this section of the State and he enjoyed an immense practice, extending over Clark County, and his faithful service to his patients, his superior ability and his genial disposition made him greatly beloved by all who knew him. He was a profound student and kept fully abreast of the times in all matters, especially pertaining to his profession, and he accumulated a fortune, although a great deal of his prac- tice among the poor was of a charitable nature, for he had a large heart and was touched at the suffering of the poor, and he was kind and generous to a fault. He overlooked the faults of others and never spoke ill of any one, and he saw good in everybody.
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Robert Rodgers, M.D.
Doctor Rodgers was one of the early members of the Clark County Medical Society, the Ohio State Medical Society and the American Medical Association. He was a strong Republican after that party was organized in 1856 and was influential in the work of the same. He was a man who looked with pride upon the growth and progress of his adopted city, and did all he could in the work of the same.
Doctor Rodgers was married in Pennsylvania, in Lebanon County, to Effie Harrison, daughter of Gen. John Harrison, of that county, the General having been a prominent citizen there where he spent his life and was always active in local matters. His father, Isaac Harrison, emigrated to America in the latter part of 1700, from England. He married in Pennsylvania and there spent the rest of his life, in Lebanon County, being a noted manufacturer of that section.
The wife of Doctor Rodgers died at the family residence in Springfield on June 7, 1887, at the age of seventy-six, her birth having occurred on September 8, 1811. She, like her husband, was from her early life a stanch member of the Presbyterian church, and was a most consistent Christian woman.
To the Doctor and wife were born the following children: John, who became a prominent physician, was educated in Miami College, and later was graduated in medicine from the University of Pennsylvania, and his entire practice had been conducted at Springfield, Ohio, until his death in September, 1908; his wife also died some years ago, leaving these children, Addison S., and Wil- liam B., both married and living in Springfield. Isaac Ward and Richard Henry were twins, the latter growing to maturity and be- coming a successful business man; he married, and died in Spring- field in the year 1909, leaving these children, Charles Kilgore, and Robert Sinclair. The latter is married and is a director in the American Seeding Company, and has two living children. The elder of the above named twins, Isaac Ward Rodgers, was well reared and enjoyed every educational advantage, later becoming interested in manufacturing affairs, first as a member of the firm of the Ferrell, Ludlow & Rodgers Company, manufacturers of grain drills, and later with other concerns. He now lives with his sister Frances at the old homestead. He, like his brothers, is a Republican; he was never married. Richard H. Rodgers spent all his active life with the Superior Seed Drill Company, in which he was a director. His death occurred on June 23, 1909, his wife hav- ing preceded him to the grave some years previously, leaving two sons, one deceased, the other, Robert, is living, married and has a
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family. James Rodgers died in 1909 when past sixty years of age. He was a banker and manufacturer in Springfield. His wife is also deceased. They left two children, Francis and Eleanor, both now in college.
Frances Rodgers, youngest child of the Doctor and wife, to whom we are indebted for the above history of this prominent and worthy family, was born and reared in Springfield, and was edu- cated in the Young Ladies' Seminary of her home city, and here she has continued to make her home, residing in the picturesque old Rodgers dwelling on North Limestone Street. She is a lady of refinement and culture and of pleasing presence, and she has long been a favorite in the best social circles of the city. She and her brother Isaac are faithful members of the Presbyterian Church.
The death of Doctor Rodgers occurred at his late residence in Springfield, on February 14, 1880, after an honorable and most praiseworthy career. He was long greatly missed from the circles in which he moved, especially the Clark County Medical Society, which met three different times in his office to organize and re-or- ganize, and twice he served as its president. No name has been more intimately associated with medical history and but few with the history and progress of the city of Springfield. He read a paper before the above named society giving an account of an op- eration which he performed, being the only Caesarian section ever performed in Clark County. Doctor Kay said of him in a memorial address:
"Being sedulously devoted to the healing art, of indomitable perseverance and courteous in his manners he attained to a high degree of influence among his professional brethren towards whom he conducted himself in accordance with the best require- ments of ethical and Christian principles."
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Darry L. Rockfield
Harry L. Rockfield
N GIVING the life record of the late Harry L. Rockfield the publishers of this work believe that it will be an in- centive to the youth of the Buckeye commonwealth who may peruse it to lead nobler lives, have higher ambi- tions and accomplish more for their fellow men, for his life was always led along a plane of high endeavor, always consistent with the truth in its higher forms and ever in keeping with honorable principles. He was the scion of pioneer ancestors of the most sterling qualities who did much in their day for the communities in which they lived, and the lamented subject of this memoir was a worthy descendant of his sturdy forebears. He was a fine type of the earnest, energetic self-made American, and he so directed his talents and energies along laudable lines of endeavor that he acquired a fortune without other help than a strong mind, willing hands and honest heart, eventually becoming one of the most sub- stantial and representative citizens of Springfield, Ohio, indeed, was for many decades one of the best known men of affairs in this State and was held in highest esteem and admiration by all who knew him. In fact, it would have been hard to have found a more genial, companionable, whole-souled, public spirited gentle- man than Mr. Rockfield, a man who did much for the material, civic and moral advancement of his chosen city and the section of the State honored by his residence. Thus for many reasons, not the least of which is the fact that he was one of the patriotic sons of the Northland, who, when the tocsin of war sounded, left his hearthstone and business, and offered his services and his life, if need be, to help save the Union from treason and disruption, the biographer is glad to give his name just representation in this memorial and historical compendium.
Harry L. Rockfield, well known pioneer Springfield citizen, and popular proprietor of the Arcade hotel in that city for many years, was a native of Fairfield, Greene County, Ohio, where he was born November 21, 1844. There he spent his earlier boyhood years, and he received a fairly good primary education in the common schools, which was greatly supplemented in after life by actual contact with the business world and by wide miscellaneous home reading and study until he became an exceptionally well informed man and could converse most intelligently on the cur-
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