USA > Ohio > Representative citizens of Ohio : memorial-genealogical > Part 38
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Rutherford B. Hayes was seven years of age before he went to school, though his education had not been neglected. He prob-
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ably learned as much from his mother and sister as he would have done at school. His sports were almost wholly within doors, his playmates being his sister and her associates. These circum- stances tended, no doubt, to foster that gentleness of disposition and that delicate consideration for the feelings of others which became marked traits of his character. His uncle, Sardis Birch- ard, took a deep interest in his education and he proposed to send him to college, his preparation commencing with a tutor at home, and he later studied a year with a professor in the Wesleyan Uni- versity at Middletown, Connecticut. He entered Kenyon College in 1838, and was graduated in 1842 as the valedictorian of his class. He studied law with Thomas Sparrow, of Columbus, Ohio, and then for two years attended the Law School of Harvard Univer- sity, where he graduated in 1845. Immediately afterwards he was admitted to the bar at Marietta, Ohio, and began practice at Fre- mont in April, 1846, forming a partnership with Hon. Ralph P. Buckland. In 1849 he removed to Cincinnati, where, however, for several years his progress was slow. Two events, occurring at this period, had a powerful influence upon his subsequent life. One of these was his marriage with Lucy Ware Webb, daughter of Dr. James Webb, of Chillicothe, Ohio; the other was his introduc- tion to the Cincinnati Literary Club, a body embracing among its members such men as Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, Gen. John Pope, Governor Noyes, and many other hardly less distinguished in after life. The marriage 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 none did more than she to reflect honor upon American womanhood. The literary club brought Mr. Hayes into association with young men of high character and noble aims, and lured him to display the qualities so long hidden by his bashful- ness and modesty. In 1856 he was nominated for the office of judge of the court of common pleas, but he declined to accept the nomination. In 1858, the office of city solicitor becoming vacant, the city council elected him for the unexpired term, and he served until April, 1861.
In 1861, when the Rebellion broke out, Mr. Hayes was at the zenith of his professional life, his rank at the bar being among the first. But the news of the attack on Fort Sumter found him eager to take up arms in defense of his country. His military record was bright and illustrious. At the outbreak of the war he was elected captain of the military company formed from the Cincinnati Lit- erary Club. In June, 1861, he was appointed major of theTwenty-
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third Ohio Regiment, which was ordered to West Virginia in July. In October of that year he was appointed lieutenant-colonel, and in August, 1862, promoted colonel of the Seventy-ninth Ohio Reg- iment, but he refused to leave his old comrades. Subsequently, however, because of conspicuous gallantry, he was made colonel of his own regiment. At the battle of South Mountain he received a wound, and while faint and bleeding displayed courage and for- titude that won admiration from all. Colonel 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 gallantry and meritorious services in the battles of Winches- ter, 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 Vir- ginia." In the course of his arduous services, four horses were shot from under him and he was wounded four times.
In August, 1864, General Hayes was elected to Congress, from the Second Ohio District, which had long been Democratic, and in 1866 he was re-elected. In 1867 he was elected governor of Ohio over Allen G. Thurman, a popular Democrat, and in 1869 he was re-elected over George H. Pendleton. In 1872, against his wishes, he was again nominated for Congress, but was defeated. In 1873 he returned to Fremont and the next year inherited the consider- able estate of his uncle, Sardis Birchard. In 1875, notwithstand- ing his well-known desire not to re-enter public life, he was again nominated for governor of Ohio, and, after a hard-fought canvass, was elected. This contest, by reason of the financial issue in- volved, became a national one and was watched with interest throughout the country, and as a result he was nominated for the Presidency at the Republican national convention which met at Cincinnati in June, 1876. His administration as President was a wise and conservative one, meeting with the approval of the people at large and earning from no less eminent a person than James G. Blaine the following encomium: "It was one of the few and rare cases in our history in which the President entered upon his office with the country depressed and discontented and left it prosperous and happy; in which he found his party broken, divided and on the verge of defeat, and left it strong, united and prosperous. This," he said, "was the peculiar felicity of Colonel Haves' public ca- reer." On the expiration of his term, Ex-President Hayes retired to his home at Fremont, Ohio, where his death occurred. He was the recipient of the degree of Doctor of Laws from Kenyon Col- lege and Harvard, Yale, and Johns Hopkins universities; was a
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commander of the Order of the Loyal Legion; was first president of the Society of the Army of West Virginia; was president of the John F. Slater Education Fund; president of the National Prison Reform Association, and a trustee of a large number of charitable and educational institutions. All in all, his life was a busy and a beautiful one, because it was filled with useful work for the welfare and happiness of his family, his town, his State and his country.
Captain Benjamin Franklin Bookwalter
T IS a pleasure to investigate the career of a successful self-made man. Peculiar honor attaches to that indi- vidual who, beginning the great struggle of life alone and unaided, gradually overcomes environment, re- moves one by one the obstacles in the pathway to success and by the master strokes of his own force and vitality succeeds in forg- ing his way to the front and winning for himself a position of es- teem and influence among his fellow men. Such is the record, briefly stated, of the late Benjamin F. Bookwalter, for several decades one of the most substantial and representative citizens of Montgomery County, Ohio, to a brief synopsis of whose life and character the reader's attention is herewith directed in this mem- oir. His protracted residence in this section of the State made his name widely and familiarly known. His life and the history of this locality for an extended period was pretty much one and the same thing. He lived to see and take a prominent part in the later-day growth of the community. He was one of its wisest counselors and hardest workers. He was a progressive man in the broadest sense of the term and gave his earnest support to every movement that promised to benefit his community in any way. His was a long life of honor and trust and no higher eulogy can be passed upon him than to state the simple truth that his name was never coupled with anything disreputable and that there never was a shadow of a stain upon his reputation for integrity and un- swerving honesty. Mr. Bookwalter was a consistent man in all he ever undertook, and his career in all the relations of life was ut- terly without pretense. He was held in the highest esteem by all who knew him, and the city of Miamisburg or county of Montgom- ery could boast of no better man or more enterprising citizen.
Captain Benjamin F. Bookwalter was born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, on March 31, 1820, and his death occurred at his home in Miamisburg, Ohio, September 4, 1904, in the eighty-fifth year of his age. He was the son of John and Catherine (Stump) Bookwalter, who also were natives of the old Keystone State. The Bookwalter family is of Swiss origin, the first American ancestor of the subject, Francis Bookwalter, having left Switzerland in 1710, because of religious persecution, because he, a Roman Catholic, persisted in reading a Protestant Bible. He brought
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his family to America, locating in Pennsylvania, where they spent the rest of their lives and died. Their children were Joseph, Jacob, John, Yoest, and Mary. Of these, Jacob was probably born in Berks County, Pennsylvania, there married and had one son, John, who also was a native of Berks County. He married and had children, Anna, Jacob, John, Abraham, Joseph, and Gerhart, all of whom were born in Berks County. Of these, the third child and second son, John, was the father of the subject of this sketch. He was born about 1775, and when about forty years old married Catherine Stump. Locating in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, he pros- pered and became a prominent man in the commercial life of that community, where he owned valuable properties, including some iron industries. During his early business life he was also a heavy importer of merchandise from the West Indies. In about 1824 he came to Ohio, locating on a good farm, partly improved, in Montgomery County, about six miles from Miamisburg. It was on this farm that the wife and mother passed away, when thirty- five years old. He later started back east to look after his prop- erty interests in Johnstown, but died on the journey. Through his death, and their ignorance of his business affairs, his family lost the properties in Johnstown which rightfully belonged to them. These parents were devoted Christians and the mother was pos- sessed of a lovable character that commended her to all who knew her. Their children were, besides the subject of this memoir, John, Daniel, and Mary, all of whom lived to maturity, married, and reared families.
Benjamin F. Bookwalter was the third in order of birth of the children born to his parents and he was but two or three years old when the family came to Ohio, all of the children being quite small when bereft of their parents by death. He was reared in Mont- gomery County till the age of sixteen years, receiving as good an education as the common schools provided. In 1836 he went to Winchester, Ohio, where he served a four-years' apprenticeship to the trade of wagon and carriage maker. At the termination of his apprenticeship he located in Germantown, Montgomery County, where, as a journeyman, he was employed at his trade about a year. He then went to Paris, Ohio, and for about three years, he was in business on his own account. In 1848 he established him- self in the dry goods business in Winchester, under the firm name of Halderman & Bookwalter, the partnership terminating at the end of a year. Later he engaged in the manufacture of car- riages at Seven Mile, Butler County, this State, where he remained until 1864, in which year he came to Miamisburg and became a
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member of the firm of Bookwalter Brothers & Company, manu- facturers of carriages and road wagons. In 1868 the firm began the manufacture of wheels exclusively, in which they were very successful. In 1890, at which time the subject was president of the company, the business was absorbed by the Standard Wheel Company, and in the following year the Bookwalter Wheel Com- pany was organized, of which Mr. Bookwalter was chosen vice- president, though for some time he traveled in the interest of the company. A man of natural ability, to which was added the ripe experience of his varied business enterprises, Mr. Bookwalter con- tributed in large measure to the success of this enterprise and he was numbered among the progressive and leading business men of his section of the State.
During the late Civil War Mr. Bookwalter was a strong and enthusiastic supporter of the Union and took an active part in car- rying forward local military measures. He assisted in the organi- zation of various companies for service and was instrumental in filling three Ohio regiments for the war, besides raising a company of one-hundred-day men. He was for a considerable time em- ployed in the south on business in connection with the war de- partment and did much to provide for the comfort and care of the sick and wounded soldiers from his own State. Returning home, he raised Company D., of the One Hundred and Sixty-ninth Regiment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry, of which he was chosen captain, and he rendered faithful and unremitting service to his country as long as there was need of him.
Politically, Captain Bookwalter was a Republican and kept in close touch with the trend of public events. Religiously, he was from young manhood, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, as was his wife, and together they were constant and ear- nest supporters of that society in Miamisburg. The Captain was a member of the board of trustees and gave liberally of his means to the support of the church and its varied interests.
Captain Benjamin F. Bookwalter was married on December 8, 1842, to Abigail Gram, who was born in Pennsylvania in 1810, and who died in Miamisburg in 1895, at the age of eighty-five years. She was the daughter of Conrad and Nancy (House) Gram, who were also born in Pennsylvania, the father being of German ancestry and the mother of English stock. Late in their lives they came to Ohio and here their deaths occurred at advanced ages. They were faithful members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and their only son, Frederick, was a well-known minister in that denomination: There were four daughters in the family,
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all of whom grew to maturity and were married. To Captain and Mrs. Bookwalter were born the following children: Anna E., who remains unmarried and lives with her brothers at the old family home, at the corner of Pearl and Fourth streets, is a well educated lady, having attended the Methodist College at Spring- field. Winfield Scott, after completing his education in the public schools, attended and graduated from Miami Medical College, Cincinnati, now known as Miami University, with the class of 1872, receiving the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He at once lo- cated at Miamisburg and entered upon the active practice of his profession, in which he has met with the most eminent success, being widely recognized as an able and popular physician, as well as public spirited and enterprising citizen and business man. Doc- tor Bookwalter is president of the Bookwalter Wheel Company and has other business interests which demand a share of his time. He is unmarried. Charles Edgar, who attended college at Dela- ware, Ohio, studied law and was admitted to the bar. He enjoys a good practice and at one time served as solicitor for the city of Miamisburg. He was private secretary for Congressman Shultz while the latter was in Congress and later Mr. Bookwalter was connected with the Pension Department at Washington. He is a stockholder and director of the Bookwalter Wheel Company and is a man of fine character. Like his brother, the Doctor, he is un- married and they live together at the old home. In politics Doctor Winfield Scott and Charles Edgar are Republicans, while they and their sister are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Fra- ternally, Dr. W. S. is a Free and Accepted Mason, belonging to the blue lodge and chapter, while his brother is a member of the Be- nevolent and Protective Order of Elks, belonging to the lodge at Dayton. The members of the honored family represented in this memoir have all performed faithfully their parts in the drama of life and in the community where the family has been known for so many years, none in the community are more highly esteemed.
George Shupert
0 RESCUE from fading tradition the personal annals of the pioneers of our country is a pleasing but labor- ious task; not so laborious, perhaps, as perplexing, by reason of memories from which many impressions of the early days have in large measure faded and become indistinct. To gather up the broken threads of strange, yet simple stories of individual lives, to catch the fleeting stories and fireside histo- ries and hand them down to posterity is a laudable ambition wor- thy of encouragement on the part of every one interested in his community. George Shupert, one of the oldest and most highly respected citizens of Miamisburg, Ohio, is not only himself one of the oldest residents of this immediate section of Ohio, but his parents were among the real pioneers of Montgomery County, being in the van of civilization moving westward, who passed through years of arduous toil and hardship, such as few now living have ever experienced. There have been too few to sound the praise of the brave and sturdy pioneer who, among the truly great and noble, is certainly deserving of specific mention in the chronicles of the years. To him more than to any other is civili- zation indebted for the brightest jewel in its diadem, for it was he who blazed the way for the mighty army of progress that within the last century has conquered the wilderness and transformed it into one of the fairest and most enlightened of the American commonwealth's domains. The subject of this sketch retains strong and vivid impressions of the early days in this community, and he himself has had an important part in its advancement and permanent improvement. His life has been as an open book, known and read by his many friends, who have found therein no marred pages, for he has always endeavored to measure his life by strict principles of rectitude. Persistent industry, sound judgment in his business affairs and right rules of conduct have gained for him a high place in the community which has for so many years been honored by his citizenship, and he is eminently worthy of mention among the representative men of his county.
George Shupert was born in Montgomery County, Ohio, on January 31, 1828, the old homestead where he first saw the light of day being located in Miami Township. He is the son of John and Mary Magdalena (Gephart) Shupert, representatives of two
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of the best known and most prominent of the early pioneer fam- ilies of Montgomery County. Both families were long established in Pennsylvania and both sprang from German ancestry. John Shupert was a son of Christopher and Hannah (Miller) Shupert, while his wife was a daughter of George and Margaret Gephart. These two families, in each of which there were children, made the long, tiresome, and sometimes dangerous journey over the Alleghenies, through the hills of western Pennsylvania and across the hills and prairies and through the forests of Ohio, trav- eling with teams, and camping at night by the wayside, until they reached the fair region of what is now Montgomery County, where they made a permanent location, the year of their arrival here being 1803. Thus they were among the very first settlers of Miami Township and, taking up government land, they at once went to work to clear the land and establish their homes. Their first homes were rude log cabins, which were afterwards sup- planted by hewed-log houses, far more commodious and comfort- able. There was an abundance of wild game of all kinds and In- dians were still numerous in this section of the State. The Gep- harts and Shuperts were neighbors and all worked persistently in the permanent improvement of their properties. The respec- tive parents lived to see a wonderful transformation in appear- ances and conditions here and were numbered the most respected of the settlers. Christopher Shupert and his wife both lived to ad- vanced ages, le dying at the age of eighty-nine years and she at ninety-two, their deaths occurring on the farm which they had first located on in 1803. They were faithful members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, having had a large part in the building of the first church in Miami Township, and indeed Mont- gomery County. In politics Christopher Shupert was a Whig. George and Margaret Gephart also died on their old homesteads, he at the age of fifty years, while she survived him many years, being eighty-five years old at the time of her death. They also were active members of the first Evangelical Church.
John Shupert and Mary Gephart were but children when their respective families came to this State, and they were reared in their Miami Township homes. After their marriage they be- gan housekeeping in the old Shupert homestead and there spent the remainder of their lives, following the vocation of farming, in which they were highly successful. They made many valuable and permanent improvements on the place, including the erection of a comfortable and commodious residence and other substantial structures. Following the example of their parents, they both
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became identified with the Evangelical Church, of which they were lifelong members and liberal supporters. In politics he was an ardent Democrat. They both lived to ripe old age, the father dying in his eightieth year and the mother at the age of ninety- two years. They were the parents of six children, namely: Louis, who died in childhood; Sarah became the wife of Peter Gephart and both are deceased, leaving children; George, the subject of this sketch, is the next in order of birth; John, who was a success- ful farmer in German Township, Montgomery County, married Auberena Repprogle, had children, and both parents are deceased; Peter, who is now a farmer in Warren County, Ohio, has been married twice, children being born to both unions; Rebecca mar- ried Henry Ebert and they are both dead.
George Shupert was reared on the farm where he was born and secured his education in the common schools of that neigh- borhood, the educational facilities of that early day being some- what limited. However, having always been a good reader and a close observer, he has become well informed on general sub- jects and is an intelligent conversationalist on all current sub- jects. When he reached mature years he began to farm on his own account, purchasing a part of the old farm entered by his grandfather Gephart, to which he devoted his energies for some years. Eventually he sold this farm and purchased land in Ger- man Township, this county, where he lived until 1878, in which year he moved to Miamisburg and became a tobacco dealer, though he still owned and looked after the operation of his farm. In 1900, after a long and active career, he relinquished the active business cares and sold his tobacco interests to his son, Clayton O., who still operates this branch of the business. Mr. Shupert still owns his valuable farm of one hundred and sixty-five acres in Ger- man Township, and in a general way looks after its operation. He has for many years been a prominent figure in the life of the com- munity, though the inroads of advancing years have compelled him to take a less active part in public affairs than formerly. Po- litically, he was always affiliated with the Democratic party, and served efficiently as township trustee and in other local offices. In young boyhood he was confirmed in the Evangelical Lutheran Church, of which his progenitors were all such substantial mem- bers, and he too has not been an unworthy member of that so- ciety during all the subsequent years.
Mr. Shupert was married in Dayton, Ohio, on January 20, 1846, to Mary Ann Troxell, a native of Jefferson Township, Mont- gomery County, Ohio, born on August 19, 1826. She was reared
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and educated in her native township, proved to her husband a de- voted helpmate in the fullest sense of the term, and she passed to her reward on January 8, 1911. She was the daughter of Samuel and Anna (Weaver) Troxell, natives of Pennsylvania, who came to Ohio with their respective parents while young, in 1800, and here married and began life together in Jefferson Township, oc- cupying nearly new land, where they spent the remainder of their days, botlı dying when past sixty-five years old. They also were members in good standing of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, and Mr. Troxell was a Democrat in his political belief. They were the parents of three children, as follows: Mary Ann, Mrs. Shupert; Abraham, who now lives in Miamisburg, is married and las chil- dren; Lewis, who died early in life.
To Mr. and Mrs. Shupert have been born four children, namely: Amanda R. is the wife of Fisher McWright, of Miamis- burg, and they have one son, George, and a daughter Nora, now deceased; Amelia R. is the wife of William Pansing, of Windmere, Florida, and they have three living children, Mary, Charles, and Ruth; George W. resides in the west; Clayton O., who is referred to elsewhere in the sketch of Franz Liesenhoff. These children have all followed the worthy examples of their forebears and are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church and highly esteemed residents of their respective communities.
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