USA > Ohio > Representative citizens of Ohio : memorial-genealogical > Part 7
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That the death of Mr. Johnston was an event of more than ordinary importance was evident in the fact that his passing away was noted in more than sixty newspapers, many of whom spoke at length of him in the most commendatory terms. Among the numerous newspaper references, resolutions, and personal ines- sages, the following excerpts are given space here as throwing light on the character and personality of the man whose life record has been briefly reviewed:
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"Mr. Johnston was a broad-gauged, liberal-minded man, his regard and consideration for fellow citizens was as broad as the constitution of the United States, his charities were munificent and were not circumscribed by race, religion, or color. He was an enterprising, useful citizen. Columbus can ill afford to lose such men; their passing means a distinct loss, and the entire community here joins in mourning this good man's death."-Universal Mes- senger, Catholic Weekly.
"Within a few days one whom we have trusted, respected and loved has been summoned from earthly care and labor .. With sorrow we here record the death of our fellow director and friend, the former president of your company, Mr. John Orson Johnston. It is needless to dwell upon his labors in behalf of your company, nor how greatly he contributed to its success; that is known to you all. Let us bow the head and be thankful that it was our privilege to have been associated with one who stood for all that is best and worth while in business and private life."-From Annual Report of the Columbus Gas and Fuel Company.
"Columbus, Ohio, May 20, 1907.
"Directors' Meeting of the Columbus Gas and Fuel Company.
"Mr. Sinks, on behalf of the committee appointed for that purpose, presented the following tribute to the late president of this company:
"On Sunday morning, April the twenty-first, nineteen hun- dred and seven, at his home in this city, in his fifty-fourth year, our highly esteemed and efficient president, John Orson Johnston, 'while yet in love with life and raptured with the world, being weary for a moment, layed down by the wayside and, using his burden for a pillow, fell into that dreamless sleep that kisses down his eyelids still.'
"The sad event has caused the hearts of the members of this board to wring under a heavy load of sorrow.
"Mr. Johnston was essentially the founder of the Central Ohio Natural Gas and Fuel Company, it being mainly through his efforts that gentlemen were induced to embark in the enterprise in 1889. From that date until his decease he lias been the general manager of that, and the constituent natural gas companies, and for a time, the Columbus Gas Company, now comprising the Columbus Gas and Fuel Company.
"He was always courteous to any one who differed from him and yielded gracefully to the views of others when convinced that his position was untenable.
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"He was a man of sterling worth, pronounced convictions, bold in the utterance of his opinions, logical in his statements, and sound in judgment. In his contact with men he was modest, un- assuming and always a gentleman.
"He took great pride in the growth and prosperity of this the city of his adoption, and cheerfully contributed of his means and time to all enterprises of a public nature.
"He sided with the weak and with willing hand gave alms. With loyal heart he faithfully discharged all public trusts.
" 'His life was gentle and the elements So mixed in him that nature might stand up
And say to all the world, "This was a man." '
"To his loving wife and family, we tender our heartfelt sym- pathy in this time of their inexpressible affliction.
"Resolved, That this memorial be spread upon the records of this meeting and that a copy thereof be sent to the family of the deceased.
GEORGE W. SINKS, HENRY D. TURNEY, FRANK C. HUBBARD,
E. K. STEWART, C. D. FIRESTONE, D. E. PUTNAM, DRAUSIN WULSIN,
Directors."
Nothing probably gives a clearer instance of the vigorous and effective way in which Mr. Johnston did things than the fight he made against the Standard Oil Company in the interest of the oil producers around Corning many years ago. In common with many other Columbus men, Mr. Johnston was interested in the oil fields in that territory and the Standard Company was paying from fifty to sixty cents a barrel for their oil, while for Pennsyl- vania oil, one dollar and sixty cents were being paid. Mr. John- ston had samples of the oil analyzed and proved it to be practically equal in quality to the Pennsylvania product. He at once drafted a letter to the general purchasing agent of the Standard, enclosing copies of the analysis and in no uncertain language informed the Standard that unless higher prices were paid for the Ohio oil the aid of the legislature would be invoked. No answer was re- ceived to the letter, but within a few weeks prices of Ohio oil were advanced and soon it was being bought practically on a parity with that of the Pennsylvania wells.
Professor Leo Lesquereux
HE name of the eminent naturalist and linguist, Prof. Leo Lesquereux, is deserving to rank with such names as Agassiz, Sullivant, Guyot, and others of the fore- front during the nineteenth century, and the State of Ohio should be proud of the fact that he honored her with his residence for such a long period. Indeed, America can boast that he spent his best years within her borders, and although the silent tomb has long since claimed him, his influence is still potent in the world of science and his memory will be revered through coming generations. For the principal facts in the fol- lowing paragraphs touching on his life and works, the writer has drawn largely from an article by Edward Orton which appeared in the American Geologist in its issue of May, 1890, also to the Journal of the Columbus Horticultural Society, of the year previ- ous and clipping from the daily press. Indeed, there is no dearth of material from which to select, for columns upon columns have been printed of this great man and his accomplishments during a half century or more.
The revocation of the Edict of Nantes inflicted an irrepar- able injury upon the French nation in depleting it of its middle class, from which its industrial energy, its science, literature, and art were mainly drawn; but the Protestant neighbors of France gained correspondingly thereby. England, Holland, Switzerland, and the English colonies in North America were greatly enriched by this enforced emigration. These Huguenot exiles brought unique and invaluable contributions to the countries in which they found refuge-intelligence, strong convictions and the courage to maintain them, skill and taste in handicraft, and gracious man- ners, the charm of which was everywhere recognized. They at once became loyal subjects of the governments that sheltered them and their contributions to public service soon became out of all proportion to their numbers. For example, of the seven presi- dents of the Congress that sat in Philadelphia during the Revolu- tion, three were of Huguenot parentage.
It was from this sterling stock that Leo Lesquereux sprung, and by its training and traditions his early life was shaped. His ancestors when driven from France by the revocation, established themselves in the Swiss canton of Neuchatel and here, in the vil-
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lage of Fleurier, on November 18, 1806, Leo Lesquereux was born. His father was a manufacturer of watch springs, owning a small factory and employing four or five workmen therein. His mother was well educated and had a great love of knowledge and great respect for superior attainments among those whom she met. She insisted that her son should have the best education avail- able, hoping to see him enter the ministry of the Lutheran Church.
He spent his early life with his parents at his birthplace, and from his childhood he had an enthusiastic love of nature and espe- cially of the sublime scenery that surrounded his home. To scale the most difficult summits and to gather the rare flowers that grew there, were among his early ambitions and pleasures. He must have been a daring climber. On one of his excursions, when about ten years of age, he met with an accident of so dangerous a char- acter that his escape from death seems almost incredible. He had climbed the mountain that towers above Fleurier, but by a mis- step he fell over the edge of a cliff, down the steep mountain side. He struck first upon a projecting ledge and was rendered insensi- ble by the fall; from this point he rolled, limp and unresisting, his descent being occasionally checked by branches of trees or shrubs, to the borders of the meadowland far below. When picked up there, he was found fearfully bruised and lacerated, but no bones were broken. For two weeks he lay unconscious, but at the end of six weeks he was on his feet again, the only permanent injury being a partial loss of hearing in one ear. The total deaf- ness that overtook him in early manhood was no doubt connected in origin with this fearful fall. The council of the village had the wonderful story entered on its records and the cliff from which he fell was marked by a flag for a long time thereafter. At the age of thirteen he was sent to Neuchatel to begin his academic course. It was due altogether to his mother that he took this course, the lad himself preferring to remain at home and learn his father's trade. On entering school, child though he was, he was obliged to learn from the first, the art of self-help. He earned enough to buy the books which he used by teaching pupils younger or less advanced than himself. Among his fellow students were two others to whom he was especially drawn, Arnold Guyot and August Agassiz, both of them of the same French Puritan stock to which he himself belonged. Louis Agassiz, an older brother of August, was now carrying forward his studies in the German universities, but was soon to return to Neuchatel as a professor. With Guyot in particular young Lesquereux established the clos- est relations of friendship and sympathy, which were terminated only by the death of the former in an honored old age. While
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Professor Leo Lesquereux
students they were inseparable in term-time and vacation alike. The academic curriculum at Neuchatel was of the old type, made up principally of the classical languages and literatures, of mathe- matics and philosophy. The course was severe and the training rigid and thorough. Young Lesquereux became a good classical scholar, even according to the high standard that then prevailed. He read Latin and Greek at sight and wrote Latin with felicity to the day of his death. He labored strenuously, his day's work as a student often covering sixteen hours. Throughout his course he was obliged to eke out a small allowance by giving private tui- tion to his juniors in the college. In later life he ascribed to the severe discipline to which he was subjected in his college life the large measure of success he attained in widely different fields. At the end of seven years' residence at Neuchatel he had completed his academic course, and aside from a genuine and even enthusi- astic love of nature, he had not come in sight of natural science.
We hear nothing more of the study of theology; it is probable that he gradually drifted away from the end to which earlier studies were directed. The love of learning had been awakened in the youth and he could not rest content at the point where he was left by his collegiate course. He resolved to continue his studies in a German university, but in compassing this result he must de- pend upon his own resources. The easiest way for the youth just out of college to earn money was by teaching others what he had himself learned, and the easiest thing for him to teach was his native tongue, and for this, happily, there was a good market at that time. French was the language of diplomacy and culture throughout Europe and a knowledge of it was indispensable to all who would advance in politics or shine in social life. Young Les- quereux found it easy to secure an engagement in Germany as instructor in French. He became private tutor in a noble family in the city of Eisenach, Saxe-Weimar. The duties of instruction that he assumed required but a part of his time and he was at liberty to use the balance in private tuition. The best families of the city furnished him his pupils. Among the households into which he was thus called was that of a distinguished soldier of noble birth, General von Wolfskael, an attache of the court of the Duke of Saxe-Weimar. The general's daughter, beautiful and highly educated according to the standard of the time, became his pupil. She made great proficiency in French, learning to speak it with as much facility as her native tongue; but both teacher and pupil learned to acquire another language during this tuition, new to them, but old as the human heart. When his year was finished and he was about to return to Switzerland, the young
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Professor Leo Lesquereux
tutor summoned courage to ask the parents for the daughter's hand. The mother was thunderstruck by his audacity, but the old general took a kindlier view. Before answering the question, he determined to become personally acquainted with the suitor and, finding the date on which he expected to set out for Switzer- land, he made an errand to the southward himself, taking the young tutor along with him in his carriage. As they drove for several days through the beautiful Thuringian forest, the wise and wary general sounded as best he could the intellectual re- sources, the tastes, and character of his prospective son-in-law, revealing himself as well by his questions to the latter. The test was well met on both sides, and when general and tutor bade each other farewell, the foundations for a genuine mutual respect that lasted with each as long as life, were well laid, and moreover, there was a new bond between them. Mr. Lesquereux was to return to claim his bride when he could show his ability to support her. Much of the remainder of the journey to Switzerland he made on foot, but his heart was light and his hopes were high. After his return he soon obtained a position as teacher in the high school at Locle, at a salary of three hundred dollars a year. Presently he made a step in advance by gaining the principalship of the high school of the college of LaChaux de Fonds, which added sixty dollars more to his salary per year. The latter place he won by sustaining a most rigorous competitive examination, continuing through an entire week. There were twenty-one competitors on the first day; there were but two left for the last day. By teaching privately outside of school hours, he was enabled to increase his earnings to five hundred dollars per year, and thus he felt war- ranted in returning to Eisenach for his bride. Thus in 1830, he was united in marriage to the Baroness Anna Sophia Henrietta von Wolfskael. Mr. Lesquereux touched high life at several points through this new connection. The great poet Goethe was for forty years a member of the same court to which his wife's father belonged, and during her childhood she enjoyed the special notice and even the friendship of the famous author. The family still prize the correspondence which Goethe maintained with his child friend. Prince William, afterward to become the great German Kaiser, came also to this court to find his wife, Augusta, the daughter of the grand duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. At the wedding, Mrs. Lesquereux was a bridesmaid and when a little later she herself wore the bridal veil, a young lieutenant of the army, Von Moltke by name, was the bridegroom's "best man"; the lieutenant became the greatest general of modern times. In the second year of Mr. Lesquereux's married life the trouble of his
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Professor Leo Lesquereux
hearing, resulting from the fall while gathering botanical speci- mens in the Jura Mountains, before referred to, was rendered worse by a spell of brain fever, and he was obliged to resign his position as teacher. He consulted a so-called specialist in Paris, and, like many another, was ruined by quackery and lost his hear- ing entirely. Nothing seemed open to him at first, but manual labor and to this he turned with a cheerful courage that was most honorable to him. The change meant a great deal to himself and more to his wife, for it involved one of the most costly sacrifices that we can be compelled to make, that of social position. The bridesmaid of a queen finds herself the wife of a mechanic. The trade selected was that of engraving watch cases. He bought a turning lathe and applied himself diligently to the work, but with all his efforts, laboring from six in the morning to ten at night, he could earn in the beginning but one dollar a day. Just as he was becoming a master of this calling to such a degree that he could earn a better living by it, he was obliged to abandon it on account of its effect upon his health. At this juncture his father came to his relief and offered him partnership in a small factory, if the son would first spend a year in learning the trade. Nothing was left for the brilliant young scholar and teacher but an ap- prenticeship in which the veriest village hands stood on equal footing with himself. He passed this ordeal successfully, gained the partnership in due time and became relatively independent once more. But at this period, his life, judged by all ordinary standards, would have seemed to be a disastrous failure. His deafness had driven him from his profession and from society, and the only calling that appeared open before him was a very humble one; but his mind was active and he gave himself constant occu- pation in the world of literature during all his spare hours. By some chance he was drawn to the study of botany and especially to the division of the mosses. This was his first direct connec-
tion with science. He had but little time for such pursuits- Saturday afternoon and Sunday of daylight for collection, but en- tire nights he made use of for study. He managed to buy a micro- scope and to begin the systematic examination of his family of plants. His natural gifts asserted themselves here and it was not long before the young mechanic was quoted as an authority on mosses. He had found at last his calling, though he did not know it yet.
About this time the gradual reduction of the forests of the canton led the government to new interest in the peat bogs which furnished the larger part of the fuel of the poorer classes. In the carrying out of this interest the government offered a prize, a gold
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Professor Leo Lesquereux
medal, valued at twenty ducats, for the best essay on the forma- tion and preservation of peat. Mr. Lesquereux determined to compete for this prize. Making arrangements with his father, by doing extra work on certain days, he obtained a larger amount of daylight for his outdoor studies, and was able for a few months to employ Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays in this way. He probed the great peat bogs with instruments of his own devising; he determined their rates of growth and decay and the conditions of moisture and temperature that prevailed in them. So unintel- ligible did his new interest appear to the simple minded people among whom he dwelt, that he was even thought to have gone daft and was beginning to be called "the fool of the peat bogs." The manuscripts of the competing essays were sent in. Mr.
Lesquereux's essay was found by far to be the most exhaustive and valuable and the prize was easily awarded to it. This
was a great triumph and his loyal wife was as happy as he in the result. It had mainly been written in the dingy little factory where his days were spent, and most of it, so far as the composi- tion is concerned, while his hands were busy with the mechanical work that claimed them. To this report all of our sound and valu- able knowledge as to this important subject must be followed back. One of the happiest results of his new studies was the for- mation of a close friendship with the illustrious Agassiz, who was now holding the chair of natural history in the Academy of Neu- chatel. A committee was appointed by the government to test the observations and conclusions that were embodied in the prize essay above named, and of this committee Professor Agassiz was a member. The committee found that Mr. Lesquereux was mas- ter of the facts and the philosophy as well.
It was thus that Leo Lesquereux broke through the tram- mels that seemed to bind him to tasks that seemed unworthy of his powers. He could henceforth turn his time to better work than drilling holes in watch springs. He had become a man of science and fortune was growing kind. The government of the canton forthwith employed him to write a text-book on peat bogs for the use of schools, and paid him five hundred dollars for the work. Presently a new public office was created, that of director of peat bogs, and Mr. Lesquereux was appointed to fill it. He wrote
also two other treatises upon the same general subject. As his fame extended, new and more responsible work was brought to his hands. The king of Prussia commissioned him, moved in part thereto by the ties of friendship which Mrs. Lesquereux could plead with Queen Augusta, to explore and report upon the peat bogs of Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, and France.
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This errand gave him the unusual advantages of extensive travel and wide observation under letters royal. To these tours also he owed the extensive personal acquaintance with the scientists of Europe that served him so well through the remainder of his life. He was happy in the diligent pursuit of his favorite studies of botany, geology, and paleontology, which studies were with zeal and untiring energy kept up for many years, and he became known as one of the most eminent of his profession, for whilst in the employ of the German government he was accorded a posi- tion and a reputation second to few men in his favorite branch of science. Of the many noted men of like tastes with whom he became familiar was Baron von Humbolt, whom he formed a close personal acquaintance with about the year 1829, the baron at that time having been eminent as a scholar and a man of great scien- tific attainments, known throughout the civilized world. This acquaintance ripened into mutual friendship, and continued un- til the death of the baron. They corresponded continually, and often interchanged thoughts upon the subjects that both were so very earnestly interested in and to which they had and were de- voting their lives in perfecting as much as possible.
The political changes that were sweeping through Europe in 1848, affected even the governments of the little Swiss cantons. By these changes Mr. Lesquereux's scientific work under the auspices of the state was arrested. Professor Agassiz had al- ready been attracted to the United States by the splendid op- portunities for advancing science that were offered to him here, and Guyot also came to America about that time, Mr. Lesquereux following them with his family in 1848, supplied with earnest letters from Baron von Humbolt and other eminent scientists and literary men, full of kindly greetings and sincere wishes for his success in a new country. Professor Lesquereux landed in Bos- ton, where he was met by Professor Agassiz and taken to his home, where he and his family remained some time under the kindly roof and hospitable care of the great naturalist's family. To these three compatriots and lifelong friends, Agassiz, Guyot, and Lesquereux, American science owes a great debt. All have passed to honored graves, but in countless ways their works still follow them. The subject was forty years old when he reached this country. Though in the prime of life as years are counted, he was totally deaf. In his native tongue he could maintain a con- versation so well by following the movement of the speaker's lips, that a stranger might not at once discover his infirmity; but our stubborn English tongue foiled him in this respect, and when it was employed, he was generally obliged to use pencil and paper
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Professor Leo Lesquereux
in his conversation. Moreover, he had acquired our language without ever hearing it spoken, and though he wrote English. with force and precision, thanks to his early linguistic training, one needed to become accustomed to his pronunciation to follow him readily as he spoke it. His first scientific work in this coun- try was done for Professor Agassiz. It consisted of a classifi- cation of the plants gathered by the latter in his Lake Superior expedition. While engaged in this work, and frequently for months at a time, he was a member of the Agassiz household. His report was published in 1848. At the close of that year he was called to Columbus, Ohio, where he spent the remainder of his life. The circumstances under which he came to Columbus deserve to be mentioned, as they bring to light a history that has
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