USA > Ohio > Representative men of Ohio, 1900-1903 > Part 13
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20
135
REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF OHIO.
Slough. He retired from business many years ago and still re- sides in Clifton.
Major Hosea was born in Montgomery, Alabama, December 16, 1842, during the temporary sojourn of his parents at that place. They returned to Cincinnati when he was six months old and he has always lived there. In April, 1861, while yet a student at Antioch College (Greene county, Ohio), he enlisted under the first call of President Lincoln as a private in the Sixth Ohio Volunteers, but was soon commissioned at Lieutenant, and later as Captain in the regular army, and served throughout the war in the field, participating in all the battles of the Army of the Cumberland from Shiloh to Nashville, receiving official per- sonal mention for gallantry at the battle of Perryville, Ky., and Chickamauga, Ga. After the battles of Franklin and Nashville, he served with General James H. Wilson in the cavalry cam- paign resulting in the capture of Jeff Davis, and was commis- sioned Major by brevet "for gallantry at the battles of Selma and Georgia." In May, 1865, Major Hosea was sent through the Confederate lines as a dispatch bearer to report results of campaign to Generals Grant and Sherman, the incident being mentioned by Gen. Sherman in his memoirs and by Gen. Cox in his posthumous book. He resigned from the military service in December, 1865.
Major Hosea has always been a Republican, having cast his first vote for Lincoln in 1864. In 1870 he was assistant prose- cuting attorney of Hamilton county, by appointment of the Court of Common Pleas, but afterward declined all tenders of office until nominated for Senator in 1901. In 1865 he was married to Fanny Polk Smith, at Columbia, Tenn., daughter of Rev. Franklin G. Smith, rector of an Episcopal School for Young Ladies. They have had three daughters-Fanny Louise, now wife of S. E. Desjardins, architect, Cincinnati; Sara Davis, deceased; and Lida Cecilia, now living with her parents at their beautiful home, 2019 North Main street, Mt. Auburn, Cincin- nati, Ohio.
After his retirement from the army, Major Hosea grad- uated from the Cincinnati Law School and entered upon the practice of his profession in 1868. He has in later years been principally engaged in practice in the Federal Courts and the
136
REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF OHIO.
United States Supreme Court, and as consulting counsel for manufacturing firms and corporations. He was for many years a director of the Ohio Mechanics' Institute and Chairman of its department of Science and Arts; Commissioner of the Cincin- nati Industrial Exposition ; is Secretary of Board of Trustees of Miami Medical College, and Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is (1902) Commander of the Loyal Legion of Ohio, also Commander of Encampment 4I of the Union Veteran Legion, a member of Jones Post, G. A. R., and is also a member of Avon Lodge, F. and A. M.
Upon taking his seat as Senator from Hamilton county at the opening of the session in January, 1902, Major Hosea at once took a leading position among his colleagues. Having spent some time abroad in the study of internal improvements and other questions of public interest, he opposed the abandonment of the canals and introduced the resolution providing for the public debate in joint session that settled the attitude of the State in regard to these waterways. He was also Chairman of the joint committee that prepared the Mckinley memorial program in the House on the 29th of January, 1902, and one of the speakers on that occasion.
In the Senate Major Hosea was Chairman of the Judiciary Committee and did excellent service, besides serving as a mem- ber on a number of other important committees. In his career as a public servant his demonstrated fitness for public duties attracted general attention on account of his singleness of pur- pose in serving the people of the State.
Hon. J. Edward Hurst.
The subject of this sketch, who was one of the youngest and most valuable members of the Senate of the 75th General Assembly, is a native of Tuscarawas County, born on a farm near New Phildelphia, December 1, 1866. When a child he removed with his parents to Clay County, Ill., where they resided six years, thence returning to Ohio and locating on the farm in Franklin township, Tuscarawas County, where he lived until
HON. J. EDWARD HURST.
137
REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF OHIO.
21 years of age. He received his education in the common schools of Tuscarawas County and New Philadelphia Normal School. Senator Hurst taught school four years and since 1894 has been engaged in the insurance and real estate business in New Philadelphia. His father, Frederick Hurst and his mother nee Rose Ann Haney, were natives of Switzerland, emigrating to this country in the 50's and locating in Tuscarawas County, where they married January 13, 1866. Eight children, six sons and two daughters were born of which Senator Hurst was the eldest. Frederick Hurst served in the war of the Rebellion, as a member of the 16Ist and 185th Regiments, Ohio Volunteer Infantry.
Senator Hurst has always been a Democrat, taking an ctive interest in politics. In February 1891, he was appointed by Judge J. H. Mitchell deputy clerk of the Probate Court of Tus- carawas County, retiring three years later, Judge Mitchell having been defeated for a second term. In 1895 Senator Hurst was nominated for Representative and defeated with the entire Demo- cratic ticket in the Republican landslide of that year. In the spring of 1899 he was elected from a strong Republican ward to serve as member of the city Council of New Philadelphia, but declined a re-nomination. In the same year he was nominated on the first ballot by the Senatorial Convention held at Coshocton, for state senator for 18-19th Joint districts, though there were four other candidates in the field, and elected by a handsome majority. He was nominated by the Senatorial Convention held at Newcomerstown, August 20, 1901, on the first ballot with four other candidates in the field, and re-elected, leading his ticket by 215, and winning by 262 majoritv, defeating D. D. Taylor, of Cambridge, Ohio. Mr. Taylor contested the election, but Mr. Hurst was allowed to retain his seat by the unanimous vote of the Senate Committee on privileges and elections and the Senate. The one-term rule had been in force in the district ever since its establishment but it remained for Senator Hurst's popularity to break it.
In the 74th General Assembly Mr. Hurst was a member of committees as follows : Chairman of Fees and Salaries, Finance, Taxation, Municipal Corporations No. 2, Insurance, Mines and Mining, Agriculture and State Buildings. In the Senate of 75th
138
REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF OHIO.
General Assembly : Chairman Fees and Salaries, Finance, Insur- ance, Municipal Corporations No. 2, Public Works and Public Lands, Claims, Sanitary Laws and Regulations, Banks and Build- ing and Loans, Geological Survey, Mines and Mining.
On December 17, 1887, Senator Hurst married Ellen, youngest daughter of Hon. E. R. Benfer, and they have three children, two daughters and one son. He is a charter member of New Philadelphia Lodge No. 510, B. P. O. E., a member of Modern Woodmen of America, and of Kaldenbaugh Camp, Sons of Veterans. His public career has been one that makes him a careful and painstaking legislator, and an honest and conservative servant of the common people. It is no secret that in 1905 he is likely to be the choice of Tuscarawas County for member of Congress from the Seventeenth district, where a nomination is equivalent to an election. An honorable career awaits him wherever called by the people.
Hon. Nicholas Longworth.
On account of the attitude of the Republican party in the last State campaign on the question of taxation, it being the accepted proposition that if successful corporations doing business in the State, would be additionally taxed, the committees on taxation in the Senate and House were the most important in these bodies. They were charged with the duty of constructing and passing tax measures to reduce the general levy in the State from $2.89 per thousand to $1.35, and a large part of the session of the Seventy fifth General Assembly was devoted to this important work. In the Senate the chairmanship of the Committee on Taxation was conferred upon Hon. Nicholas Longworth, of Cin- cinnati, and let the record of bills relating to taxation made into laws, tell the eloquent story of his successful labors. He was en- gaged unremittingly in the taxation scheme and worked night and day to perfect the legislation. He was also the author of the general bonding scheme, relative to hamlets, villages and cities, intended to do away with the objections of the Supreme Court to laws authorizing bond issues. At the special session of the
HON. NICHOLAS LONGWORTHI.
HON. NELSON A. RIGGIN.
139
REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF OHIO.
Ohio General Assembly, 1902, Senator Longworth was one of the committee that prepared the municipal code and assisted actively in its enactment, representing the Senate on the Committee of Conference.
Senator Longworth is a Cincinnati man, born and bred. He first saw the light of day on the 5th of November, 1869, the son of Nicholas Longworth, at one time Judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio, a grandson of Joseph Longworth, who donated the Art School to the city of Cincinnati, and great-grandson of Nicholas Longworth, one of the early settlers of Cincinnati. He received his early education in that City, but completed it by graduating at Harvard University in 1891. After spending a year at the Harvard Law School, he was graduated from the Cincinnati Law School, and admitted to the bar in 1894. Since that time he has been a practicing attorney in Cincinnati and enjoyed a large and ever-increasing clientele.
Senator Longworth is a Republican and has always been an advocate of the principles of that party. He made his debut in Hamilton County politics in the fall of 1897, when a can- didate for the House, but that was the year the Fusion move- ment triumphed, and he was defeated with the balance of the legislative ticket. Two years later, or in 1899, he was a candidate for the House, and with Hon. Harry Hoffheimer, pulled through, the balance of the House delegation being of a Fusion com- plexion. In 1901 he was nominated one of the three Senators from Hamilton County, and triumphantly elected. During 1899 he was a member of the Cincinnati School Board. In Novem- ber, 1902, Mr. Longworth was elected to Congress from the First (Ohio) District.
Senator Longworth is unmarried, a member of the Elks, member of the Stamina League and president of the Young Men's Blaine Club of Cincinnati.
Hon. Nelson A. Riggin.
The agricultural interests are well represented in the Sev- enty-fifth General Assembly, both the Senate and House contain- ing men who are known for their devotion to the cultivation of
ยท
140
REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF OHIO.
the soil, and therefore in a position to know something of the wants of a farming community. In the Senate Hon. Nelson A. Riggin, of the Eleventh district, composed of the counties of Madison, Clark and Champaign, is among the recognized cham- pions of the Ohio agriculturists.
Senator Riggin was born in Pickaway county, June 27, 1847, but when about ten years of age his parents removed to the vicinity of Mt. Sterling, Madison county, where he has spent his life. He received his education in the schools at Mt. Ster- ling, and later at Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware. He has always been a stalwart Republican, and at the time of his unanimous nomination for Senator, June 27, 1901 - on his fifty- fourth birthday - was a member of the Madison County Ex- ecutive Committee. A zealous worker in the ranks of Repub- licanism, when it was Madison county's turn to furnish the State Senator Mr. Riggin had no opposition before the convention.
Senator Riggin married Laura E .. Thomas April 13, 1871, and they have had two daughters, Theia M., wife of John A. Miller, cashier of the First National Bank of Mt. Sterling, and Miss Daisy E. Riggin. He is President of the Mt. Sterling School Board, a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and a Knight of Pythias. He has spent the most of his years in agricultural and stock raising lines, in which he has been most successful.
In the Senate of the Seventy-fifth General Assembly he was Chairman of the Committees on Corporations other than Mu- nicipal and State Buildings, as well as a member of the Commit- tee on Benevolent Institutions, Library, Municipal Corporations No. 2, Public Works and Public Lands, Railroads and Tele- graphs and Sanitary Laws and Regulations. He was a careful, painstaking legislator and during his term of service secured a high place among the Senators of the Seventy-fifth General As- sembly. He was constant in his attention to the interests of his constituents and his advice and counsel were much sought after by his fellow Senators.
Hon. W. F. Roudebush.
Among the Democratic minority in the Senate of the Seventy- fourth and Seventy-fifth General Assemblies, none stood higher
HON. W. F. ROUDEBUSH.
141
REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF OHIO.
among his colleagues than Hon. William Franklin Roudebush,. Senator from the Second-Fourth District. His experience, good sense and unfailing courtesy and kindness made him everybody's- friend, and party lines cut no figure with those who esteemed his manly qualities.
Hon. William F. Roudebush was the eldest son of Colonel William Roudebush, born on a farm in Wayne Township, Cler- mont County, July 3, 1852. His boyhood days were spent on the farm, where he was thoroughly trained by his father to be indus- trious, honest and true. He received his education in a common school and graduated in 1874 at the National Normal University at Lebanon, Ohio. He then studied law and graduated at the Cincinnati Law School in 1876, and at once commenced the prac- tice of his profession at Batavia. He is a persevering, painstak- ing, careful lawyer with a good practice ; a clear, logical thinker and an excellent public speaker, especially strong on economic. and agricultural questions.
He devotes a great deal of his time to agriculture, owning 1,200 acres or more of land in the county, a lover of stock and extensively engaged in raising cattle and sheep, being one of the most successful stock breeders in the county. He is and has been a reliable Democrat, commencing service for that party when only twenty years old, by delivering speeches in the national cam- paign of 1872. Alert, active and earnest in all local political' struggles, attending conventions, assisting in campaigns, he is. one of the trusted and valuable men ever ready with purse, pen and voice to defend the right or wage war to exterminate wrongs of the people.
His financial ability, honesty and integrity were equally recognized when in time of trouble in the Clermont County treasury he was appointed treasurer, and received the praise of all and especially the gratitude of his party associates, in straight- ening out the tangled accounts and administering the office. And this at a time when he was the youngest county treasurer in the- State, and his youth, which was thought to be a bar, was only a signal proof of matured mind, He served by appointment but one. term, 1877-8.
In the summer of 1899 he was nominated and elected State. Senator from the Second-Fourth District, and in 1901 renom-
142
REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF OHIO.
inated for a second term and elected. In the Senate he took a leading part in all debate and legislation and left his impress upon all of the important bills enacted into laws. He served on several important committees and was deligent in behalf of his immediate constituents and the people of the State at large.
Senator Roudebush married Ida Anderson October 16, 1878, but she died March II, 1889, leaving two sons, William Anderson Roudebush, who has just graduated from the classical course in Dennison University, and Allen Cowen Roudebush, who has just graduated from the Batavia High School, and is now enter- ing the Dennison University.
Hon. John C. Royer.
Among the leaders of the Democratic minority in the Senate of the Seventy-fifth General Assembly, Hon. John C. Royer, of Tiffin, the Senator from the Thirty-first district, was generally recognized. He had a leading place on important committees and was a representative party man on all occasions. When the Senate and House held memorial services for the late President McKinley, in the hall of the House, Senator Royer spoke in behalf of the minority and paid an eloquent tribute to the mem- ory and worth of the martyred President.
John C. Royer was born in Thompson township, Seneca county, May 6, 1856, and reared on the farm of his parents. He afterward entered Heidelberg University, graduating therefrom with the class of 1879. He then began the study of law and was admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court of Ohio in Octo- ber, 1881. Senator Royer then entered actively into the practice of his profession, but it was interrupted by his election as Pro- bate Judge of Seneca county in 1887, and his re-election for a second term in 1890. In 1883 the Senator was elected Mayor of Tiffin, defeating the late General William H. Gibson by a large majority. He was re-elected in 1885. He was married in April, 1883, to Miss Clara Baltzell, who died June 22, 1889, leaving three daughters. The Senator's domestic establishment is now presided over by his mother and sister.
HON. JOHN C. ROYER.
HON. GEO. W. WILHELM.
143
REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF OHIO.
In 1899 Senator Royer was elected to represent the Thirty- first district in the Senate of the Seventy-fourth General As- sembly, and in 1901 he was re-elected to the Senate of the Sev- enty-fifth General Assembly. In his first term he was Chair- man of the standing Committee on Sanitary Laws and Regula- tions, as well as a member of the Committees on Judiciary, Finance, Corporations other than Municipal, Public Works and Public Lands, Insurance, Universities and Colleges, Manufac- tures and Commerce, Fees and Salaries, State Buildings, Library, Revision and Enrollment. In the Seventy-fifth General Assem- bly Senator Royer was a member of the Committees on Federal Relations, Fees and Salaries, Judiciary, Insurance, Library, Public Printing, Railroads and Telegraphs, Revision and Sani- tary Laws and Regulations. He was the author of the law in that assembly appropriating $21,000 for the erection of monu- ments dedicated to Ohio troops on the battlefield of Antietam, and to mark the spot where Commissary Sergeant William Mc- Kinley served the men of his regiment, the Twenty-third Ohio, during that bloody engagement : also of a law regulating appeals to the Supreme Court.
Senator Royer is a painstaking legislator, thoughtful of the interests of the people and always awake to their needs. His record as a member of the body of law-makers and while serving the people of his own county is one to be commended, for in them all he was faithful and true to all concerned. As a par- tisan he was fair, as a public servant he gave back untarnished the commission with which he was entrusted by the people.
Hon. George W. Wilhelm.
It is not often that even an Ohio man with his record for public service is able to represent his county and his district two terms each in both branches of the General Assembly. Yet this is just what Hon. George W. Wilhelm of Stark, did. He was a member of the House in the 68th and 72d General Assemblies, and of the Senate in the 74th and 75th.
He was a native of Stark County, born at Wilmot, August 15, 1847, being the eldest of a family of nine children. When
144
REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF OHIO.
young George was but six years of age his father moved to a farm, and the boy attended district school, where he secured as good an education as they afforded. When but 16 years old he enlisted in the Union army, serving under General Burnside around Petersburg, witnessing the blowing up of the mine in the attack upon that place. He was discharged in 1865, at the con- clusion of the war. For the next fourteen years he was engaged in machine and saw-mill work doing the hardest of labor in clearing up the country. In 1879 he opened up a general store at Justus, where he engaged in merchandizing. His standing among the people was shown by the fact that he was serving his eighth term as Justice of the Peace in his township at the time of his death in December, 1902, and that his decisions were made with good common sense and perfect justice. His store was a sort of headquarters for veterans of the civil war, the Masons and Elks, the Senator belonging to all three fraternities. On the 24th of December, 1867, Senator Wilhelm was married to Jane E. Sinnock, who died in October, 1902, and they had two children.
In both the Senate of the 74th and 75th General Assemblies, Senator Wilhelm was Chairman of the Committee on Claims and in the last Senate, Chairman of the Committee on Railroads and Telegraphs, that had to do with much important legislation.
Senator Wilhelm had always been a Republican and a royal good fellow, very popular with his colleagues. He had an eye open to the public good and his record as a legislator was among the best.
Hon. B. F. Wirt.
Among the dominant spirits in the Seventy-fourth and Seventy-fifth General Assemblies, Hon. B. F. Wirt, who repre- sented the Twenty-third Senatorial District, may easily be counted. He is a sturdy Republican, a gentleman of fine instincts, and one whose friendship is to be highly valued. The Wirt family is of German descent, their ancestors coming to the United States before the Revolutionary war, and serving in that conflict. A portion of the family settled in and about Carlisle, Pa. Peter Wirt, the grand-father of Senator Wirt, was one of the early
HON. BENJAMIN F. WIRT.
145
REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF OHIO.
settlers of the Connecticut Western Reserve. He came to that part of Ohio from Carlisle while it was a forest and cleared up the farm on which he resided. The land is now part of the city of Youngstown.
Senator Wirt was born March 26, 1852, of William and Eliza Jane Wirt, nee Sankey, in West Middlesex, Mercer County, Pa., during the temporary sojourn of his parents, who had gone there from Ohio a short time previous to his birth. His father still survives, at the age of seventy-seven years. The Sankey family were among the early settlers of Western Pennsylvania, having located in Lawrence County. They have been prominent in business circles, and number some of the old-time leaders of the Republican party in that State, several of them having held positions at the hands of the organization. The Senator was educated in the public schools and at the Rayen School in Youngs- town, graduating from the latter in June, 1869. He began the study of law, and after being admitted to the bar, began the practice of his profession in Youngstown in 1873. For some time he was a partner of the late Congressman L. D. Wood- worth, and later was associated in business with Myron A. Nor- ris. He is now practicing law alone.
In the fall of 1899 Senator Wirt was elected to represent the people of the district composed of the counties of Mahoning and Trumbull, and two years later was re-elected by an increased majority. In the Seventy-fourth General Assembly he was chairman of the Senate committee on Municipal Corporations (having in charge the municipalities in the State except those of Cincinnati and Cleveland), and in the Seventy-fifth Gen- eral Assembly he was a valued member of the Committees on County Affairs, Judiciary, Labor, Mines and Mining, Railroads and Telegraphs, Revision, Taxation and Banks, Building and Loan Associations. Senator Wirt was married on the 23rd of June, 1881, to Miss Mary McGeehen. He is a consistent member of the Christian Church. He is a member of the Youngstown Lodge, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
Senator Wirt belongs to the class of legislators whose in- fluence is always for good, and his record shows that he was never found wanting on any occasion. His opinions and views were always sought and heeded, and no man in the Legislatures 10
146
REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF OHIO.
of which he was a member stood higher in the good opinion of his colleagues. He was a safe man at all times and stood like a bulwark for the best interests of the people.
Frank Edgar Scobey.
The enthusiastic young Republicans of Ohio are worthily represented in the person of the subject of this sketch, who during the 75th General Assembly performed so well and satisfactorily the duties of chief clerk of the Senate.
Frank E. Scobey was born in Miami County, Ohio, Feb- ruary 27, 1866. He is the son of William Scobey and Martha J. (Vandeveer) Scobey, well-known and highly respected peo- ple in that section of the state. The elder Scobey was a gallant soldier during the rebellion, serving with credit in the Eleventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry. The grandfather, John Scobey, was an old settler in Miami county.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.