USA > Ohio > Representative men of Ohio, 1900-1903 > Part 2
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
Two years later when Governor Bushnell was renominated Judge Nash was made Chairman of the State Executive Com- mittee, and labored unceasingly for his election.
In 1899 he was again a candidate for Governor and it was plain to be seen that the hour of his triumph was at hand. The convention met in Columbus that year, and his principal opponent was Hon. H. M. Daugherty, of Fayette. Judge Nash was suc- cessful, securing 461 votes out of a total of 820 cast. The Demo- crats nominated John R. McLean as his opponent, but Nash
10
REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF OHIO.
had a plurality of 49,000 votes. In 1901, Governor Nash was nominated for a second term, with Col. James Kilbourne as his opponent. He was again successful, this time by a plurality of 67,567.
Judge Nash was married April, 1882, to Mrs. Wm. K. Deshler, who died October, 1886, leaving one daughter, Mary Nash, who died in February, 1896. The death of his wife and daughter almost crushed Governor Nash, and it was one of the sad memories of his first and second inaugurations that before he took the oath of office on either occasion he drove in a car- riage to Green Lawn Cemetery where they sleep, and bowing before the mounds that hold all that is near and dear to him in this world, engaged in silent prayer and laid flowers on the graves. They with him in their life-time had cherished the hope that husband and father would some time be called to the high - post he now occupies, but it was not given to them to see his triumph with mortal eyes. From the battlements of Heaven they no doubt witnessed the glorious result.
Governor Nash is in the prime of life, and although his health has been poor for several years, it is now better than in a long time, and he ought to have many years of usefulness yet before him. He is a member of the Masonic, Odd Fellow, Knights of Pythias and Benevolent Protective Order of Elk fraternities. He stands to-day as one of Ohio's foremost citizens, with the good will of everybody, and the architect of a career in public and private life that is rarely equaled.
On the 13th of January, 1902, Governor Nash delivered his second inaugural message, in the following eloquent and well- chosen words :
Members of the General Assembly and Fellow Citizens:
By the will of the people of Ohio, I have, in your presence, for the second time, taken the oath which the law prescribes shall be administered to the Governor of Ohio. By their ballots this free people have said that I have not been unfaithful to the first oath. I sincerely pray that my gratitude for their approval, strengthened by the help of God, will keep me true to the second.
I am admonished by the flight of years that in work for the State I must soon give place to younger men. For the future I have but one ambition - the most sacred of my life. It is to show my appreciation of the people, who have so highly honored me, by being their faithful
FREDRICK N. SINKS.
11
REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF OHIO.
servant during the next two years. Upon this foundation must rest what- ever of fame lives after me.
In this closing of my life work, I beg the advice, the co-operation and the assistance of the members of the Seventy-fifth General Assem- bly of Ohio. We have taken the same oath. The people have favored us alike. To them, alone, we all owe our fealty. To promote their hap- piness and welfare should be to us a most pleasant task. In inaking this appeal I am sure that I do not ask in vain. I think I voice your senti- ments when I say "you will be my faithful co-workers."
It is well to recall that during the term of our offices Ohio will enter upon the second century of her life. In the first century she will have grown from a few thousand inhabitants, scattered in hamlets throughout a vast wilderness, to a mighty state, with more than four million people. They are now domiciled in great cities, in beautiful towns and in regions of country unsurpassed in agricultural and mineral wealth. All are happy in the privileges which the twentieth century has brought to the civilized world.
The watchwords of our fathers were, "freedom, education and mo- rality." Upon these foundation stones they built our fair state. What they so splendidly wrought it is our mission, and that of those who come after us, to defend, to enlarge and to make better. In this work may we ever remember the precepts of the fathers, and be equally true to our trusts.
In conclusion, I tender to the people of Ohio my thanks. I pledge anew my loyalty to our State, and my love for the great Republic of which she is a part.
Fredrick Nicholas Sinks.
Fredrick N. Sinks was born in the City of Columbus, Aug. 24, 1872, where he has always resided. He was educated in the Columbus public grammar schools, prepared for college at the Columbus Latin School, entered Yale University and graduated in 1894. He afterward attended law school at the Ohio State University, graduated in 1898, and was admitted to the bar the same year.
Mr. Sinks belongs to the very large class of active young Republicans, and when Governor Nash was elected in 1899, he was appointed Private Secretary to the Chief Executive. It is enough of praise for Mr. Sinks to say of him that in every situation he has been equal to the emergency, and ranks as a model Private Secretary. His father, George W. Sinks, the well-
12
REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF OHIO.
known banker, is a native of Clermont County, while his mother, nee Eloise Preston, was born and reared in Franklin County, Ohio. In June, 1899, Mr. Sinks was married to Katherine De Ford Thurman, daughter of Allen W. Thurman, of Columbus.
Randolph W. Walton.
Buckeye Republicanism can boast of no brighter orna- ment than the young man whose name adorns this page. He is among the coming leaders of his party in Franklin County and the state, and although but 32 years of age has performed excellent service from a partisan standpoint.
Mr. Walton is the son of Dr. Wm. Walton, and born in Woodsfield, Monroe County, Ohio, October 15, 1870. In 1877 the family moved to Clarington, and Randolph spent his boyhood there, until the summer of 1893, when his mother and two brothers (the father having died in 1890) removed to Columbus. His education was obtained in the public schools of Clarington, and he devoted all of his spare time to reading and preparing himself for life. He took a position with a drug firm, attending night school where he acquired a thorough knowledge of short- hand. In 1895 he began reading law at night. Progress was slow, but he was admitted to the bar in December, 1901.
He has always been a staunch Republican and made stump speeches before he could vote. The first ticket he ever voted in 1891 had his name on as a candidate for town clerk. In 1892 he was a forlorn hope as a candidate for Recorder of Monroe County. In 1893 he was one of the Monroe County Delegates that nominated Governor Mckinley for a second term. In the fall of 1898 when Hon. E. N. Huggins was a candidate for Congress in the Columbus District, Mr. Walton was given several assignments to speak and made a fine impression. He has par- ticipated in every campaign in the state and county since and in the Presidential battle of 1900 made a speaking tour of Illinois.
He was one of Judge Nash's supporters before the convention and one of the organizers of the "Young Men's Nash Club," at the organization of which he sounded the keynote to the
RANDOLPH W. WALTON.
13
REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF OHIO.
Judge's canvass for Governor. As a reward for his services in the campaign of 1899, Governor Nash appointed him corres- pondence clerk in his office, in which position he gave perfect satisfaction until the resignation of Charles Lemert, as execu- tive clerk, in November, 1902. Mr. Walton was given that place as a mark of the Governor's appreciation. Mr. Walton is one of the active workers in the Buckeye Republican Club, and in the summer of 1902 was actively pushed by some of his friends for the Republican Congressional nomination in the Columbus Dis- trict, and developed a very creditable following.
Mr. Walton is a young man of good character and habits, and finds time with his other duties of writing for the press on political topics. He is earnest and wide-awake, and his friends predict that other honors will be conferred upon him. He is married and lives happily in the East End of Columbus.
President Mckinley.
Since the foundation of the government the United States has been ruled by many wise and astute men. Leaders in war and in peace, they have commended themselves to the good will of the people and been called to administer the most sacred duties under our Constitution and laws. From Washington to. McKinley there has been more than a century of progress, national growth and prosperity, and within that time the people have called to the presidency men who have been distinguished throughout the Nation and the world for statesmanship and all those qualities that go to make up leadership. "Volumes have been written extolling the virtues of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Adams, Jackson, Lincoln, Grant, Hayes, Gar- field, Cleveland and Harrison. They were great leaders; they filled the high place to which they were called; they satisfied their friends and the country of their patriotism and their courage. Within the time compassed by these administrations five wars. with foreign and domestic foes have been waged, all to a glo- rious conclusion, until to-day the flag waves in triumph not only-
14
REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF OHIO.
over all of the States of this Union, but over our new possessions in the isles of the sea as well.
But when the final record has been written, when the closing estimate has been made, the Gibbon who writes the history of this great Republic, if he be faithful and truthful, will say that for wisdom, forbearance, statesmanship and the display of all the virtues that dwell in men; for the uplifting of the Nation, not only in prestige at home and abroad, but for its commercial development on land and sea wherever the flag of any nation flies, the administration of William McKinley was equal to, if it did not surpass, any of its predecessors since the days of Washington. It is yet too early to write an extended eulogy of the four years and a half that the lamented Mckinley stood at the helm of state and guided the good ship through the swirl of waters that now roll unvexed. The flowers of mourning that Columbia wore at his sepulchre in Canton have hardly begun to fade; the wreath of immortals that covered his catafalque when the hellish work of the assassin had been accomplished, still shows the evergreen; his memory is yet a sweet smelling savor - but a grateful people, blessing his glorious life and ex- tolling his virtues, are ready to declare that he was one of the greatest men Ohio ever produced. And this opinion is not bound by State or National lines, for when he became one of the im- mortals of civilization - the world around stood still and offered a tribute to his memory. No such honors were ever paid to a President of the American Republic, or to a ruler anywhere at any time.
The chronology of the career of William Mckinley is a household tale, better known at this moment than that of Wash- ington or Lincoln, and it will ever serve as an incentive to the youth of this country to show what can be accomplished. He sprang from the middle class, whence comes the strength and sinew of our nationality. He descended from Scotch and Irish ancestry, and the line begins with Duncan MacDuff, Maormor of Fife, born about A. D. 1000, who killed Macbeth December 5, 1056, the twenty-second descendant being William Mckinley, who died in the reign of James VI. The first Mckinley in this country was David, known as "the weaver," a grandson of Wil- liam mentioned above, born in 1705, and who settled in Chance-
15
REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF OHIO.
ford township, York county, Pa., probably before 1745, in which year a tract of land was granted to him. Then followed John McKinley, a soldier in the Revolutionary war, a member of Captain Reed's company, York county militia; David McKinley, who died in Crawford county, O., in 1840; James McKinley, who for years conducted a charcoal furnace at Lisbon, O .; and Wil- liam McKinley, the father of the martyred President. The latter was born in Pine township, Mercer county, Pa., November 15, 1807, and died in 1892. He was manager of the old furnace near Wilmington, Lawrence county, Pa., for twenty-one years, married Nancy Allison in 1829, and resided at Poland. The father of the President was a devout Methodist, a staunch Whig, a good Republican and an ardent advocate of the protective tariff.
The great-grandfather of the President, David McKinley, was a Revolutionary soldier, who removed to Ohio in 1814. In the cemetery of the Chatfield Lutheran Church in Crawford county, O., may be seen two modest granite markers with the following inscriptions : "David McKinley, Revolutionary Sol- dier, Born 1755; Died 1840." And "Hannah C. Rose, Born 1757; Died 1840." David McKinley was the father of James, born September 19, 1783, married Mary Rose, of Mercer county, Pa., and removed thence to Chatfield, where he purchased a farm, on which he died. He was the father of William Mckinley, the father of the President. Hannah C. Rose, buried by the side of David McKinley, was the great-grandmother of the President. She was also the great-grandmother of former Mayor William G. Rose, of Cleveland, who was nominated Lieu- tenant Governor on the ticket with Judge Foraker in 1883.
The father of President Mckinley was managing an iron furnace at Niles, O., when he was born on January 29, 1843. Nine children were born of the union of William McKinley and Nancy Allison, the late President being the seventh child. He received his first scholastic training in the public schools at Niles, but when he was nine years old the family moved to Poland, Mahoning county, a village noted for its educational facilities, where he was at once admitted into Union Seminary, remaining until he was 17 years of age. In 1859 he was sent to Allegheny College, Meadville, Pa., where he was admitted to the Junior class and would have graduated the following year but for fail-
16
REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF OHIO.
ing health. He was obliged to return home and as soon as he was physically able began teaching country school in what was known as the Kerr district.
When the Civil war broke out he was a clerk in the Poland postoffice, but promptly volunteered in the Union army, enlist- ing in Company E, Twenty-third Ohio Volunteer Infantry, June II, 1861. With him enlisted his cousin, William McKinley Os- born, the American Consul in London, recently deceased, who · gives the following account of their enlistment: "There was great excitment at that time and hundreds of people followed the soldiers. Will and I were among them. We drove in a buggy over to Youngstown and there saw the company leave for Columbus. On our way back to Poland that night we discussed the matter together and decided that it was our duty to volun- teer, and we thought that the men who staid would be despised. by the community. When we reached home, Will told his mother what he had concluded to do, and she at once replied : 'Well, boys, if you think it is your duty to fight for your country, I think you ought to go.' A few days after this I left Poland, for home and told father that I wanted to go into the army. I knew he would allow me to go as Aunt Nancy had advised. ] was not disappointed. My father was a Democrat, but he was a liberal man. He told me I could do as I wished, and he gave me some money (it was gold, I remember), to fit me out. From there we went to Columbus and enlisted at Camp Chase. General Fremont swore us in. Our enlistment was in cold blood, and not through the enthusiasm of the moment. It was done as Mckinley has done the most things of his life, as the logical offspring of careful conclusion."
The military record of the President shows that after his. enlistment as a private on June 11, 1861, that he was promoted to commissary sergeant on April 15, 1862; that he was promoted to second lieutenant of Company D, September 23, 1862; that he was promoted to first lieutenant of Company E on February 7, 1863; that he was promoted to captain of Company G July 25, 1864 ; that he was detailed as acting assistant adjutant general of the First Division, First Army Corps on the staff of General Carroll ; that he was brevetted major on March 13, 1865, and that he was mustered out of service on July 26, 1865 ..
17
REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF OHIO.
The Twenty-third Ohio Regiment had some distinguished members within its ranks. Its first commander was General W. S. Rosecrans, and two Presidents, Hayes and Mckinley, were on its rolls. United States Senator and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Stanley Matthews was once its colonel, and several members of Congress, two lieutenant governors of Ohio and one United States Consul to the Sandwich Islands were members of the regiment. Young Mckinley participated in all the engagements of his command. He was at the battle of Clark's Hollow, Princeton, Frederick, South Mountain, Antietam, Buffington's Ford, Cloyd's Mountain, New River Bridge, Buffalo Gap, Lexington, Buchanan, Otter Creek, Lynchburg, Buford's Gap, Kerntown, Berryville, Opequan, Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek. At Antietam he performed a signal service. The battle began at daylight. Before daylight men were in the ranks and preparing for it. Without breakfast, without coffee, they went into the fight, and it continued until the sun had set. The commissary department of that brigade was under Sergeant Mc- Kinley's administration and personal supervision. From his hands every man in the regiment was served with hot coffee and warm meats, a thing that had never occurred under similar circumstances in any other army in the world. He passed under fire and delivered with his own hands these things, so essential for the men for whom he was laboring. At the session of the Seventy-fifth General Assembly (1902) Judge John C. Royer, of the Tiffin District, introduced and had passed, by both houses, a bill appropriating $22,000 to mark the places where the Ohio regiment fought at Antietam, and also for a monument to mark the spot where Major Mckinley stood while serving coffee and meat to the famished troops of the Twenty-third Regiment. For this daring, Governor Tod ordered his promotion from sergeant to second lieutenant. He also served on the staff of General Rutherford B. Hayes, performing hazardous duty. At Berry- ville his horse was shot under him. At Opequan and Fisher's Hill he was an aide on the staff of General Crook and distin- guished himself by ordering General Duval's command to the support of the Sixth Corps. For this he was breveted major, his commission being signed, "A. Lincoln." He participated in
2
18
REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF OHIO.
the last act of the war -the "Grand Review" in Washington, and was mustered out with his regiment.
After the war Major Mckinley began the study of law at Poland, under the preceptorship of Judge Charles E. Glidden, of Youngstown. After a year of such drill, he completed his course at the law school in Albany, N. Y., and in March, 1871, was admitted to the bar at Warren, O. Locating at Canton he soon gained a practice, besides taking considerable interest in politics. Though living in a Democratic county he was always an ardent Republican, and in the fall of 1867 made his first political speeches in favor of negro suffrage when the constitu- tional amendments were pending. In 1869 he accepted the nomi- nation for prosecuting attorney, made an energetic canvass and was elected. In 1871 he made the race for a second term and was defeated by seventy-one votes. On January 25, 1871, he was united in marriage to Miss Ida Saxton, daughter of James A. Saxton, a banker of Canton. Her grand-parents were the founders of that city in the early part of the century. His widow now lives in the old family house in Canton and makes daily pilgrimages to the grave of her martyred husband - the people's President.
In the gubernatorial campaign of 1875 between Hayes and "Rise Up" William Allen, at the height of the greenback craze, McKinley's speeches in favor of honest money and the resump- tion of specie payments attracted attention throughout the State. In 1876 he was nominated for Congress in the old Seventeenth District, succeeding Hon. Laurin D. Woodworth, of Youngs- town, on the first ballot, and in the following October was elected over Leslie L. Lanborn by 3,300 majority. He entered Congress the same day his old commander of the Twenty-third Ohio, Rutherford B. Hayes, became President, and he was not without influence even at that early date of his congressional experience. He made his debut as a speaker in Congress in an elaborate attack upon the Wood tariff bill, the first of the measures designed to cripple our tariff system. His argument was published and attracted wide attention. In 1877 Ohio went strongly Democratic and the Legislature gerrymandered the State so that Mckinley found himself confronted by an adverse majority of 2,500 in a new district. The Democrats nominated General Aquila Wiley,
19
REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF OHIO.
of Wayne, who had lost a leg fighting in the Union army, and a strong candidate, but Mckinley defeated him and was re- elected to the Forty-sixth Congress by 1,234 majority. The Legislature of 1880 restored his old district and he had no difficulty in being returned to the Forty-seventh Congress, de- feating Hon. Leroy D. Thoman, subsequently one of the civil service commissioners of the United States, by 3,571 votes. He was chosen the Ohio member of the National Committee in 1880, and accompanied General Garfield on his speaking tour through New York. He opened the Ohio campaign that year at Ports- mouth, and spoke in several other States. The Forty-seventh Congress was Republican, and acting on the suggestion of President Arthur, proceeded to revise the tariff. It was then agreed to constitute a tariff commission to prepare such bills as were necessary to report at the next session. Major Mckinley delivered an interesting speech on the subject and insisted that a protective policy should never for an instant be abandoned or impaired. The elections of 1882 occurring while the commis- sion was still holding its sessions, the Republicans were every- where most disastrously defeated. That year the Democrats carried Ohio, electing their State ticket, headed by James W. Newman, of Scioto, and elected thirteen of the twenty-one congressmen. McKinley had been nominated for a fourth term, after a sharp contest and was elected in October by the narrow plurality of twenty-eight votes, over Jonathan H. Wallace. To- ward the close of the session of the Forty-eighth Congress he was unseated on a contest by his Democratic competitor. In the meantime he had delivered a great speech in opposition to the Morrison tariff bill. In 1884 he was again a candidate for Con- gress, this time in a district gerrymandered by the Democratic Legislature elected in 1883. He was again triumphant, defeating David R. Paige by 2,000 majority. This year, besides canvassing his own district completely, he accompanied Blaine on his cele- brated tour, speaking constantly with him from the car plat- form, and, after the October election in Ohio, devoting his time to the campaigns in West Virginia and New York. His old district was restored in 1885 and he was again unanimously renominated in 1886, and was elected, defeating Wallace H. Phelps, Democrat, by 2,559 votes. In the State campaigns of
20
REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF OHIO.
1881, 1883, 1885 and 1887 he was on the stump in all parts of Ohio, two of his strongest addresses being those at Ironton, October I, 1885, on equal suffrage, and at Dayton, October 18, 1887, on the Cleveland administrations. In the Forty-ninth Con- gress, April 2, 1886, he made a notable speech on arbitration, as the best means of settling labor disputes.
The attention of the country was sharply arrested by Mr. Cleveland's third annual message, December 6, 1887, because it was largely devoted to a harsh assault on the protective tariff laws, upon which he was previously thought to hold a conserva- tive opinion. A bill was immediately prepared and introduced in the House by Roger Q. Mills, of Texas, embodying the Pres- ident's views and policy, and the two parties were arrayed in support or in opposition to it. Then occurred the most remark- able debate under the inspiration and encouragement of the presidential canvass already pending in the history of Congress. Major Mckinley was given charge of the opposition to the bill and it may be classed as the opportunity of his life.
He was nominated for the seventh time in 1888, defeating George P. Ikirt by 4,100 votes. In the State campaign of 1889 he took an active and prominent part, delivering sixty speeches in half that number of counties. One of the best of these was on "Protection and Revenue," before a great audience at Cleveland on October 5. At the organization of the Fifty-first Congress he was a candidate for speaker, but, although strongly supported, was beaten on the third ballot by Thomas B. Reed. He resumed his place on the Ways and Means Committee, and on the death of Judge Kelley, of Pennsylvania, became its chair- man. On December 17, 1889, he introduced the first important tariff measure of the session - a bill "to simplify the laws in relation to the collection of revenue." On April 16, 1890, he introduced a general tariff measure that has since borne his name. It passed the House on May 21st, but after being sent to the Senate was debated for months, having been amended by a reciprocity feature, and passed September IIth. The House accepted this amendment and the bill became a law October · Ist, subject to the approval of the President, which was given ' October 6.
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.