Representative men of Ohio, 1900-1903, Part 6

Author: Mercer, James Kazerta, 1850-; Rife, Edward K
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: Columbus, Ohio : J. K. Mercer
Number of Pages: 486


USA > Ohio > Representative men of Ohio, 1900-1903 > Part 6


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General Dick is a thorough American citizen. In every position he has proven his worth. He stands for all that is best in social, business and political life. He is one of the bright figures in the Ohio horizon to-day.


Gen. C. M. Spitzer.


Banker, was born at Batavia, New York, November 2, 1849. eldest son of Aaron Bovee and Laura Maria (Perkins) Spitzer, and a great grandson of Dr. Ernestus De Spitzer, surgeon gen- eral of the Kingdom of Wurtenburg, Germany. Through his mother he is descended from James Draper, of Roxbury, Mass. and quartermaster John Perkins, of Ipswich, Mass., the first of their families in America. His great-grandfather, Nathaniel Perkins, before he was of age, was aid-de-camp to General George Washington. Mr. Spitzer's great-great-great-great grandfather, Hendricks Cornelius Van Buren, was a soldier in the Indian war of 1663, being at a time at Fort Cralo, in Papshire, and was an ancestor of President Martin Van Buren. He is also a descend- ant on the maternal side (being the great-great-great-grandson) of Jacob Janse Schermerhorn, founder of the family bearing his name in America, who came from Waterland, Holland, in 1636, and settled in Beverswyck, in the New Netherlands, where he became a man of wealth and prominence until his death in ยท Schenectady, in 1688.


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Celia Milo Spitzer was educated in the schools of Medina, Ohio, whither his family had removed in 1851, and at Oberlin College. He entered upon his active business career in 1869 by purchasing a half interest in a drug store at Seville, Ohio, which he sold out two years later, and with his father opened the Seville Exchange Bank under the style of C. M. Spitzer & Co., a banking house which obtained immediate standing and reputa- tion in the financial world. In 1877 a branch bank was opened at Medina, Ohio, and in 1878 the German-American Bank was organized, the last enterprise growing in such immediate favor that Mr. Spitzer purchased the interest of Ludwig Wideman, who had become a partner in 1873 and during the next two years conducted a general banking and investment business. In January, 1880, owing to financial depression the bank failed and soon after settled with its creditors on a forty per cent. basis. Ten years later, however, quite without legal or moral necessity, Mr. Spitzer paid all the bank's debts in full, an act which has deservedly given him a high reputation in the business world. With Ludwig and Jerome P. Wideman he opened the bank of Fremont, at Fremont, Ohio, in 1880, but he sold it the following year, and formed the firm of Spitzer, Wideman & Co., bankers, at Toledo, Ohio. In the following year Mr. Spitzer purchased the interest of the Widemans, and formed a co-partnership with his cousin, Adelbert L. Spitzer, under the firm name of Spitzer & Co., bankers. In 1887 a branch office was opened in Boston, Mass. In May, 1899, the Boston office was moved to 20 Nassau street, New York city. The firm has enjoyed a continuous and permanent increase in prosperity, and is now the oldest and one of the most successful investment banking houses in the central West, buying and selling municipal bonds and other high-grade investment securities. Mr. Spitzer is also a stockholder and director in six other banks, including the Ohio Savings Bank and Trust Co., and the Security Trust Co., Toledo, a director of the Wheeling and Lake Erie Railroad Co., and president of the Spitzer Building Co., which erected in 1893 the modern ten-story fire-proof building in Toledo. In January, 1900, Gov. George K. Nash appointed him quartermaster-general of Ohio, with rank of brigadier-general.


HON. HENRY C. TAYLOR.


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REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF OHIO.


Mr. Spitzer is one of the leading citizens of Ohio, and is ever ready to foster or contribute to any worthy artistic, business or benevolent enterprise in his adopted city. He has always refused to permit his name to be used for any elective office, preferring to exert his influence and benefit his fellow men in the capacity of a private citizen and a general of financial affairs, but is known as an ardent, enthusiastic Republican. He is a member of the Toledo and Country clubs, of Toledo, and the Middle Bass Club, of Put-in-Bay, also a member of the Ohio Society of New York. He has traveled widely, both in this country and abroad, and his colonial home, "Innisfail," on Coll- ingwood avenue, is filled with numerous choice specimens of the artistic and curious from all parts of the world, including a fine art gallery. He was married, in 1884, to Lilian Cortez, daughter of Alexander McDowell, a lineal descendant of Elizabeth, sister of Willam Penn, and a cousin of Gen. Irvine McDowell. They have no children.


Hon. Henry C. Taylor


Is a native of Franklin county, Ohio. He was educated at the district school, the Columbus High School, and at Miami University, where he graduated in 1865, taking one of the four honors of his class. Two years after graduation he delivered the annual commencement address before the literary societies of the university. He read law with the late Hon. Henry C. Noble, of Columbus, Ohio, and was admitted to practice in 1867. In the winter of 1867-68 he attended Harvard Law School and in 1869 commenced the practice of law with his brother, E. L. Taylor, a partnership that still continues.


Mr. Taylor has long taken an active interest in politics. He was at various times a member of the Franklin County Republi- can Executive Committee and of the State Executive and State Central Committee, serving as chairman of the Franklin County Executive Committee during the famous National campaigns of 1876 and 1896. In 1873 Mr. Taylor was a candidate for the lower branch of the Ohio General Assembly, and the first white man in Ohio to make a political race with a colored man for his associate.


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His colleague in that campaign was the venerable Rev. James Poindexter, of Columbus. Mr. Taylor was a candidate for the State Senate in 1879 in the Franklin-Pickaway district, and al- though defeated in this strong Democratic district he ran far ahead of his ticket. He was twice elected to the City Council of Columbus, and served from 1883-87, during which time he took an active part in municipal legislation. In 1884-5 he was President.


In 1885 he was nominated for the legislature and with Dr. Wm. Shepard was elected, they being the first Republican mem- bers from Franklin county under the new constitution. If they had failed of their election, Hon. John Sherman would not have been returned to the Senate. Mr. Taylor was re-nominated in 1887 and beaten by the narrow majority of 420 votes, the average majority of the Democratic candidate that year being about 1800.


While in the legislature, Mr. Taylor was chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the House, and but few members had greater influence in shaping legislation in the Sixty-seventh Gen- eral Assembly. He was largely instrumental in getting the meas- ures passed for the Ohio Centennial Exposition, and the au- thor of the bill for the improvement of the streets, which, after its passage, became generally known as the Taylor Law. He was the author of the bill providing a jury commission for Frank- lin county, and for transforming the old County and State Fair grounds into Franklin Park, Columbus. For years Mr. Taylor has been connected with the management of charitable and re- ligious organizations, and he is now one of the trustees of the Broad Street Presbyterian Church, the Greenlawn Cemetery As- sociation, the Columbus Humane Society and Miami University.


In his first year in Miami University, in 1862, Mr. Taylor became a private in Company A, 86th Regiment, O. V. I., R. W. McFarland, Professor of Mathematics, being the Captain. Two of his comrades were Dr. E. B. Fullerton, of Columbus, Ohio, and the late Senator, Calvin S. Brice. The Franklin County Bar Association honored Mr. Taylor by electing him to the Presidency a few years since, and on the recent occasion of the banquet given by the Columbus Bar to the retiring and incoming Common Pleas Judges, Mr. Taylor was chosen to respond to the toast : "The Franklin County Bar." He was also' assigned to respond to


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GEN. E. C. BRUSH.


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REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF OHIO.


the toast: "The Capital City Republicans," at the banquet given by the Lincoln League, in Columbus, February 12, 1894.


In the movement for the better form of city government for Columbus in the winter of 1892-3, Mr. Taylor took an active part and was a member of the charter convention. Judge Nash, the chairman of the convention, named Mr. Taylor as chairman of the committee to prepare and present a bill to the convention. The bill formulated by this committee is what is now known as the federal plan and for ten years was in operation in Columbus. In May, 1903, it will be succeeded by the government provided for by the new Municipal Code.


At the Republican State Convention held in the Columbus Auditorium in June, 1899, Mr. Taylor presented the name of Judge George K. Nash to the delegates for Governor, and per- formed a similar service for Gov. Nash upon the occasion of his second nomination in 1901. In April, 1900, Mr. Taylor was the Republican candidate for Mayor, but defeated by a small major- ity after a most exciting campaign. In January, 1900, Gov. Nash appointed Mr. Taylor to the position of Judge Advocate on his staff, and in 1902 re-appointed him for a second term. On the occasion of the inauguration of President Benton, at Miami Uni- versity, September 18, 1902, Mr. Taylor delivered the address in behalf of the alumni.


Gen. E. C. Brush.


Dr. Edmund Cone Brush was born in the City of Zanes- ville, October 22, 1852. He comes from Mayflower ancestry. His people on all sides of the family fought in Colonial and Rev- olutionary wars. His mother's people came from Massachu- setts and Connecticut and were among the early settlers of Washington county, Ohio. His father's people came from New Jersey and Pennsylvania and were among the early settlers of Muskingum county. His paternal grand-mother was a daughter of a Revolutionary soldier and a Pennsylvania Dutchman, who was detailed by General Washington, at Valley Forge, with two other Dutchmen, to desert and go among the Hessians and cor- rect the idea given the Hessians by the English that if captured


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the Americans would kill them. His father was Edmund Brush, a Zanesville lawyer who died in 1861, and in his youth had served in the old navy. His mother was Alice Cone, who lives with her son.


Doctor Brush went to Corning, Ohio, in 1880, and while there in 1883, he was married to Fanny L. Russell, daughter of the late Hon. C. C. Russell, of Zanesville. Doctor Brush and wife moved to Zanesville in 1884. They have five sons and two: daughters.


He enlisted as a private in Battery "C" April 20, 1886, commissioned Captain April 24, 1886, promoted to Major June 14, 1886, to Lieutenant Colonel February 3, 1890, to Colonel June II, 1891, all in First Regiment Artillery. On January 8, 1900, he became Surgeon General with the rank of Brigadier General. At the breaking out of the Spanish-American war Doctor Brush promptly offered his services, but owing to the fact that only half of his regiment was called for, it threw its commander out. Doctor Brush, however, served three weeks at Camp Bushnell as chief of staff and Provost Marshal during the reorganization and equipping of the Ohio Guard for that war. He brought the first train load of sick soldiers from Chickamauga Park in 1898. He. is the author of "Compilation for Medical Officers of the O. N. G." Governor Nash, after his first election, tendered the position of Surgeon General to Doctor Brush, which position was accepted and is still held by him. December 10, 1902, Gov. Nash appointed him a mem- ber of a Commission to consider the advisability of the State caring for crippled and deformed children.


Doctor Brush was educated in the public schools of Zanes- ville and Marietta; also the academic department of Marietta College. He graduated in medicine from Starling Medical Col- lege in 1875 and took a post-graduate course in Chicago Po- liclinic in 1897. Marietta College gave him honorary degree of Master of Arts in 1889. He enjoys literary pursuits, and has contributed to the Ohio Historical Society, Century Magazine and other leading periodicals, as well as to medical literature. He is a member of various medical societies, including the Na- tional Association of Military Surgeons and American Medical Association. In politics Doctor Brush has always been a Repub-


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GOVERNOR NASH AND STAFF.


1. Gen. Geo. R. Gyger,


2. Gen. C. M. Spitzer,


3. Gen. Henry C. Taylor,


4. Gen. W. M. P. Darrow,


5. Col. C. B. Adams,


6. Col. Chas. B. Wing,


10.


7. Col. Geo. B. Donavin,


8. Col. Jerome S. Burrows,


9. Col. Henry C. Ellison, Col. M. M. Gillette, Col. Chas. A. Craighead,


11. 12. Col. W. H. Morgan,


13. Col. Samuel C. Gill, 14. 15.


Col. Edward J. Bird, Jr., Col. Geo. B. King.


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lican. Before he had attained his majority he served on the medical staff of the Ohio Penitentiary and through the cholera epidemic in that institution in 1873, for which he received com- plimentary mention to the Governor for his bravery and faith- fulness. He was also Assistant Physician for the Central Insane Asylum in 1880 and Demonstrator of Anatomy in the Starling Medical College during 1879 and '80. He is now a trustee of the John McIntire Chilren's Home, the Soldiers' and Sailors' Memorial Building, and is now and has been for the past fifteen years president of the board of trustees of the Zanesville Athen- eum, and is a director in The Zanesville Canal Manufacturing Company.


Doctor Brush is surgeon to The B. & O., C. & M. V., Z. & W., C., A. & C., O. & L. K. and W. & L. E. railroads, and is also physician to the McIntire Children's Home. In 1901 at the Cincinnati meeting of The Ohio State Medical Society he was elected to the presidency of that society. At the next meet- ing in Toledo he was elected one of the councilors.


Col. Melville M. Gillett,


An aide-de-camp on the staff of Governor Nash, is a native of Iowa, born in Iowa Center, June 30, 1872. He received his early military education at the University of South Sewanee, Tenn., and began his career as a soldier in 1891, enlisting as a private in the New York National Guard on the 24th of September. He was promoted to corporal in 1892, and discharged by reason of removal from the state in 1894. In April, 1895, he enlisted as a private in the Forty-third Separate Company, New York National Guard, and was again promoted to Corporal in June, of the same year, being discharged by reason of removal from the state for the second time. At the outbreak of hostilities with Spain, in 1898, Col. Gillett enlisted as a private for service in Co. I, Third New York Infantry, was promoted to Sergeant May 19, 1898, detailed as topographer on the staff of Lieutenant Colonel Lusk, Chief Engineer of the Second Army Corps, at Camp Alger, June, 1898, and continued to serve with the volunteer engineer corps until discharged at Camp Meade, Pa., September 1, 1898.


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REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF OHIO.


Col. Gillett removed to Newark, Ohio, in November, 1898, and was appointed Colonel and aide-de-camp on the staff of Governor Nash to rank from January 8, 1900. He has always been a strong Republican, and soon after his removal to Ohio was tendered the nomination of his party for Congress in the Seventeenth district, but declined to make the race. Col. Gillett is one of the most promising young men in his part of the state, has a pleasing personality and is popular with all classes. He has large property interests in the city of Newark, where he is looked upon as one of the most enterprising and popular young business men of that thriving little city. Col. and Mrs. Gillett have recently buried their only child, a daughter.


Col. W. H. Morgan.


One of the best known young business men in Ohio and a leader in its manufacturing interests is Col. W. H. Morgan, of Alliance. He is not a native of Ohio, but was born in Pitts- ton, Luzerne County, Pa., June I, 1865, his parents moving to Alliance when he was but six years of age. His father, the late Thomas R. Morgan, Sr., was a native of Wales, and an inventor of considerable reputation. He laid the foundation for the present magnificent iron working enterprise at Alliance, Ohio, in 1868, and his sudden death in September, 1897, was widely lamented. The deceased was one of the closest personal friends of Presi- dent Mckinley.


Col. Morgan spent the greater part of his life in Alliance, securing his literary education at Mt. Union College. As a young man Col. Morgan took a place in his father's shop and there began the development of his exceptional talents as an electrician. Up through the different steps of advancement did the young mechanic climb until he became the head of the immense fac- tory's drafting department and had complete charge of the de- signing for the great plant, which had gained an envied posi- tion among the manufacturing institutions of the country.


While in this position he developed several important in- ventions which at once gave him a high place among authorities


COL. W. H. MORGAN.


COL. MAX C. FLEISCHMANN.


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in mechanics. Over one hundred patents have been taken out on inventions perfected by Col. Morgan, among them an elec- tric controller, now in general use. Several inventions bear his name, among them the Morgan Controller, the Morgan-Gordon Disappearing Gun Carriage, Mortar Carriage and Electric Crane. Not only did Col. Morgan develop wonderful mechanical ability, but he showed as he advanced that he possessed executive talent of a high order. He was on this account in 1894 made the Vice President of his father's corporation, known as the Morgan Engi- neering Company. Three years later the entire management of the company was placed in his hands. Scarcely six months after his assuming control his father passed away suddenly, and despite the loss of the head councilor in the great establishment, through his son the plans he had laid have been carried on without in- terruption.


Col. Morgan, at the death of his father, was made Presi- dent of the company, and under his direction it has advanced until it is now one of the largest of all corporations in its line. The interests of the company are closely identified with the gov- ernment, as its plant is constantly employed in furnishing "Uncle Sam" with some of his most important supplies. During the Spanish-American war the safety of the property was so im- portant to the government that a company of soldiers was de- tailed as a special guard for its protection.


Col. Morgan has always been a consistent Republican in politics, and is an aide-de-camp on the military staff of Gover- nor Nash. He can be safely written down as one of Ohio's most progressive citizens and during an honorable business career has attracted wide attention. He is a great friend of the Ohio Na- tional Guard and enjoys a wide circle of friends and acquaint- ances. Col. Morgan is one of the progressive, wide-awake citi- zens of the commonwealth.


Col. Max C. Fleischmann.


Col. Fleischmann is a native of Riverside, a suburb of Cin- cinnati, where he was born Feb. 26, 1877. His early ideas were inclined toward the military, and he received an education in


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accordance, graduating from the Ohio Military Institute. His training as a student soldier rendered him a valuable addition to the Ohio National Guard, and he was commissioned Second Lieutenant Co. I, First Regiment, O. N. G., July 15, 1895. Hold- ing this rank until the opening of hostilities with Spain, he was, during the mobilization of Ohio's National Guard forces at Camp Bushnell appointed aide-de-camp on the staff of General Axline, then the Adjutant General of Ohio. On May 6, 1898, he was mustered into the volunteer service with his own regiment and company, and in his original rank, but was, on May IIth, mus- tered out in order that he might accept a commission as First Lieutenant of Troop G, First Ohio Volunteer Cavalry.


Lieutenant Fleischmann reported his command to Major General Brooke on May 18, 1898. On May 3Ist he was assigned to act as A. D. C. on the staff of Brigadier General S. H. Car- penter, upon which duty he remained until August 12. He was then relieved at his own request from duty at headquarters and ordered back to his troop, then stationed at Lakeland, Florida. On September Ist he was assigned to the command of Troop B, stationed at Camp Wheeler, Huntsville, Alabama. Six days later he was ordered to rejoin Troop G, where he reported for duty on the same day his orders were. issued, remaining with his troop until it was mustered out of service at Columbus, Octo- ber 13, 1898.


Col. Fleischmann is one of Cincinnati's leading business men, being a son of the Hon. Charles Fleischmann, an ex-Senator in the Ohio General Assembly, and one of the wealthiest and best known of Cincinnati's citizens. He is in company with his brother, Julius, and has, since their father's death, assumed the control of the immense business which the elder Fleischmann had built up. He is one of the city's most popular young men, is a great lover of athletics, being himself active in every class of outdoor sports. From his great business occu- pations he finds time to devote himself to any movement which will be of advantage to his state and city. In him the National Guard of Ohio has one of its most enthusiastic supporters, and as an officer he is a rigid stickler on every question which tends towards the advancement of the Guard's efficiency, believing, as


COL. B. M. MOULTON.


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he does, that a guardsman should always be sufficiently prepared to take the field in the interest of either state or nation.


Col. Fleischmann is an active Republican, and identified with the leading party club organizations in Cincinnati. He is a thirty-second degree Mason, a Shriner, life member of the Elks, and a charter member of the Cincinnati Coaling Station Flying Squadron. Col. Fleischmann was an aide-de-camp on the staff of Governor Bushnell, and on May 7, 1900, was given the same position on the staff of Governor Nash. He is unmarried.


Col. Benjamin M. Moulton.


Benjamin M. Moulton was born at Moultonville, Madison County, Ill., July 3, 1845. He springs from Revolutionary stock. His great-grandfather, Stephen Moulton, was Lieutenant-Colonel in the 22d Regiment of Militia from Stamford Conn. during the war with England. He with his two sons were taken prisoners on Long Island by the British, September 15, 1776, and exchanged March 3, 1777. Stephen Moulton was also in the Lexington Alarm of April 1775.


Benjamin M. Moulton enlisted in Company E. 117th New York Volunteers, August 4, 1862, when he was but 17 years of age. He served gallantly with his regiment until September 29, 1864, when at Chaffin's Farm he was wounded and taken prisoner. He was exchanged in the spring of 1865, and dis- charged June 6, 1865, at the close of the war. He has been engaged in active business pursuits since the war, and at the present time is manager of the Oil Well Supply Company, for northern Ohio, with headquarters at Lima, where he resides. He has always been a Republican, and at the beginning of Gov. Nash's second term was appointed a member of his personal staff. He is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution of Ohio, was vice-president of this organization, also one of its managers. He is also a prominent member of the G. A. R. and for two years of the council of the administration of the Society, and also a member of the National Council of Administration of the Grand Army for Ohio.


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Col. Moulton has always been a leader in business affairs and his record, public and private, is without reproach. He belongs to that great army of citizens who have contributed so. much to the honor and glory of the Buckeye State.


Gen. William V. McMaken.


William Vance McMaken was born in New York city, February II, 1857. His grandfather, McMaken, was a pioneer Kentuckian, being born in a block house, and an early resident of Butler County, Ohio, besides being a soldier in the war of 1812. His father was born in Ohio, his mother in Connecticut, her maiden name being Munson. Grandfather Munson was a. soldier in the war of the Revolution.


General McMaken went to Toledo, Ohio, with his parents in 1864. He was educated in the public schools, graduated from the Toledo High School in the class of 1874. He inherited the martial spirit and when but a lad drilled some of his play- mates with nothing more dangerous than broom-sticks to serve as guns. After leaving school he was engaged as a clerk in mer- cantile business for anumber of years and is now a member of the firm of Fox & McMaken, real estate and insurance, 9 Spitzer Arcade, Toledo, Ohio.




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