USA > Ohio > The Biographical encyclopedia of Ohio of the nineteenth century. Pt. 1 > Part 16
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ELTZER, VAN S., Physician and Surgeon, was born in Columbus, Ohio, in the house where he still resides, August 31st, 1834. Ilis grandfather, George Seltzer, emigrated from Germany, and at an early day settled in Pennsylvania, where he engaged in mercantile business. Ile was the organizer of Johnstown, Lebanon county, in that State, and was widely recognized as an able man of business and use- ful citizen. Ilis family consisted of three sons and two daughters; his oldest son, Samuel Z. Seltzer, M. D., left Pennsylvania in 1831 and settled in Columbus, Ohio, where he was engaged in the practice of medicine until his death, in 1852. Ilis mother, Mary (Tansnacht ) Seltzer, of Johns- town, Pennsylvania, was the mother of thirteen children. Ile was the third son, and was educated preliminarily in
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the public schools of his native place. In 1848 he entered | tireless student, and now, at the age of sixty-two years, is a the Capitol University, where he remained as a studeut profound scholar, a man of valuable and varied literary and general knowledge, and one of the ablest preachers of
during the cusuing three years. Ile then began the study of medicine under the instruction of his father, with whom the Disciple Church. In 1856 and 1857 he served as a he read uutil death carried of his preceptor, iu 1852. Later, he entered the Starling College, and graduated from that institution in 1855. He then commenced the practice of his profession where his father had labored for a period extending over twenty years, and at the present time pos- sesses in the capital an extensive and lucrative business. For three years, 1869-70-71, he held the position of Physi- cian and Surgeon to the Franklin County Infirmary. At the present time he is Physician and Surgeon of the Ohio Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb. In politics, he is strongly attached to the Republican party. He was married, August 19th, 1856, to Minerva I. Smeltzer, of Zanesville, Ohio.
OOMIS, WILLIAM B., Lawyer and ex-Judge of the Seventh Judicial District, Marietta, Ohio, was born in New Loudou, Connecticut, on Feb- ruary Ist, IS37. His parents were natives of New England, and the family date their resi- dence in this country two hundred and fifty years back, originally having come from England. In 1840 Christopher C. Loomis, the father of the subject of this sketch, emigrated to Ohio and engaged in the mercantile business. William B. Loomis attended the Marietta Acad- emy, and finished his education at the Marietta High School. After leaving school he assisted in the mercantile business, but only for a few months, when he was employed in the Clerk's office of this county, and while there began the study of law, and in 1857 was admitted to the bar. Leaving the County Clerk's office he engaged in the prac- tice of his profession, in which he has always been em- ployed when not on the bench. In 1868 he was elected Judge of the Court of Common .Pleas and District Court, which position he filled until 1873, his time then having expired. He is now engaged in the practice of his profes- sion, and is the senior member of the firm of Loomis, Alban & Oldham, of Marietta, where they enjoy a large and lucrative practice. Ile was married in 1860 to Frances Wheeler, of Marietta.
family to Kichland county, Ohio, then a wilder-
ness, With limited means originally for obtaining au education, he has been throughout his life a close and
member of the Ohio House of Representatives, from Rich- land county, the only Republican ever elected to the House from this county. He was one of the first three Abolition- ists of his county, and from the earliest days of the anti- slavery cause was one of its most ardent and fearless sup- porters. Ile has always taken an active part in the political movements of the day, and is widely recognized as a valu- able ally by those to whom he offers the assistance of his sterling abilities. From the fall of 1861 to the spring of 1863 he served in the United States army as Chaplain of the 65th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, commanded by Colonel Harker, who fell at Kenesaw Mountain, in the division commanded by General Wood. Colonel Harker was a Brigadier-General when he fell. Mr. Burns has probably held more public debates on religious topics than any other living preacher in the West, and to the support of his views and arguments brings a formidable store of natural talents and masses of knowledge bearing directly and heavily upon the points held under consideration. Ile has preached for forty years, and travelled and preached in twenty-four States of the Union. IIe now resides at Chagrine Falls, Cuyahoga county, Ohio.
ARGENT, EDWARD, retired Publisher, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 20, 1820. His father was Rev. Dr. Thomas Sargent, of Frederick county, Maryland. In 1832 he came with his father's family to Cincinnati, where he has since resided. In 1833 his father died, and at that early age he was compelled to begin the busi- ness of life for himself. This he did by entering the Methodist Book Concern as a clerk. Here and in the employ of Mann & Clark, wholesale grocers, he remained nutil 1841. From 1841 to 1845 he engaged in river com- merce, as clerk and part owner of the steamer " Queen of the West." This boat operated on the Ohio and Missis- sippi, running from Cincinnati to New Orleans. This adventure not proving altogether satisfactory, and a new field offering, he entered the book publishing house of W. B. Smith & Co. This firm was then, in a small way, pub- lishing " Ray's Arithmetics " and " MeGuffey's Readers." After seventeen years' connection with this house it was dissolved, in 1862, and succeeded by that of Sargent, Wilson & Hinkle. By reason of impaired health Mr. Sargent retired from this house and active business to his
5 URNS, REV. ANDREW, father of Hon. Andrew M. Burns, was born in Berks county, near Read- ing, Pennsylvania, in the year 1813, July 24th, and is of Scotch-hish extraction. While still a small lad, in 1820, he emigrated with his father's | home at East Walnut Hills in ISGS. The house of Sar- gent, Wilson & Ilinkle became the largest and most suc- cessful school-book publishing establishment in the world ; and, although the world has been scarcely cognizant of the
Pub. Co Philadelphia
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fact, it has for years been quietly but certainly exerting a ticket in the post office. After weeks of waiting he went to widespread influence for untold good on the educational , Hamburg, hoping to be able to work his passage in some interests of the country. The " Eclectic Educational Series," so well known as the class books of the public schools of the country, engaged for years almost their entire attention, One million of these books were annually put in the schools over the country; and the greatest care was constantly exerted in selecting and adding to this series, from time to time, works of the greatest intrinsic worth. No school publications on the globe have gained such unpre- cedented popularity as those of this house, and no gentlemen in our business history more deservedly rank as benefactors of the youth of the land than the members of this vast establishment. Since retiring from active business Mr. Sargent has given his attention more to the amelioration of is an active worker in his church, and has so followed the great Pattern in his life as to deserve most eminently a place with those who have made the world better by their life in it. Ile commenced business with little of the ad- vantage of the schools of which he became one of the most extensive and successful builders and patrons. During his long connection with the school-book interest he acquired a fine English education, and may certainly be justly placed among the self-educated architects of their own fortunes. In October, 1845, he was married to Mary Smith, daughter of Christopher Smith, well known among the old citizens of Cincinnati. He has three children and two grand- children. vessel. He found the Austrian army at Hamburg, watching the Schleswig-holstein complications, and a passport de- manded of every stranger; but he obtained lodgings at the house of a member of the Revolutionary Club of Hamburg. In 1851 Kossuth sent an agent to Ilamburg with despatches and instructions to induce the Hungarian soldiers of the Austrian army, who were quartered in a fortress at Schles- wig-Holstein, to revolt and combine with the German patriots for the re-establishment of their lost liberties. The agent, being quartered at the same house with Moritz, was accompanied by the landlord in his dangerous task of ex- citing the soldiery to mutiny. They were betrayed by some loyal soldiers to whom they had intrusted their scheme, the condition of some for whom society must provide. Ile were seized and put in irons. The house was surrounded by the Austrian soldiers and the keys of every drawer de- manded; but the hostess fainted from terror, and the duty of answering the officer devolved upon Moritz, who was then a youth of eighteen. The carpet-bag containing the papers had been placed under a bed, and the youth, com- prehending the situation, determined to outwit the soldiery. As the captain ripped open pillows and beds with his sword, Moritz threw the feathers over the bag and thus saved it. This failure to secure such important papers caused great rejoicing among the Revolutionary Club of Hamburg, who delegated Moritz Loth to convey these papers to Kossuth, who was still in London. He accepted the perilous mission, and was, by the aid of a small boat at midnight, placed on board a steamer bound for London whose captain was a member of the club. Ile, with his OTH, MORITZ, Merchant and Author, was born of Hebrew parents, at Milotiz, in the province of Moravia, Austria, December 29th, 1832. Ile is the twelfth son in a family of twenty two children, boru of one father and mother. He received elementary instruction in the German, Hebrew and Bohemian languages, showing remarkable aptitude in their acquire- ment ; but his father died when he was nine years of age, and he was soon after thrown upon his own resources. Ile went to Pesth, the capital of Ilungary, in 1842, where his brother Joseph assisted him to a situation in a lace and ribbon establishment. Here he devoted his evenings to a systematie course of study, and laid the foundation of the extensive culture he attained in after life. Ile served in one of the Landsturm during the revolution of 1848-49; after the Hungarian defeat, in the latter year, Joseph came to the United States, promising to send Moritz a passage ticket if he met encouraging prospects. Moritz was shortly directed to go to Berlin, where he would find a letter in waiting containing the ticket. Ile was obliged to travel from Pesth to Berlin without a passport, but his recom- mendations from the Republican Revolutionary Club at Pesth secured him friends, and, though he accomplished his hazardous journey in safety, he failed to find the passage despatches, was stowed among the water-casks, where he remained two long and dreary days, on account of foggy weather, which prevented departure and entailed anxiety upon the messenger. After the steamer had passed the last lighthouse the captain ventured to take him into his cabin. Having arrived in London a day after the departure of Kossuth, he delivered his papers to Baron Kemeny, Presi- dent of the Hungarian Revolutionary Club in London. The latter expressed his pleasure and gratitude, and offered him pecuniary reward, which was declined; but he re- quested the baron to procure him a passage to the United States. The baron's death, a few weeks later, blasted his hopes and he sought and found employment at a cap factory near Regent street, where he remained until the coup d' etat of Napoleon, in December, 1851. Ile resolved to join the revolutionary party at Paris, but the news of the overthrow of the republic by Napoleon caused him to abandon the design, and he shortly after accepted the offer of Lord Dudley Stuart, who, in behalf of Napoleon and the Em- peror of Austria, gave free passage and four pounds in money to all revolutionary republicans who would emigrate to the United States. He landed in New York in May, 1852, and proceeded immediately to Hartford, Connecticut, where he found his brother doing a flomishing chy-goods
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business, and ascertained that the passage-ticket had been | and continues to fill that office with great dignity and sent according to promise, and after a long time returned ability. Ile is also President of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, of which he was one of the origi- ators; was President of the first Hebrew Congregational Convention held in Cincinnati, 1873; President of the first Council of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, held at Cleveland, July, 1874. Ile was one of the origin- ators of the Hebrew Union College, established at Cin- cinnati, and free to all students without regard to race or creed. He was married, February 5th, 1860, to Fred- ericka Wilhartz, of New York city, and this union is blessed by a Eumily of seven interesting childr marked " Cannot be found." Joseph offered him a clerk- ship, but he resolved to be bis own master, and commenced peddling notions on his own account with the fraction of the memorable four pounds, and so successful was he that in 1853 he opened a dry-goods store at Hartford, which was continued with marked success for four years. Ile then relinquished the dry-goods business and purchased a patent-right on a spring gun for $1000, which he also patented in Russia, and for which he was offered $40,000 by a joint stock company; but he believed there was a greater fortune in it, and devoted two years of arduous labor, beside an expenditure of $7700, to find it in the end a complete failure. His capital being thus redneed to $1300, he removed to Cincinnati in 1859 and engaged in RICE, REESE E., ex-Brigadier-Genend of the Ohio State Militia, was born at Oak Thorpe, in Derbyshire, England, Angust 12th, 1795. Ilis father with his family landed at Baltimore, Mary- land, August 30th, 1801, and after a residence in that city of five years removed to Cincinnati, where he lived until his death, November 19th, 1821. His education was limited in degree and kind, but he had been carly accustomed to labor, and the lack of school training was more than balanced by his natural powers of observa- tion and discrimination. In the peculiar abilities demanded by pioneer life, and by the requirements and exigencies of a frontier home, he was excelled by none; with his keen- edged axe he would enter the wilderness of trees, and from smurise to sunset cut, split and stack from the stump three full cords of wood. He also mummfactured millions of bricks to be used in building the houses of Cincinnati. At the age of twenty-six he found his father's estate was insol- vent ; at the age of thirty four he could point to it cleared, by his exertions, from every incumbrance. He acted at one time as Brigadier General of the Ohio State Militia, and for many years was prominent and influential as a zealons up. holder of anti slavery principles and measures. Ile is now free from business relations, and widely known as one of the most useful and benevolent men of Cincinnati; he is- sides in a superb mansion on Price's Hill. While in his thirtieth year he was married to Sarah Matson, daughter of Judge Matson. the wholesale notion business at his present location, 121 Main street. Here his perception, promptness and system won innuediate recognition in business circles, and he now rinks as one of the most thorough business men of the Qaven City. At the outbreak of the war, in 1861, he opened a branch house at Louisville, Kentucky, under the firm-name of M. Loth & Co., and the annual sales of the two houses soon reached the sum of $1,000,000. At the close of the war he sold his interest in the Louisville honse and connpenced also to draw in his own extensive trade at Cincinnati. This policy saved him from the serious loss from the rapid and continued decline in goods which fol- lowed, and enabled him to give his attention to real estate transactions; and streets which were heretofore considered umavailable for dwelling and building purposes were, through lus sagacity and energy, made the most desirable in the city, and he erected a large number of model dwell- ings for families of limited means, giving each family one floor, with all the modern improvements, for its own use. Apart from business he has devoted considerable attention to literature, and wields the pen with no ordinary talent. Ile has been a liberal contributor to the Israelite under the nom de plume of " Miloriz," and also wrote for it the tale entitled " The Miser's Fate." He is also the author of "Our Prospects: A Tale of Real Life," a work of 377 pages, published by Robert Clarke & Co., of Cincinnati, in which he vividly portrays the misfortunes that befell a family through the thoughtless extravagance of the wife and daughters. This was followed by " The Forgiving Kiss; or, Our Destiny," published by George W. Carleton & Co., of New York city. It is a work of even greater merit than HIELLABARGER, HON. SAMUEL, Lawyer, ex- Member of Congress, ex-United States Minister Resident to Portugal, etc., was born in Clark county, Ohio, December 10th, 1817. His father, Samuel Shellabarger, a farmer, was a native of Lycoming county, Pennsylvania. His mother, Bethany (McCurdy) Shellabarger, was born near New Brunswick, New Jersey. His father's family was of Ger- the preceding, and has reached the second edition, which is having a large sale in Europe as well as in America. Though systematically devoted to his mercantile and real estate interests, and a diligent student, he possesses social qualifications that render him an admirable companion, and an unassuming liberality has won for him fitting esteem. He was, in 1872, honored by a unanimous election to the presidency of the congregation at the Plum Street Temple, man-Swiss extraction. Martin Shellabarger, the founder
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of the family in America, who emigrated from Switzerland ; and, while thus occupied, began the study of medicine under to this country in the early part of the eighteenth century, was a descendant of Henry Shellabarger ( German -- Schol- lenberger) who lived in the Canton of Uri, at the date of the battle at " Ruth Meadow," in 1307. Samuel graduated at Miami University, with the class of 1841, and subse- quently studied law under the instruction of Hon. Samson Mason. He was admitted to the bar in 1846, and in 1847 entered on the practice of his profession in Miami county. In 1848, however, he returned to Springfield, where he has since resided, more or less regularly engaged in professional labors up to 1874. He is now engaged in his profession in Washington, District of Columbia. In 1852 he was elected to the Ohio Legislature on the Whig ticket, and served in the first legislature under the present Constitution. In 1865 he was elected, as a Republican, to the Thirty-seventh Congress; in 1864 was elected, as a Republican, to the Thirty-ninth Congress; and in 1866 was elected, as a Re- publican, to the Fortieth Congress. In 1869 he was sent, as United States Minister Resident, to Portugal, but resigned that position in the following December. In 1870 he was elected to the Forty-second Congress, and served through that Congress. In this Congress he was Chairman of the Committee on Commerce, and of the Select Committee on Southern Affairs, and reported from this committee the bill known as " the Ku-Klux Bill," which, under his manage- ment, became a law. During the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Congresses, he was a member of the Elections Committee, and was author of and mover of important parts of the first Reconstruction Act. In 1873 he was appointed by the President a member of " the Civil Service Commission."
OTTON, JOIN, M. D., Judge, was born in Ply- mouth, Massachusetts, in September, 1792. His father, Rev. Josiah Cotton, was a graduate of Vale College, and was educated for the ministry. After presiding temporari's over a church in Watcham, he abandoned the desk, and was appointed Clerk of the Courts in Plymouth county, which post he filled for many years. lle was a descendant of Rev. John Cotton, one of the early ministers of Boston, whose name he bore, and from whom he inherited many intellectual and moral characteristics. His mother, Rachel (Barnes) Cotton, was a daughter of Rev. David Barnes, of Scituate. Ilis boy- hood was passed in the town of Plymouth, Massachusetts, where he attended the common schools. He was noted for his mild and gentle disposition, his retiring habits, and a greater fondness for study than for the rude sports which commonly occupy the time and thoughts of school boys. His prepara- tions for college were completed at the academy in Sand- wich, and entering Cambridge College at the early age of fourteen, he graduated from that institution in ISto. He then became the preceptor of an academy in Farmingham,
Dr. John Kittredge, a practitioner of the town. Ile after- ward attended medical lectures in Boston, and in 1814 took at Cambridge the wished-for degree of M. D. Ile then en- tered on the practice of his profession at Andover, whence, after a brief sojourn, he removed to Salem. Eventually he decided to remove to the milder region of the Ohio valley, thinking that a change of clinate might be beneficial to his rather delicate constitution, and, in November, 1815, arrived in Marietta, Ohio, with his family. He at once resumed the practice of medicine on the west side of the Muskingum river, and rapidly acquired an extensive business. In the course of the ensuing year he entered zealously into the enterprise of establishing Sabbath schools, a mode of instruct- ing the young in morality and religion then unknown in the valley of the Ohio, and thenceforward he filled constantly ¡the role of spiritual teacher and guide. In order to acquire the needed ability to explain more fully and clearly some of the obscurer passages of the Old Testament, he took up the study of Hebrew, being then forty years of age, and within a remarkably brief period was able to read in the original tongue the words of eternal life. In 1824 he was elected to the Legislature, from Washington county, Ohio, and, while serving with this body, labored loyally and effi- ciently for the interests of his constituents. In 1825 he was elected by the Ohio Legislature an Associate Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, to which position he was continu- ally reappointed until the period of his decease. For that station he was admirably qualified by his calm and well- balanced mind, and by his sound judgment and thorough knowledge of the principles of law, which he had studied with great care, as also the statutes of the State by which he was guided. The varied stores of classical and scientific knowledge garnered in his collegiate course and after life, were often spread before the public in the guise of lectures delivered in the Marietta Lyceum, and also to the scholars in the Female Seminary. At the incorporation of the Marietta College, in 1836, he was one of the original trus- tres, and for several years was the presiding officer of the board. Among his other posts of distinction was that of Trustee of the Medical College of Ohio, located at Cincin- nati. Embracing with ardor whatever he deemed would benefit the community or country, he acted also as Chairman of the Whig Central Committee of Washington county, and for several years discharged with notable ability the duties of that vexations post. As a medical practitioner he stood de- servedly high among his brethren, and was often called in council in serions and peculiar cases, not only in Marietta, but also in adjacent towns, and was a skilful operator in surgery, as well as a successful manager of cases requiring simply medical treatment. lle was married in August, 1815, to Susan Buckminster, of Farmingham, Massachusetts, whose family was nearly related to Dr. Buckminster, of Portsmouth, and also to the gifted Joseph S. Buckminster, of Boston. His death was sudden and mexpected, and oc-
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curred after a brief illness ; but the messenger found him | early life. Hle determined to act at once upon this assur- ready, " watching for the coming of his Lord." He died April 20, 1$17, aged fifty-five years,
EL.CH, JOIIN, Judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio, belongs pre-eminently in, the honorable ranks of self-made men. Ile shared the hard. ships of pioneer life, struggled against ill-health and wrenched success finally out of the hard hand of poverty. Hle was born in Harrison county, Ohio, on the 28th of October, 1805. The region was then, to a great extent, a wil lerness, and John's father was one of the earliest pioneers who undertook the task of subdning it and transforming it into a cultivated and productive land. Ile was a poor man with a large family, consisting of seven sons and four daughters. The child of such a household who would have prosperity, must manifestly work it out for himself. It certainly would not be thrust upon him, no matter how ardent the parental love or how strong the pa. rental wish to have things better than they are for those who come after. John Welch was one to work ont results for himself. Ile had early set his heart on success, and his purpose never faltered, no matter how discouraging the ob- stacles that presented themselves. He worked with his father upon the family farm until he was eighteen years of age, and during that interval he acquired such education as was to be acquired by attending the country district school during the winter months. The opportunities were not very great for scholastic attainments. Country schools in the early days did not offer very high or very extended courses ol study ; and withal, such offers as they did make did not imply that very much of each year should be consumed in study, for farm labor commences early in the year and con- tinnes late. Sach opportunities as were offered, however, were made the most of in this case. When he was eighteen years of age John was " given his time " by his father, and then he began in very serions earnest to obtain the educa- tion he had early determined to procure. Ile tanght school that he might earn money, and then, the money earned, he spent it in the prosecution of liberal studies under the best anspices within his reach. He had entered Franklin Col- lege, Ohio, and for five years, by this system of alternate teaching and attendance upon school, he maintained himself in that institution, and in September, 1828, he graduated from the college with honors. He had decided upon the law as his future profession, and in January, 1829, he com- menced his legal studies under Hon. Joseph Dina, of Athens, Ohio. Excessive study and sedentary habits im- paired his health long before his course of study had been completed, and for a time it seemed that his cherished pur- pose of becoming a lawyer must be abandoned. His physi- cian assured him that the surest means of restoring his broken health was to resmine the active and laborious habits of his
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