The Biographical encyclopedia of Ohio of the nineteenth century. Pt. 1, Part 3

Author: Robson, Charles, ed; Galaxy Publishing Company, pub
Publication date: 1876
Publisher: Cincinnati, Galaxy publishing company
Number of Pages: 802

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BIOGRAPHIICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA.

a man of high moral rectitude and a firm believer in the | promptness and industry he advanced beyond his fellows, Christian religion; and he attended the ministrations of Rev. Dr. Wilson until the death of that eccentric Presby terim clergyman. For some time Mr. Longworth was President of the " Pioneer Association of Cincinnati." A very honorable action was taken by that body on the oc- casion of his death; as was also the case in the meeting of the Cincinnati bar. Ile died in that city, February 10th, 1863.

TORRS, REV. CHARLES B., first President of the Western Reserve College, was born at Long Meadow, Massachusetts, in May, 1794. Ile was a son of Rev. Richard S. Storrs, Ile was edu- cated at Princeton, and studied theology at Andover. After completing his studies he jour- neyed South for the benefit of his health, and also to preach the gospel to the people of that section. In 1822 he took up his residence at Ravenna, Ohio. He remained here as a minister of the gospel until the spring of 1828. At this time he was elected Professor of Christian Theol- ogy in the Western Reserve College, and entered upon his duties in the December following. The institution was then in its infancy. Not more than a score of pupils were gathered there, and everything had to be done in the direction of organization. To this task he devoted all his energies, and his ability, industry and rare judgment enabled him to accomplish it most successfully. As a mark of appreciation of these preliminary labors he was, two years subsequently, in 1830, unanimously elected President of the college. Under his careful management and the selection of capable professors the institution gained rapidly in public estimation, and increased from a mere handful to nearly one hundred scholars. But for many years he had been suffering from impaired health, and in the summer of 1833 he left the institution to travel for its benefit. Ile died, September 15th following, at his brother's house in Braintree, Massachusetts. Ilis loss was deeply felt, for he exerted a powerful influence in the community in which he labored.

IMPKINSON, JOIIN, Wholesale Shoe Merchant, was born October 9th, 1812, in Belper, Derby- shire, England, and was one of a family of nine- teen children. Ilis parents were poor, and he, C with the rest, was compelled at an early age to exert himself for the maintenance of this large household. His first labors were in a cotton factory, at which, when but nine years old, he was called upon to work from six A. M. until seven P. M. each week day. By

and succeeded in obtaining much better wages. He left the factory to become a letter carrier, a position not so ex- acting on the physical powers as the other, and held it for five years. While thus engaged he determined to emigrate to America, and set sail for it July 6th, 1828, arriving at New York. Thence he proceeded to Pittsburgh, where he learned the trade of shoemaking, and worked at it until his twenty-first year. In this year he married and started in business upon his sole account in Allegheny City. Soon after, however, he removed to Cincinnati, and after some unfortunate vicissitudes was employed as salesman by John Westcott,- shoe dealer, and soon secured the superinten- dency of one of that gentleman's five stores. In 1840 he bought out the establishment of William Hart, associating with himself in this enterprise John Gates, with whom he maintained a partnership for two and a half years, when he purchased Mr. Gates' interest and became sole owner of the store and its stock. llere he continued for ten years, his wife being his principal saleswoman, and at the expiration of this period purchased and removed to a larger and much finer establishment at Pearl and Main streets, West End, where he soon secured a very large wholesale shoe trade. Here he passed another period of ten years, and at its close again removed to a still more eligible situation, and where fresh prosperity met him. He admitted to partnerships his son and brother, and this firm during the civil war trans- acted business to the amount of nearly two millions a year. The house has now a large company of travelling salesmen, and its yearly operations now will aggregate $600,000 in value. The germ of Mr. Simpkinson's success is to be found in the economy, attention, and industrious persever- ance with which from the outset he conducted his business, his main ambition always being to preserve and increase a sound and honorable credit. Although frequently pressed for public service he has uniformly declined office. Ile is, however, a gentleman of great public spirit, and is active in promoting the commercial welfare of the city. Ile has been for seventeen years President of Wesleyan Cemetery, and is the President of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Also President of the Boot and Shoe Association since its commencement, President of the Wal- nut Ilills & Cincinnati Street Railroad since its organiza- tion, and is Vice-President of the Cincinnati Exposition. Also Vice-President of the Zoological Society, is Treasurer of the Board of Trade, is enrolled in the membership of the City Temperance League, and President of a Smoke Con- sumer and Fuel Saving Society, and is an ex-member of the Board of Health and of the Board of Trustees of the Cincinnati Water Works. Ile is a Methodist, and is influ- ential as a churchman. Having acquired a very large fortune, he some time ago retired from the cares of an active business life ; but at the carnest solicitation of his copartners he again entered upon its pursuit, and in applica- tion and energy sets a notable example.

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA.

UINN, JOIIN JAMES, M. D., was born, June 5th, 1826, in Philadelphia, his parents being natives of the north of heland. At an early age he came with them to Cincinnati, and soon after entered St. Xavier's College, where he gradu- ated with honor. After the completion of his collegiate course he commenced the study of medicine under the private preceptorship of the late Dr. I. P. Har- rison, Professor of Materia Medica in the Medical College of Ohio. He attended regular courses for four years, ful- filled all the requirements of the Ohio Medical College in Cincinnati, and took his degree of M. D. at the age of twenty-two years. While studying in the office of Professor Harrison and attending medical lectures, he filled for two years and a half the chair of Chemistry and Natural Phil- osophy in St. Xavier's College. He has occupied the offices of City Physician, Jail Physician, Pest House Physi- cian, Medical Superintendent of the Hamilton County Lunatic Asylum, and has been a member of the medical staff of both St. John's and St. Mary's Hospitals. He has enjoyed a very large and remunerative private practice, during the leisure moments of which he has written a number of articles on medical and literary topics for various journals throughout the country. He has always been prominent in the deliberations of the local medical societies. At a meeting of the regular medical profession, held at Mechanics' Institute, in 1853, he was appointed as one of the committee to look into the condition of the lunatics then in the old Commercial Hospital. ITis report, as chairman of this committee, led to the immediate estab- lishment of a temporary county asylum at Lick Run, and subsequently to the erection of the permanent institution at Long View. Ile was for eight years one of the trustees of the Cincinnati Hospital ; was also one of the commissioners selected to build the new hospital, and acted as the Secre- tary of the latter Board and as a member of its Building Committee. The records of this institution place him very high in the estimation of his associates. Twice was he commissioned by the county and city authorities to visit the humanitarian institutions of the Eastern States, to examine and report upon their sanitary advantages, with a view to their incorporation in the plans of Long View and the Cin- cinnati Hospital. In 1866, when the city was threatened with cholera, and no sanitary board or health officer was in existence to devise methods of protection, the trustees of the hospital, one of whom was Dr. Quinn, together with a Committee of the City Council, were constituted a Board of Health for the time. No physician exerted himself with greater zeal than he to prepare the city for the coming scourge and to mitigate its ravages. In the following year, by act of the Legislature, a permanent health department was established in that city, and the position of Health Officer created. Dr. Quinn became its second incumbent, and has recently been elected to his third terin of service. He has perfected the department, and in all its essentials it

compares most favorably with that of any other large city. In 1852 he was married to M. L. Slevin, of Cincinnati. He is in the prime of life, possesses an active temperament, and continues his researches in medical science.

ERRON, JOIIN WILLIAMSON, Lawyer, was born of Scotch- Irish lineage, on May 10th, 1827, in Franklin county, Pennsylvania. In 1841, when fourteen years of age, he removed to Chillicothe, Ohio, and resided there in the family of his uncle, Dr. David Wills. From this period until cighteen years of age he was a student at the academy in Chillicothe, under the charge of William D. Wesson. In September, 1843, he entered the junior class of Miami University, and there graduated in 1845. From this date until May, 1848, he studied law with Thurman & Sherer, at Chillicothe, when he was admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court of Ohio, at Cincinnati. In the succeeding July he settled in Cincinnati, where he now resides, and has ever since continued there the practice of his profes- sion. The first two years he was alone; from 1850 to January Ist, 1854, was in partnership with Rufus King and Charles Anderson, under the firm-name of King, Anderson & Herron. From 1854 to the present time he has been a partner with J. C. Collins. On the 7th of March, 1854, he was married to Harriet A. Collins, of Lowville, New York, a sister of his partner. Mr. Herron has been a member of the Board of Education of Cincinnati four years, and was a member of the Constitutional Convention of Ohio of IS73-74, in which body he was a member of the Com- mittees on the Judiciary Department, Private Corporations and of Revisions.

INSMAN, JUDGE JOHN, a Soldier of the War for Independence, was born, May 7th, 1753, in New London county, Connecticut, and was a son of Jeremiah and Sarah (Thomas) Kinsman. The family is of English extraction, Robert Kinsman, the founder of the American branch, having emigrated from Wiltshire, in 1634, and settled in Ipswich, Massachusetts. Mrs. Kinsman, the mother of Judge Kinsman, was a sister of General Thomas, a com- manding officer in the Revolutionary army. On the out- break of that memorable contest between America and Great Britain, Judge Kinsman entered the colonial army as Ensign. Ile was present and participated in the battle of Long Island, where he was captured, and for a while thereafter was confined in the notorious prison ships in New York bay. Afterwards he succeeded in obtaining the liberty of the city, on parole, where he learned something of the hatting business, and after being exchanged engaged

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.

in the manufacture of hats in Lisbon, also carrying on a large farm. In 1797 he was elected a member of the Connectient Legislature, and was twice subsequently re- elected. In 1799 he went to Ohio to explore the lands of the Western Reserve, in which he had purchased a large interest ; in 1804 he removed his family to that country and settled on the tract of sixteen thousand acres he had ac. quired, which now forms Kinsman township. He was a Justice of the Peace under the territorial government, and took a prominent part in the organization of Trumbull county. lle was one of the projectors of the first bank of northern Ohio, formerly known as the Western Reserve Bank, now the First National Bank of Warren. It was organized with a capital of $100,000, of which he sub- scribed for one-fifth part. He married Rebecca, daughter of Simon Perkins, of New London county, Connecticut (and sister of General Simon Perkins, of Warren, Ohio), with whom he had a family of five children. Ile died August 17th, 1813. Ilis widow survived him many years ; she died May 27th, 1854.

ACNEALE, NEIL, Safe Manufacturer, was born, June 15th, 1826, in Rostrevor, county Down, Ireland. His father was Major John Donald Macneale, 17th Lancers, British army, who served with distinction for twenty years in the East Indies. He passed his early life in Eng- land, where he was educated with a view to his following the profession of a civil engineer. lle then served four years with his cousin, Sir John Macneale, the celebrated engineer-in-chief who built the earliest railroad in Ireland, that from Dublin to Drogheda. In 1849, when twenty- three years of age, he came to America, and in order to make a beginning accepted a position on the Little Miami Railroad, as rodman, at twenty dollars per month and " not found; " in a few days he rose to a higher place, at fifty dollars per month, and ere the first month closed to one more important and temmerative. The next year he was appointed Chief Engineer of the Iron Railroad, at $2500 per annum, and thus became identified with the early history of Ironton, Ohio. While there, in the summer of 1851, he married Sarah Ann, daughter of John Loughry, of Rockville, by whom he has a son and a daughter. From 1851 to 1853 he was Engineer-in-Chief of the Mays- ville & Lexington Railroad, Kentucky ; and from 1853 to 1857 of that of the Nashville & Northwestern Railroad, which he located from Nashville to Hickman, Kentucky. The commercial panic of 1857 for a season depressed rail- road construction : so in 1859 he formed a partnership with W. B. Dodds, in Cincinnati, for the manufacture of mer- chants' and bankers' safes. Ile is now a partner in a suc- cessive firm, that of Macneale & Urban, formed in 1868 : office, corner of Pearl and Plum streets, Cincinnati. They | ing out four hundred pairs each day, and is stocked with

employ about three hundred men, and the establishment is one of the three largest in the Union. Mr. Macneale has been Vice-President of the Board of Trade of Cincinnati since its foundation, in 1868. He has taken a prominent part in the investigation and improvement of the facilities for the transportation of freight to and from Cincinnati ; especially that of coal by railway, believing that with a continuous cheap supply of this material it would become one of the largest manufacturing cities on the globe,

- OGERS, WILLIAM G., Shoe Manufacturer, was born, November 25th, 1825, in Harrison county, Ohio. Ilis early youth was spent in his father's mill. When sixteen years of age he left his home to learn the shoe trade, working chiefly as an apprentice until his nineteenth year. In the spring of 1846 he arrived in Cincinnati from Pittsburgh, and expended his last penny for a breakfast. With poverty staring at him, he started at once upon a zealous search for work, and before noon found employment at Chapin's shoe factory, and remained one year, during which he had stored by $500. With this small capital he removed to the west end of the city, and at 190 Hopkins street commenced the manufacture of women's shoes. By careful attention to his business he found its growth very rapid and very profitable, and the necessity for a change to larger quarters became urgent. IIe then gave employment to 150 hands. IIe moved to Central avenue, near George street, and erected there a fine establishment, which in 1853 was burned. He promptly fitted up a new place, and remained on Central avenue until 1855, when he migrated to Pearl street. In 1848 he began the wholesale manufacture of ladies' shoes. Ruffun & Hawkes had been for some time in this line of business, but were bought out by Mr. Rogers, who purchased all their stock and fixtures in 1849. lle is now the oklest wholesale manufacturer of ladies' shoes in Cincinnati. In 1868 he became associated with lerne, Lee & Pinkard, and in 1869, under the firm-name of W. G. Rogers & Co., contracted with the Trustees of the Workhouse to work seventy-five of the inmates of that institution in the production of shoes. Manufacturers pre- dicted this as a ruinous enterprise, but the experiment became so successful under the careful supervision of Mr. Rogers that the company put in a bid for a contract to cover five years, and for the employment of double the number of hands at an advance on previous wages. They were outbid by Miles Greenwood, and the shoe factory at the Workhouse ceased to exist. Mr. Rogers became sole proprietor of his company's large establishment, No. 121 West Pearl street, Cincinnati, and has since associated with himself his son, W. C. Rogers, an experienced and thorough business man. Ilis factory has now the capacity for turn-

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.

the finest machinery and enjoys rare prosperity. Notwith- standing his losses by fire and the crisis of 1857, he has amassed a comfortable fortune. Ile is still in the prime of life, and is constantly extending the boundaries of a flourishing trade. He was married in 1847 to Ellen Mc- Kiernan, and in 1868 was married to Martha L. Bausar

ING, JOIIN, M. D., was born in New York city, his father being of German origin. His mother was the daughter of the Marquis La Porte, who came to the colonies with the Marquis Lafayette to aid them in their struggle for independence. llis parents gave him a very liberal education, but intended him for a mercantile career. This did not suit his inclination, and he devoted a few of his earlier years to bank-note engraving, but this occupation injured his health, and failed in other respects to satisfy him. Ile then entered upon the study of medicine, for which he had always entertained a strong predilection. A few years after his graduation he travelled extensively over the country, for the purpose of investigating the character of the diseases of its different sections, as well as to determine the correctness of some favorite hypotheses concerning these diseases and their treatment, many of which have subsequently been presented to the medical public from time to time in his various writings. At a very early period of his medical life he embraced what is now termed "Eclecticism," and has ever since been one of its most staunch adherents and supporters. While practising his profession he bestowed considerable attention upon various scientific matters, besides delivering many public lectures upon medicine, hygiene, etc. In 1835 he delivered a course of lectures to crowded audiences at the Mechanics' Institute, in the City Ilall of New York, upon magnetism and its relations to the earth, to geology, to astronomy and to physiology, which were received with great enthusiasm. A similar success followed a subsequent delivery of these lectures before the New Bedford, Massachusetts, Lyceum. Many novel ideas were advanced and well sustained in these lectures, some of which were entirely in opposition to the general views of scientists, especially with reference to the source of heat and light, planetary movements, origin of comets, the age and final destruction of the earth, etc., and which he still maintains to be correct. In 1846 he was induced to move West, where he finally located in Cincinnati. In 1849 he was called from that city to occupy the chair of Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Medical Jurisprudence in the Memphis University, Tennessee, which position he held until 1851, when he accepted the. Professorship of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children in the Eclectic Medical Institute of Cincinnati, which chair he still occupies. In 1844, after having used the article for several years previously, he introduced to the |

profession for the first time the resin of podophyllum as a remedial agent, and subsequently the resin of black cohosh, and several other new medicinal preparations that are at this time in high favor with all schools of medicine. Among the several instruments invented by him may be named a very simple and correct pelvimeter; a powder- spray instrument, by means of which a most delicate or profuse stream of finely powdered articles may be thrown upon any part of the body ; also a double catheter, for the purpose of applying fluid preparations to any portion of the urethral canal, and of any length, without involving the whole membrane lining this passage. In addition to his voluminous writings upon medical and other subjects, that have from time to time appeared in various journals and papers, the following works are also from his pen : "The American Dispensatory " (1853), which has passed through eight editions; "American Obstetrics " (1855), of which three editions have been issued ; " Women : Their Diseases and their Treatment " (1858) ; " The Microscopist's Com- panion " (1859) ; "The American Family Physician " (1860); and in 1866 he published his celebrated work on "Chronic Diseases." He has for several years attended to office practice only in Cincinnati, his residence being at North Bend. IIe is a member of the Ohio State Eclectic Medical Society, also of the National Eclectic Medical Association, and has filled several honorable positions in civil life.

TIFEL, ADAM, Merchant, was born, September 5th, 1809, in Neuffen, Wurtemberg, Germany, and was the tenth of seventeen children, whose parents were John A. Stifel and Susanna Schew. Ifis father followed through life the occupation of a tanner, and died, September 18th, 1847, in Nenffen, having reached the venerable age of eighty-two years. His mother died in the year following, on a steam- boat plying on the Mississippi, being then on her way from Germany to see her son in Cincinnati. In his sixteenth year Adam began active life as a cabinetmaker near Wur- temberg, and pursued this trade industriously for a long period. In 1836 he emigrated to America, landing at New York on his birthday. IIe remained in that city for two years, working at his trade, and then went to St. Joseph, Florida, and thence in a few days to Columbus, Georgia, where he pursued his calling for eight months. The spirit of migration seizing him again, he travelled to Phila- delphia, west again to Wheeling, Virginia, and then, having spent a short time in both these cities, he moved to Cin- cinnati, arriving there in 1839. After working five months here in the manufacture of organs, he went south to New Orleans, where he failed to secure immediate employment at his trade, and commenced to deal in eggs, keeping this business with profit for six months. Ile now returned to Cincinnati, and spent another half year at carpentering,

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.

and then returned to New Orleans, and for six months at a | of Medicine " (1864) ; "On the Use of Inhalation " ( 1865) ; . time lived alternately in these two cities for six years, work- " Domestic Medicine " ( 1866) ; " The Principles of Medi- cine " (1867) ; " Diseases of Children " ( 1869) ; "Specific Medication " ( 1871) ; " On the Reproductive Organs and the Venereal " (1874) ; "Specific Diagnosis" (1874). In ing as a mechanic in one and merchandising in the other. Since 1845 he has lived, with the exception of a short period, in or near Cincinnati. This exception was during 1850, when the glowing accounts from that Eldorado led addition to this large amount of literary work he has edited him with thousands of others to California. Ilis route to and published The Eclectic Medical Journal since 1862. Ile has by his unexampled industry accumulated quite a large fortune, and is through it enabled now to retire from the more arduous duties of his exacting profession. He owns the Eclectic Medical College of Cincinnati, and is its manager as well as one of its lecturers. He has raised this institution to high position among the scientific schools of the country, and its large and steadily increasing alumni, scattered throughout the land, carry in the thoroughness of their practice the best commendation of its unexcelled ex- cellence. Few writers have accomplished so much in the dissemination of medical lore as Dr. Scudder. Ilis works are regarded as authorities, and have attained a very large sale. Ile is a member of most of the eclectic societies of the United States, and is still ceaselessly active in the study of the constantly developing science of medicine. the Pacific coast was by the way of the Ohio and Missis- sippi, across the Gulf of Mexico and the isthmus, and thence by boat via the Sandwich Islands. ITis search was unsuccessful, and he soon returned. Since 1852 his busi- ness in Cincinnati has been mainly that of a manufacturer and dealer in liquors, and this pursuit he conducted with great energy and success. In 1865 he retired with an ample fortune, and has since resided in an elegant mansion in the Twenty-fifth Ward of Cincinnati. He has been married twice : on the 27th of October, 1841, 10 Christina Wilhelmina Haller, a native of Germany, by whom he had three children, and who died June Sth, 1846; and to Augusta Louisa Stark, a native of Germany, on the 16th of January, 1848, by whom he had twelve children, and who still lives in the enjoyment of good health. Hle ac- knowledges allegiance to no political party, and invariably supports that man for office, high or low, who merits it most. lle is a member of the Lutheran Church. Ilis whole life is a chapter of unexampled activity and industry. Ilis undismayed perseverance has triumphed over great obstacles and won for him at last a fortune which he enjoys in his declining years. Ile at one time worked with Matthias Schwab, the celebrated organ builder, a sketch of whose life will be found in this volume, and during one of his many eventful years had under cultivation a fine vineyard of ten acres.

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The Biographical encyclopedia of Ohio of the nineteenth century. Pt. 1, Part 3

Author: Robson, Charles, ed; Galaxy Publishing Company, pub Publication date: 1876 Publisher: Cincinnati, Galaxy publishing company Number of Pages: 802

Author: Robson, Charles, ed; Galaxy Publishing Company, pub
Publication date: 1876
Publisher: Cincinnati, Galaxy publishing company
Number of Pages: 802