The Biographical encyclopedia of Ohio of the nineteenth century. Pt. 1, Part 4

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

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CUDDER, JOIIN M., Physician, Lecturer on Medicine, Anthor and Editor, was born in Han- ilton county, Ohio, September 8th, 1829. Losing his father at an early age he was thrown upon his own resources for sustenance and education, so that the business of his life was not actively commenced until he had reached the age of twenty-six. Ile was educated at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, and received his professional instruction at the Eclectic Medical Institute of Cincinnati, being appointed to a professorship in the latter in the year following his graduation, which occurred in 1856. Since then he has held a prominent place as a teacher, having filled the chairs of Anatomy, Obstetrics and Diseases of Women, of Pathology and Prac- tice of Medicine. As an anthor he has been extremely successful, having published the following works: "A Prac- tical Treatise on Diseases of Women" ( 1858) ; " Materia Medica and Therapeutics " ( 1860) ; " The Eclectic Practice

UMNER, WILLIAM, Capitalist, President and Director, was born in Tolland, Tolland county, Connecticut, April 3d, 1826, and is the son of William A. and Anna Washburn Sumner. Ilis lineage is English. Ilis great-great-grandfather, Dr. William Sumner, was born in Boston, Mas- sachusetts, settled in Hebron, Tolland county, Connecticut, in 1725, and was the grandson of William Sumner, who came from England in 1636. William A. Sumner, the father of the subject of this sketch, was a farmer, honored and highly esteemed by all who knew him. He was of a family of ten children, all of whom lived to old age, the youngest being fifty-seven years of age at the time of her death. The William Sumner whose biography we here present was the fifth child in a family of nine children, all of whom attained their majority, and all, save one, are now living. ITis opportunities for acquiring an education were confined entirely to the district school near his father's farm, with the exception of a few months in a select school in his native county. At the age of nineteen he began to teach a common school, and during the winter months continued in that occupation for four years. At the age of twenty-one he began business for himself, but was soon obliged to relinquish it on account of ill health. Ile then entered the office of IIon. 7. A. Storrs, of Tolland, Con- necticut, and read law. 'Soon after his admission to the bar he was appointed to the office of Clerk of the Cirenit Court, which position he continued to occupy and at the same time to practise his profession until the autunm of

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.

1855. In the following winter, feeling a desire for a larger field of operations, he bade adieu to his loved home and visited the States of Wisconsin and Illinois. He remained in the Northwest until the autumn of 1857, spending a large portion of his time in Chicago. Business in that section proving neither pleasant nor profitable, and his health requiring a more active occupation, he went to Louisville, Kentucky, and at once entered into business with his brother, Augustus Sumner, who was the real pioneer in the West of the sewing machine business. In the spring of 1858 William Sumner and John R. Wright bought out the interest of Augustus Sumner, and became pation. agents for the Wheeler & Wilson Sewing Machine Com- pany for the States of Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky, with head-quarters in Cincinnati. They began business under the firm-name of William Sumner & Co., which name was retained to the end of their copartnership. In 1860 the business thus auspiciously commenced was extended by purchase into Western Virginia and Pennsylvania, and Mr. Sumner removed to Pittsburgh, where he remained more than a year, and then, in 1862, settled permanently in Cin- cinnati. Perhaps in no one thing has Mr. Sumner shown his great executive ability more than in originating and re- ducing to practice the system of selling sewing machines from wagons, and thus delivering them to the purchaser at his own residence. This plan proved so very successful that it was adopted by most of the other sewing machine companies, and was the means of increasing the business to millions of dollars per year. The fum of William Summer & Co. had more than five hundred men, a like number of wagons, and a larger number of horses and harnesses employed in thus selling and delivering sewing machines. The plan of reporting every Saturday night through the sub-offices to the principal office in Cincinnati, when put into practice, with William Sumner & Co.'s other plan of selling machines, was so nearly perfect that, notwithstanding the large number of men and equipments which were scattered all over the five States above re- ferred to and the millions of dollars which passed through so many hands, the loss was comparatively very small. Mr. Sumner retained the supervision of this great business until January Ist, 1873, although his direct interest ceased one year earlier. Ile is now President of the Strobridge Lithographie Company, director of the Amizon Fire Insurance Company and of the Cincinnati Savings Society, and one of the twenty-five members of the Committee of Safety of Cincinnati. From his youth he has spent more time in making money for others than for himself. The Young Men's Christian Association, Children's Home, Union Bethel, missionary associations, and the poor, " which he has always with him," are objects of his beneficence. Ilis residence on Walnut Ilills, one of the charming suburbs of the city, is noted for its architectural beauty. On December roth, 1857, he was married to Juliaette C. Bishop, of Tolland, Connecticut, Three / outlook upon a picturesque country.

children have been born of that union, of which only one, a daughter, is now living.

ACE, JOIIN S., Farmer and Stock Drover, was born, May 17th, 1827, four miles north of Chilli- cothe, in Ross county, Ohio. Ile is the youngest of four children, whose parents were the late John and Nancy (Dunlap) Mace. The former was a native of Virginia and a farmer by oecn- Ile was one of the pioneer settlers of Ohio, having as far back as 1798 located at a spot in Ross county where he resided until his death, October 3d, 1857. During the war of 1812 he was a soldier in the regiment commanded by Colonel James Dunlap, and finally married his daughter; she was a native of Kentucky. She died, July 27th, 1827, leaving her youngest child, John S., an infant of ten weeks old. Ile was reared on the farm, and has followed his father's calling. Ilis education was only that obtained in the common schools of the district. In addition to his avo- cation as a farmer he has devoted considerable attention to stock raising. Politically, he is a Democrat, and in 1868 was elected High Sheriff of Ross county, holding that office until 1872, when he was succeeded by his half brother, Felix B. Mace. Isaac Mace, an uncle of John S. Mace, and a successful farmer, who died on July 3d, 1875, was born in what is now Ross county (then a Territory), on October 12th, 1798. Ile is said to have been the first white male child born in Ross county.

ARVIN, SYLVESTER II., Advertising Agent, was born at Bridgeton, New Jersey, June 230, I$15, and is the son of Holmes Parvin (a Meth- odist minister) and Elizabeth Dare. In 1837 he came to Cincinnati, and finished his education at Old Woodward. On March 27th, 1851, he es- tablished an advertising agency at Cincinnati. It was the first agency of the kind ever undertaken west of the Alle- ghenies. Advertising was then in its infancy, and it was only by uniting with it other sources of support that he could at first maintain himself. The largest merchants then rarely exceeded an expenditure for advertising of over $200 or $300; now $30,000 and $40,000 are paid by some establishments, the business having attained large proportions. Mr. Parvin still continues in this business, assisted by his son, George S. Parvin, at 168 Vine street, Cincinnati. IJe is one of the three founders, and the largest proprietor, of Norwood, one of the suburbs of Cincinnati, on the line of the Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad, a place that is destined to become noted from the extraordinary beauty of its location. "It is on a high elevation, and on the summit is a curiosity, a large Indian mound, with a noble

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.

RUDEN, HON. ANDREW J., Lawyer, was born, January 19th, ISIS, in Cincinnati, and was the fifth of seven children, whose parents were Ebe- nezer and Mary Pruden, the maiden name of the latter having been Leonard. Both the latter were natives of Morristown, New Jersey, and went to reside in Cincinnati in ISos. In those carly times there were no rapid modes of transit, and they only reached the city of their subsequent residence by lumbering coach and slow flat-boat. Ebenezer Pruden followed through life the occupation of a brick-mason, and became a master mechanic of no inconsiderable reputation. Some of the finest private and public buildings in Cincinnati are adorned by the speci- mens of his skill and ingenuity. He died in 1863, at the age of eighty-seven years, just two years after the decease of his partner, who had reached the age of eighty-one. The education of Andrew was obtained in the common schools of Cincinnati, and by assiduity he made rapid progress in his studies. In 1835 he commenced work on a farm in Warren county, Ohio, owned by his father, and spent two years upon it. Returning to Cincinnati he entered Wood- ward College, and pursued the various studies in its curric- ulum for two years, and then commenced to read law with David Van Matre, for the practice of which he had a long. ing ambition. This new field of scientific thought occupied his attention closely, and when in December, 1841, two years after his commencement of the study, he was admitted to the bar, he was in the possession of a much profounder knowledge of its theory than that which has been won by students of longer years. Ile commenced practice imme- diately upon his admission, and with but little intermission this has claimed his sole attention and ability ever since. In 1846 he was elected member of the Cincinnati City Councils, and was four times successively re-elected, going out with the close of the year 1849. In October of this year he was by his constituents sent to the State Legislature, and in this capacity rendered conspicuous service in the interests of the city and commonwealth. In the fall of 1850 he was chosen Prosecuting Attorney of Hamilton county, Ohio, and by a re-election in 1852 served in this office until January, 1855, during which time he succeeded in making for him- sell as fine a record as any man that had ever held that posi- tion, and went out of office very popular. In the fall of 1854 the Know-Nothing party had carried the city of Cin- cinnati, Ohio, by a majority of over 5000 votes, when the Democratic party had small hopes of success, but thought if they could get their late Prosecuting Attorney to accept the nomination that his name would be a tower of strength to them, and he might be elected ; therefore he was nomi- nated to the office of Police Judge of the City of Cincinnati, together with James J. Farren for Mayor, and they were accordingly elected by a handsome majority. His fine judi- cial record on this bench secured his re-election in 1857, and in this capacity he completed his labors in 1859. From his retirement from the bench until November, ISto, he was

{ prominently identified in labors connected with the con- struction of the Atlantic & Great Western Railroad, and upon the completion of this service resumed his practice, which has since exclusively confined his attention. He was married, August 19th, 1841, to Mary A. Powell, by whom he is the father of six children. . Ilis life has been one of great mental and physical activity. Ilis record for acute analyzation and cogent reasoning is scarcely surpassed by that of any other jurist. Ile has been from an early age a member of the Presbyterian Church, and, like his father, has adhered to the principles of sterling Democracy. As a City Councilman he was chiefly instrumental in securing the much-needed change from the soft limestone to the present boulder system of grading the streets of Cincinnati. To his labors in no small degree is due the crection of the llouse of Refuge, the Hamilton County Infirmary, and numerous other public institutions. He is a man of exten- sive social and political influence, and is highly esteemed by his fellow-citizens.

LLEN, WILLIAM II., lately a Wholesale Jeweler, was born in Douglas, Massachusetts, November 10th, 1813, and is of English extraction. When but three years of age his parents removed to Providence, and in the common schools of Rhode Island he received his education. He first served a regular apprenticeship in learning to manufacture high- back combs for ladies. In 1833 the fashion was changed, so that such combs were generally discarded, and, conse- quently, the manufacturing establishments of such ornaments were ruined, and Mr. Allen found the trade he had been so long in acquiring was of no value whatever. In 1835, being a young man, he resolved to go West; and at once started on his long, and at that time tedious, journey. When he had reached Cleveland he found that he had exhausted his funds, but with the exercise of his " Yankee wit " succeeded in reaching Cincinnati, Ohio, where he became permanently located. In 1836 he joined his elder brother, Caleb, in manufacturing silverware-this being the first manufacturing establishment of the kind in the West. By their great in- dustry, punctuality and devotion to their work, their busi- ness rapidly increased, and they became in a very short time wholesale manufacturers and dealers in silver jewelry. This business, which opened so auspiciously, was guarded by the zeal and honesty peculiar to the best religious people of New England ; and although these two brothers continued in their wholesale business until 1872-thirty-six years- they never in all that time had a note, check or draft pro- tested. No purer or more conscientious business men have ever resided in the " Queen City of the West." Mr. Allen has ever been deeply interested in all religious matters. Early uniting with the Second Presbyterian Church, he was elected a member of the Board of Trustees in 1865, and continued to serve till 1869. On November 20th, 1860, lie

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA,

was elected a Ruling Elder of the church, and continues to hold that office. He is one of the Superintendents of the Sabbath-school, which is the largest in the city. He is generous especially in providing for the poor of the church ; no one in any way connected with it can want for any of the necessaries of life while he is able to relieve their wants. In this he is greatly aided by his lovely and accomplished wife. He is a Director of one or more insurance com- panics. Mr. Allen was married, March 18th, 1841, to Mary D). Mann, of Boston, Massachusetts. They have no children.

ELISII, REV. THOMAS J., a citizen of long standing of Cincinnati, and although a minister a gentleman of means, invested in real estate and in manufacturing business, was born in Philadel- phia on June 14th, 1822. llis father, John Melish, was an eminent citizen of Philadelphia, and an author of two volumes of travels and several geo- graphical and topographical works. The subject of this sketch graduated at Bethany College, Virginia, in 1846, and received the degree of A. M. from Bacon College, Ken- tucky. After leaving college he spent one year in New York city as a stated supply for one of the churches. In 1847 he removed to Cincinnati to take charge of a church, where he was regularly ordained to the gospel ministry, and spent nearly three years as editor of the Christian Age, a paper which is still published in Cincinnati under the more ambitious title of American Christian Review. In 1849 he was married to the eldest daughter of William Bromwell, a manufacturer of Cincinnati, who commenced business in 1819 and continued with success until 1866, when he retired to private life. From 1850 to 1851 Mr. Melish was in Wilmington, Ohio, in charge of a congregation, and returned to the " Queen City" in the autumn of 1851, when he be- cime a partner with his father-in-law. From that time to the present he has continued a member of the fiun, which is engaged in the manufacture of brushes and wire goods. It bears the style of The Bromwell Manufacturing Company, of which Mr. Melish is the President and principal owner. It is one of the oldest establishments in Cincinnati, and one of the leading houses in its line in the United States; pos- sessing ample means and of the highest grade of credit. It employs about one hundred hands, with sales approximating one quarter of a million dollars per annum. Its elegant five-story store with cut-stone front, on Walnut street, next door to the Gibson House, forms one of the ornaments of the mercantile portions of the city. Although the subject of this sketch has thus been successfully engaged in mercan- tile business for twenty- five years, he has never ceased to be interested in the profession for which he was educated. From 1864 to 1872 he edited the Cincinnati Journal and Messenger, the Baptist organ for Ohio, and since then for

the last three years he has continued Corresponding Editor of the Baptist Union, a paper published in New York city, and devoted to the advocacy of Christian union from the Baptist point of view. To the subject of Christian unity he has been much devoted. Ilis interest in any form of de- nominationalisin has been always subordinate to the highest end of uniting Christians into one body. He has recently been a moving spirit in a practical effort to unite Christians organically. At a Union Convention, held in eastern Vir- ginia, he was elected President, and requested to act as general superintendent of the interests of the movement. Warmly interested in the temperance reform, he has attained the honor by election of Grand Worthy Patriarch of the Sons of Temperance of Ohio, an office he held during the usual term. He resides in Milford, a suburban village, where he has a most eligible commodious and attractive home.

MITII, HENRY A., D.D.S., Dentist, was born, February 28th, 1833, at Oxford, Ohio, the seat of Miami University, and generally noted for its educational institutions. Ile enjoyed special ad- vantages in study, and is a gentleman of fine liter- ary culture and rare technical skill. After Icav- ing school he spent a few years in his father's manufactory, where he gratified an inclination for the mechanic arts. Desiring to travel before fixing definitely upon his vocation' for life, he left his home and visited many points of interes in the United States, Cuba, Central America, remaining for more than a year on the Pacific coast. Upon his return to Oxford he frequented the office of Dr. George W. Keeley, and by accident rather than by design fell into the dentistry as his pursuit for life. He attended two courses of lectures in the Ohio College of Dental Surgery, and meanwhile closely pursued his studies under the mentorship of Dr. Keeley. In 1857 he received his degree of D.D.S., and for one year after this event was associated with Dr. Keeley in Oxford. In t$59 he was appointed Demonstrator of Clinical Den- tistry in the college which honored him with its degree, and filled this position for three years. In 1862 he was elected to the chair of Professor of Chemistry and Metallurgy in the same institution, and retained it for three years. In the winter of 1859 he located permanently in Cincinnati, and has since devoted his time and careful labors for the ad- vancement of dental science. He is an active participator in the work of many of the dental societies of the country. lle has a membership in the Board of Trustees of the Ohio Dental College ; Ohio Dental College Association; Ohio State Dental Society ; Mississippi Valley Association of Den- tists; American Dental Association; and is a member of the Ohio State Board of Dental Examiners. Of some of these organizations he has been presiding officer. In the confirmed opinion that the true mission of dental science looks rather to the preservation of the natural teeth than to

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.

their replacement by artificial substitutes, and that there is | fraternities. In politics he is a liberal, and in religion he quite enough in the surgical, or operative, department to re- ceive the undivided attention of the practitioner who wishes to excel, he has labored industrionsly to perfect himself in operative dentistry, and takes rank among the best of the day in this special department of practice.

RUE, BENJAMIN CUMMINGS, Lawyer, was born, June Sth, 1Sos, in Goshen, Sullivan county, New Hampshire, and was the fourth child of Daniel and Polly Bartlett True. Ilis father was a house-joiner and cabinet-maker, and was a na- tive of Chester, New Hampshire, surviving the birth of this son only five years. Benjamin comes from a family of Revolutionary renown in that State. It was said of them that no male member on either the paternal or ma- ternal side, of sufficient age and capable of bearing arms, failed to take an active part in the historic struggle of the American colonies against Great Britain. Upon the maternal side were the Bartletts and Belknaps, who were prominent committee-men, Congressmen, and workers in every field of patriotic effort. They were distinguished in literature also, and particularly as historians. The education of Benjamin was of that necessarily meagre sort to be obtained by a con- stantly interrupted attendince at a school located in a sparsely populated section. After his sixth year his lot was cast among strangers, and what he subsequently acquired was the hard-won fruit of rugged toil. Until his sixteenth year he was occupied on a farm, and then he removed to Albany, New York, where he lived continuously for twenty- two years. His main employment in that city was gun- making, and for several years he had charge of the State Arsenal located there. Ile became subsequently a die- sinker, at which he was exceedingly expert, and added to this trade that of engraving. In 1832 he married Mary Thayer, a lineal descendant of the " Mayflower" stock ; and in IS to he left Albany for Cincinnati, where he has ever since resided. He followed die-sinking and engraving in this city for some years. In 1860 he was elected Magistrate, and carefully employed his time in perfecting himself in the study of the law. He was admitted to the bar, April 22d, 1868, and in 1871 was enrolled upon the list of attorneys practising in the United States Circuit and District Courts. Since that time he has followed his profession, varying this practice with the duties of the office of a Magistrate, which he still holds. By close reading and keen observation he has acquired a fair knowledge not alone of the science of law but of general literature, and his many contributions to the various magazines and newspapers show him to be the possessor of a trenchant as well as poetic pen. He has long been an earnest Mason and Odd Fellow, and manifests at all times a deep regard for the interests of these esoteric

holds to no particular ereed or doctrine. As a note histori- cal, it may be said that he is a lineal descendant of Hannah Bradbury, who was condemmed to exceution for witchcraft in the early days of Salem, Massachusetts, but who, from some cause which history does not explain, escaped that terrible fate.

UGHI, ACHILLES, Printer, is descended from Eliis Pugh, who came to this country in 1687, two years after William Penn. Ile was born in Chester county, Pennsylvania, March 10th, 1805. In 1809 his father, Thomas Pugh, emigrated with his family to Cadiz, in Ohio. In the year 1822, at the age of seventeen, Achilles entered the printing office of the Cadis Informant to learn the art so preservative of many things. In 1827 he went to Philadelphia to perfect himself in the business, and after varied adventures in divers places, all becoming to the young wandering journeyman printer, bred of sober, discreet Quaker parentage, but strangely named Achilles, he came to Cincinnati in May, 1830. On landing there he paid twelve and a half cents to have his trunk carried, twenty-five cents for his dinner, and ending by passing over his last cent for a segar. There was nothing left ; even the segar went off in smoke; but he had himself, a stalwart frame, an iron will, industrious habits, firm moral principles, and a genial happy disposition that feared no ill and hoped ail good. Ile at once found em- ployment, and soon became manager of the Evangelist periodical, then published by Walter Scott. During this engagement he was married, August 23d, 1832, to Anna Maria Davis, daughter of John Davis, of Bedford county, Virginia, lle later established a small office of his own, and in the course of three or four years formed a partner- ship with Morgan & Sanxay in job printing. It was then that trouble overtook him. The Ohio Anti-Slavery Society was organized in April, 1835. Its business was conducted by an executive committee, who started a newspaper, The Philanthropist, at New Richmond, in Clermont county, and after printing a few numbers applied to him to take the press and type and print the paper in Cincinnati. His partners refusing, the connection was dissolved, and he con- tracted to print it alone. Unable to hire a building for the purpose owing to the obloquy attached to the cause, he erected one in the rear of his residence on Walnut street, between Sixth and Seventh streets. Ile undertook the printing as a matter of business. " If," reasoned he, " slavery cannot stand discussion, then slavery is wrong : therefore, as a printer, it is in the line of my business to print this paper, charging only the ordinary rates " for the work. Soon as the paper appeared it was evident from the attitude of the city press that a storm was brewing, and at midnight of the 12th of July, 1836, a band of men broke

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The Biographical encyclopedia of Ohio of the nineteenth century. Pt. 1, Part 4

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