The Biographical encyclopedia of Ohio of the nineteenth century. Pt. 1, Part 5

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

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BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.

| ponies in a twinkling were nowhere to be seen. Mr. Pugh is a member of the Society of Friends; and he is one of the most companionable of men. His memory is retentive, while his sense of the ridiculous is keen to a degree. Ilis conscience is tender, and his sympathics all for the right.

into his office, frightened away a boy sleeping there, de- stroyed the week's issue, and dismantled and carried away parts of the press. Not to be balked so easily, Mr. Bugh had a new press purchased and was at work at HI o'clock the next day printing of his weekly issue. A few days after he removed his press to his job office, corner of Seventh and Main streets. At sundown on the night of the 29th a second mob assembled, valiantly broke into his office, pitched the type cases and press into the middle of the Street, and were RASHER, LAWRENCE L., was born, on July 9th, 1819, in Mount Pleasant, Hamilton county, Ohio. He was the youngest of seven sons, whose parents were John Brasher and Keziah Brown. "Ilis father was a native of New York, who came to Hamilton county in 1790. Ile served with Gen- eral St. Clair in his Indian campaign, and during the Revo- Intion was with Lafayette's division of Washington's army. Ilis death occurred in 1840. Ilis wife was a native of New Jersey, her death occurring in Hamilton county in 1839. ller family, too, was of a patriotic stock, her father having participated in many of the colonial struggles both as soldier and surgeon. Lawrence L. had few advantages for an early education in the common schools, and was compelled to adopt that slower method, which, however, is always sub- stantial, self-culture. As early as sixteen he began life as a mechanic, and subsequently followed the trade of a cooper for twelve years. It was during this period that he managed to acquire an unusual fund of practical knowledge by care- fully selected, continuous and well-digested reading. No small portion of his Icisure moments was devoted to the study of the law, which materially increased his capacity for the intelligent discharge of duties soon to devolve upon him. He was a Captain of militia under the old militia regime of the State of Ohio. In 1869 he became Deputy Auditor of Hamilton county, and has held that office for six years. Sensible of the loss of time, place and oppor- tunity for education when young, he has taken a deep in- terest in the question of popular instruction, and the result of his labors and influence is one of the finest and most suc- cessful of public schools in Cincinnati. ITis religious senti- ments are the doctrines of the Christian church. IIe is a Republican in politics, a prominent and zealous Mason, and an eloquent advocate in the cause of temperance. This fidelity to principle cost him an office, for in his canvass for the Legislature in 1873 he was beaten by seven votes in a bitter fight waged against him by the anti-temperance element. about to set it on fire when his honor the Mayor, Samuel W. Davies, mounted the pile and addressed the mob. Ile complimented them for having done so well thus far, but ad- vised against the conflagrating process, as it would endanger the adjacent property. Thereupon they hauled the press by a rope and with much noise and shoutings cast it into the Ohio. After the second attack he for a while printed the paper at Springboro', in Warren county, and brought down " the abominable sheet " by canal to the city. In the ex- citing era he was a marked man, and very much wanted as an object of adornment with tar and feathers ; but by keep- ing in after dark and keeping out of certain parts of the city when it was light, and possessing, moreover, a powerful muscular physique, he escaped being made a subject of " high art." Scowls and cold shoulders were given him in abundance. These he bore with equanimity ; and as the cause of anti-slavery gradually advanced many a dollar was privately slipped into his hands by parties, some of them even engaged in the Southern trade. These were applied to aid the flight of colored fugitives by the underground railroad ; no questions being asked only for the money, the parties giving seeming strangely incurious as to its applica- tion : only as they gave they winked, and smiled and looked queer. Until 1875 Mr. Pugh was closely identified with the printing business in Cincinnati. In 1837 he formed a partnership with Mr. Dodd, and began the publication of the Weekly Chronicle, E. D. Mansfield and Benjamin Drake, editors. This paper was afterwards converted into a daily, and continued until 1846 with Mr. Pugh as printer. In 1869, in company with John Butler, he was chosen by the Executive Committee of the Orthodox Friends' Commission, in connection with the duties assumed under the invitation of P'resident Grant, to make a tour of examination through the Indian agencies of the Central Superintendency. One day, while the two were riding alone, and unarmed, in an ambulance in the Indian country, they were overtaken by two wild Indians of the plains, Kiowas, who rode up, one on each side of them, with their bows strung and arrows in - their hands, evideutly designing mischief. Mr. Pugh resorted to a stratagem to get rid of them. Placing his hands to his MITHI, WILLIAM F., Master Mechanic and Ca Builder of the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati & Indianapolis Railway, was born, December 16th, 1826, in Dover, Massachusetts, and is a son of Ebenezer Smith, a millwright and carpenter of that town. ITis preliminary education was ob- mouth he drew therefrom a complete set of false teeth and moved them slowly toward the nearest savage, at the same time dropping his heavy beetling brows in a ferocious scowl, while his mouth being deprived of its support the chin and nose came in close proximity. The Indians were horrified at the approaching grinning teeth, and putting spurs to their ! tained in the common schools of his native place, and was

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.

completed at the Elliot School, Jamaica Plain, near Boston. When fifteen years old he was apprenticed to J. Coney to learn the machinist's trade, and he served a period of six years in that establishment. In 1847 he was engaged as draughtsman for the Springfield Car & Engine Company, with which he was connected for about two years. In 1849 he went to Cleveland, Ohio, to fulfil a contract on the Cleve- land, Columbus & Cincinnati Railway. The line was com- pleted as far as Columbus in February, 1851, and he then received the appointment of Master Mechanic, Builder and Superintendent of the Rolling Stock, which position he held for a period of nineteen years. In 1870, owing to the great increase of labor in these departments consequent upon the consolidation of several railroad companies, he took charge of the car department of the Cleveland, Colum- bus, Cincinnati & Indianapolis Railway, a position he has held up to the present time. It is estimated that since his connection with this line he has built at least five thousand cars. He was chiefly instrumental in establishing the American Railway Master Mechanics' Association, of which he was the first President. This association pre- sented him in 1871 with the following testimonial : " Re- solved, That the association fully appreciates the value and importance to the railway interest of America of the plan of this association as organized, at Dayton, Ohio, June 10th, 1868, by W. F. Smith and others, and that the Secretary cause the resolution to be handsomely engrossed and a copy sent to each one named in the resolution." IIe is one of the originators and owners of the Fulton Foundry, in Cleveland, and is also interested in the Wason Car & Foun- dry Company, at Chattanooga, Tennessee. He is likewise a stockholder of the Delaware Foundry, at Delaware, Ohio. JIe ranks very high in his craft, and has instructed a score of the best master mechanics in the United States, thor- oughly fitting them for the positions they now hold. lle has been twice married, and is the father of two children, a son and daughter

5 URGOVNE, JOHN, Lawyer, Judge, and President of the National Insurance Company of Cincin- nati, was born August 11th, 1801, in Jefferson county, Virginia. In 1814 he removed to HIam- ilton county, Ohio, landing at Cincinnati, which was then in the infancy of its career as one of the great cities of America. It contained then but thirty-five hundred inhabitants, many of whom, however, were at that time absent in the army and on duty along the northern and western frontiers. The city gave but little promise of its future magnitude and importance. There was not a paved street, the dwellings were in straggling lines, and the river bank was a bluff, precipitous in many places, with a rudely constructed roadway running from the shore to the summit. Here it was that Mr. Burgoyne settled for life, identifying himself at a very early age with movements

which in a large degree raised Cincinnati to a position of eminence as a commercial metropolis. This he did, not only from a laudable public spirit, but from the conviction that the location of the city, which was most happily selected, with industrious enterprise on the part of its citi- zens, would make it eventually the grand entrepot for a vast section of country. This opinion, which has long since been more than realized, made him an active worker in all the movements for the social and material prosperity of that city. He is a self-educated man, whose studious habits and thoroughness of training secured his steady and sub- stantial progress in legal and commercial acquirements. ITis varied. qualifications-clerical, executive, judicial, and financial-may fairly be estimated from a record of his official career. IIe has served under no less than thirteen commissions from the Governors of Ohio. Four of these were military. Under three he was invested with the powers and duties of a Justice of the Peace. Ile was four times commissioned a Director of Longview Lunatic Asy- lum, once as Probate Judge, and once as Associate Judge of the Common Pleas, having been elected to the bench by the unanimous vote of the State Legislature. For ten years he served as Township Treasurer, and for six years as Sinking Fund Commissioner, fulfilling all the responsible duties with rare fidelity and ability, and to the fullest ac- ceptance of the people who elected him. He was succes- sively elected, for many years, President of the Board of Trustees of the First Presbyterian Church of Cincinnati, of which he and his mother were leading members during the ministrations of Rev. Joshua L. Wilson. His excellent qualities as an executive secured his election to many posi- tions of responsibility in business corporations. Ile filled the Presidency of the Cincinnati Board of Underwriters for five years, and for the past twenty years has served as President of the National Insurance Company, managing its affairs with such skill and irreproachable integrity as to win for it the unbounded confidence of the community. Ilis career has been strangely blended with private, civil, and commercial activities. By a large constituency, which had long esteemed his worth and enterprise as a citizen, he was sent to the Legislature of Ohio for three terms, during which he labored efficiently for the best interests of the gen- eral community. Ile carried the charter of the Ohio Life" Insurance & Trust Company through the lower House, and secured other legislation which greatly benefited the business interests of the city and State. While on the Common Pleas Bench of Cincinnati he secured the appoint- . ment of William Henry Harrison as Clerk, and in after years was largely instrumental in securing his nomination and election to the Presidency of the United States. Ilis career on the bench was rendered conspicuous by a decision which gave him no inconsiderable distinction in after life. Ile it was who first pronounced from the bench the uncon- stitutionality of the Fugitive Slave Law, a decision which led to one of the grandest displays of justice the world has

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BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.

ever known. Mr. Burgoyne has now attained the mature | the efforts of the committee, found remunerative employ- age of seventy-four years, and is still acti e in business pur- ment. The following year he repeated the good work of 1869-70, and is now engaged, though more privately, in many works of beneficence to the more unfortunate of his fellow-men. On May 19th, 1849, Samuel C. Tatum was married to Eleanor Bardsley, and by her has four children, three daughters and one son. On May 19th, 1874, their silver wedding was celebrated, their numcrous friends par- ticipating in the festivities of the happy occasion. suits. Ile is of rare social traits, affable in all his inter- comse with his fellow-citizens, and living in the enjoyment of that profound esteem which his public and private ser- vices have secured. The law is the chosen profession of his family, for, in addition to himself, his son, John Bur- goyne, Jr., and his eldest grandson, Charles L. Burgoyne, arc prominent members of the llamilton county bar.

ATUM, SAMUEL CANBY, Machinist, was born in Wilmington, Delaware, May 13th, 1827. When he was a mere lad his father and mother -John W. and Mary (Canby ) Tatum-changed their residence to a farm near the city, where their son Samuel learned many valuable lessons in agriculture. Ilis education was commenced in the schools of his native city and completed in Haverford Col- lege. On leaving his Alma Mater he spent one year at his loved home, and then engaged as an apprentice with J. Morton Poole, on the Brandywine, to learn the iron machinist business. That he might be thoroughly master of his trade he remained with Mr. Poole nearly four long years. In 1849 he removed to Cincinnati, Ohio, and there began for himself the foundry and machinery business, principally the latter. After ten years of energetic efforts, which were not crowned with the success he had a right to anticipate, he relinquished that entire enterprise. Soon after closing his machine shop he opened his present foun- dry on the corner of John and Water streets, where he has been eminently successful. The remarkable prosperity of his present business, which was organized in 1859, and from which he has derived his wealth and reputation as a manufacturer, is due to the systematic manner in which he learned his trade, the great executive ability which he pos- sesses, his unwavering integrity, and his courtesy to all per- sons with whom he comes in contact. During the last five years he has had in his employ from one hundred to one hundred and fifty men. Ile is now a Director of the Ilall's Safe & Lock Company, Director of the great manufacturing establishment of J. A. Fay & Co., Director of the Cincin- nati Savings Society, and Treasurer of the Children's llome, an institution of which the Queen City may be, as she is, justly proud. In the autumn of 1869 he was a member of the Strangers' Home Committee of the Voung Men's Christian Association. The committee rented and furnished a building, which was free to all who were with- out a shelter or a home. Mr. Tatum, with his associates, of whom William Sumner was one, during the ensuing winter lodged and fed 15,624 men. None were more happy to give from their abundance to relieve the necessi. ties of those unfortunate men than Mr. Tatum ; nor did the good work stop there, as large numbers of the meu, through

ALKE, ANTIIONV, late Statesman, was born September 13th, 1783, in Norfolk, Virginia, and was the eldest son of William and Mary (Calvert) Walke of that city. He is the fourth in descent from the founder of the American branch of the family, who, emigrating from the island of Bar- badocs, landed in Virginia, and in 1692 married Mary Lawson, of Princess Anne county in that colony. From their son Anthony-who was married April 4th, 1725, to Anna, daughter of Captain William Armistead, of Eastmost river, Gloucester county, Virginia-was descended Coloncl Anthony Walke. Ile was a man of wealth and unbounded liberality, who by his large contributions to the church is most favorably noticed by Bishop Meade in his " Ilistory of the Church in Virginia." He not only donated lands, but erected a church edifice about twelve miles from Nor- folk, and which is yet standing. Colonel Walke was twice married. Ilis first wife was Jane, daughter of William Randolph, of Turkey Island, James River, and the issue were two sons, Anthony and Thomas, the former the cele- brated " Parson Walke," and both were members of the Convention of 1788, which met to adopt the Federal Con- stitution, and both voted in its favor, as also of the Bill of Rights. His second wife was Mary Isham, a daughter of Colonel Edward Moseley, whose family was one of the oklest and most respected in eastern Virginia. By this union were born to him three sons, William, John, and Edward 11 .; the two latter died young. The eldest of these three, William, was the father of the Anthony Walke whose sketch is now about to be given, and who also dicd in the prime of life. Ile was a young man of great worth and promise. After receiving a liberal education he retired to his farm, called the " Ferry Plantation," and devoted himself to agricultural pursuits. Ile was a member of the Legislature at the time of his death. lle married Mary, daughter of Cornelius and Elizabeth ( Thoroughgood) Calvert. This latter was the daughter of Adam and Eliza- beth ( Mason) Thoroughgood, and the last mentioned was sister of the patriot and statesman George Mason, whose statue is in Richmond. Colonel Thoroughgood, brother of Adam, was an officer under General Washington, and was wounded shortly before Cornwallis' surrender. Thomas Calvert, United States navy-Mrs. William Walke's brother

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.

-was First Lieutenant of the United States frigate " Con- | fifty years he was a member of the Presbyterian Church, stellation," thirty-eight guns, when, under Commodore and during a long period was a ruling elder in that denom- ination. He was married in 1805 to Susan HI. Carmichael, of Princess Anne county, Virginia, and who died Novem- ber roth, 1874, in the eighty ninth year of her age, one of the oldest and most esteemed residents of Chillicothe, dis- tinguished for piety, Christian charity, and kindness to all. Five sons and one daughter survived her departure; the latter is the wife of James Dun, of Madison county, Ohio. Of the sons, Rear-Admiral Henry Walke, United States navy, of Brooklyn, New York, is an able and distinguished officer. Dr. Cornelius Walke, another son, resides in New York city during the winter and at Cornwell's Landing (North river) in summer. John Walke is Judge of the Probate Court of Pickaway county, Ohio; Anthony and Thomas Walke are residents of Chillicothe, Ohio, the latter being Judge of the Probate Court of Ross county. Another son, William, died some years before his father. The latter died March 19th, 1865, in the eighty-second year of his age. Truxton, and after a desperate action, the French frigate " I''Insurgente," of forty guns, was captured. William Walke left two sons and three daughters, none of whom survive save William, who is at present one of the oldest and most respected citizens of Norfolk. All the daughters were married, and among their descendants are some of the most worthy and respectable citizens of Norfolk and of eastern Virginia. In few families of this country has wealth continued so long. A considerable portion of the estate owned by Colonel Anthony Walke is still in the pos- session of his descendants. Anthony Walke, late of Ohio, was educated at Vale College, and was a fellow-student of the late distinguished John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina. Soon after arriving at manhood he was elected a member of the Virginia Legislature from his native county, where he was highly esteemed. During Jefferson's administration he was selected as the Agent of the United States govern- ment to deliver to the Dey of Algiers the tribute which the Barbary powers exacted from Christian nations for the privilege of trading in Mediterranean ports, and this was the last tribute from the American government, except that which was finally and effectually paid by Decatur in powder and ball. On his return to the United States the vessel in which he had embarked was driven by stress of weather on the coast of France, and as he had no passport, was arrested on suspicion of being a British emissary. After a month's imprisonment he was released through the intervention of Livingston, the United States minister to the French Repub- lie. Having obtained permission to travel through France on his return home, he visited Boulogne while Bonaparte was in the midst of his great preparations for the invasion of England, and where he witnessed a review of the French " Grande Armee." Early in the present century he re- moyed from Virginia to Ohio, but owing to continued ill-health returned to his native State. During the war of 1812, when Norfolk was threatened by an English squad- ron, he was attached to the mounted patrol organized for the purpose of watching the movements of the enemy ; and on one occasion he participated in the capture of a consid- erable number of officers and sailors who had come ashore on a foraging expedition from the British fleet, then lying in Hampton Roads. A few years thereafter he returned to Ohio and became a permanent resident of the Scioto valley. Ile ever took a lively interest in questions of State and national policy, and he will be remembered by many as an able writer and speaker. He often represented Ross county in the lower branch of the Legislature, and also in the State Senate; and, as was said of him by the editor of the Ohio State Journal, he was in truth a " gentleman of the old school," polite and respectful to all, maintaining through life a high character for integrity, truthfulness, and the faithful discharge of all his duties, whether regarded as a public man, as a private citizen, or as a Christian. For

AFT, ALPIIONSO, Jurist and Lawyer, was born November 5th, ISIo, in Townshend, Vermont, the only child of Peter Rawson Taft and Sylvia Iloward Taft. His father, although a farmer, was much in public life. He was for four years a Judge of the County Court of Windham. In his sixteenth year his son decided to obtain a liberal edu- cation. To help on with the expenses he taught a country school, commencing with his sixteenth winter. In the fol- lowing spring he pursued his studies in the academy ; worked on his father's farm in the summer, studied in the fall, taught again in the winter, and so on until his nine- teenth year, when he entered the freshman class of Vale College, and there graduated with honor in 1833. From 1835 to 1837 he held the position of tutor in Yale College, at the same time pursuing his studies at the Yale Law School, where he graduated in 1838. In 1839 he entered upon the practice of his profession in Cincinnati. In IS41 he was married to Fannie Phelps, of Townshend, Vermont. She, dying in 1852, left two sons, Charles Phelps Taft and l'eter Rawson Taft, now both members of the Cincinnati bar and partners with their father. In 1854 he was agam married and to Louise M. Torrey, of Millbury, Massachu- setts. They have three sons and one daughter. Ile early identified himself with the material and educational inter- ests of Cincinnati. He served in the Common Council from the year IS47 to 1849. Prior to that period Liberty street had been the north line of the city. While he was a member a proposition came before the Council to remove the line one mile farther north, so as to include the heavy German population and Mount Auburn within the city. The Comeil was strongly Whig in sentiment and refused their consent, as the Germans were mostly Demonate, and :

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.

this would give the rule to the opposition. Mr. Taft, al- though a Whig in sentiment, thought the publie good demanded the annexation. He thereupon introduced and after much opposition carried a proposition through the Council to submit it to popular vote. It was carried by a strong vote, and in consequence no party has since ventured to oppose annexation. On the 22d of January, 1850, Mr. Taft delivered before the Mercantile Library Association a lecture upon " Cincinnati and her Railroads," which being published and extensively read, proved a powerful stimulus to the construction of many railroads in which Cincinnati was interested, material aid being voted by the city to sev- eral of these enterprises. Mr. Taft was an active member of the old Whig party, and on its demise a member of the convention of 1856 which nominated Fremont for President. The same year he was an unsuccessful competitor for Con- gress against George II. Pendleton. This elosed his politi- cal experience. On the occasion of the decease of Daniel Webster Mr. Taft delivered a eulogy upon his life and ser- vices which was regarded by the family of the deceased statesman as the most clear and truthful analysis extant of his intellectual qualities. In 1865 Mr. Taft was appointed by Governor Cox to fill a vacaney on the bench of the Superior Court of Cincinnati, and twice subsequently was elected to the same office, the last time by the unanimous vote of both political parties. Among the causes handled by him at the bar during a successful practice of twenty-five years two may be mentioned as illustrating his ability in dealing with critical and difficult questions. The first was the celebrated controversy in which he bore a leading part -that relating to the patent for the steam fire engine. A. B. Latta and Abel Shawk each claimed the invention and obtained a patent for it. Griffin Taylor, who had become the purchaser of Latta's patent, was sued for libel (damages placed at $50,000) on the ground that he had published in the Cincinnati Times that Shawk had obtained his patent by perjury. It was a difficult case to defend, but it was successful. Latta subsequently brought an action for in- fringement against Shawk, which was concluded in the United States Circuit Court by a judgment and final verdict for Latta. In this case Mr. Taft made the closing argu- ment. The second ense was that of Perrin vs. The Execu- tors of Charles MeMicken and the City of Cincinnati, involving the validity of Mr. MeMicken's will giving his estate to the city of Cincinnati in trust for the establishment and the support of a free college or university. The heirs denied its validity and the power of the city to accept such a trust. It was eventually carried to the Supreme Court of the United States and decided for the defendants, their lawyers having been George E. Pugh and Mr. Taft. Judge Taft's printed argument was regarded as a chef d'œuvre in that line and was complimented with emphasis by the judges. Ilis management of this case alone was sufficient to show that his professional grade was of the highest. No professional question seems too intricate for his capacity

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The Biographical encyclopedia of Ohio of the nineteenth century. Pt. 1, Part 5

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