USA > Ohio > The Biographical encyclopedia of Ohio of the nineteenth century. Pt. 1 > Part 51
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regiment ; was a sound lawyer, and an honest man at the | politics. Ile has always been an anti-slavery man, and since bar and on the bench, and a firm believer in the precepts and principles of the Christian religion.
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LLIS, JOHN MILLOT, Professor of Mental Phi- losophy in Oberlin College, was born, of New England parentage, at Jaffrey, New Hampshire, on the 27th of March, 1831. He continued to 6 live there until he was nine years of age, and then removed with his parents to Oberlin. Among the earliest habits of his life were the habits of thrifty industry, which are developed not so much as habits as a part of the nature of the children of New England, especially those who are not born to wealth. His father was a carpenter, and his own earlier years were passed in the car- penter-shop, learning and prosecuting his father's trade, Ile was industrious with his hands, but he had a brain which would not be idle; meanwhile manual labor by no means filled the measure of his desire or his capacity ; knowledge he must have, and after gaining everything for himself that the district schools could afford, he set to work to supplement that, beginning with a full course of collegiate study. This plan was early formed, and early carried into execution, and while still only a boy he entered Oberlin College as a student. Ile went through the full course of study there in the most creditable manner, and graduated from the institution in 1851. Hle then commenced a course of theological study, which he prosecuted, with continued interruptions in the way of teaching and other forms of work, until 1857, when he graduated in that department also. During six months of this time he was engaged as a teacher at Lapeer, Michi- gan, and then he took the position of Professor of Ancient Languages in Mississippi College, of Mississippi. This position he continued to occupy for three years, and his labors were of the most complete and most satisfactory na- ture. Ilis attainments were solid and varied ; his talents of a high order, and he possessed that rare faculty, without which the most exalted talents and the rarest accomplish- ments are of little worth in the teacher's possession, the faculty of imparting successfully and happily to others what he had himself come in possession of. In 1858 he was called back to Oberlin College, where he had graduated seven years before as a student. Ile came back as an in- structor, to fill the chair of Greek. Subsequently he was transferred to the chair of Mental Science, and that position he continues to occupy. In 1866 he was ordained as a minister, and since then, besides teaching from the profes- sor's chair, he has been largely engaged in teaching from the preacher's desk. In connection with his duties as Pro- fessor in Oberlin College, he has for the past ten years been preaching in Oberlin, Cleveland, Painesville, and other places. Beyond such part as belongs to the carnest, intel- ligent and conscientious citizen, he has taken no part in
the organization of the Republican party he has voted with that party. He was married in the year 1862 to Minerva E. Tenney.
NDERSON, THOMAS II., Attorney-at-Law, was born in Sewellsville, Belmont county, Ohio, June 6th, 1847. His father was a native of Pennsyl- vania and his mother of Ohio. He attended the Belmont and Guernsey county schools until 1865, " when he entered Mount Union College, in the same State. ITis application, and the possession of apt talent for study, secured to him while a student in this col- lege a thorough English education, and gave him an ex- cellent foundation upon which to build his reputation in coming years as an attorney. After leaving college he taught school for two years in the counties in which he had before studied, concluding his labors as teacher in the Iligh School department of the Cambridge Union Schools, On the 22d day of June, 1869, he became a student at law in the office of Colonel J. D. Taylor, of Cambridge, Ohio, un- der whose directions he pursued his reading with intelligent application for two years; and on the 12th day of June, 1871, was admitted to the bar at Mount Vernon, Ohio, and on the 22d day of the same month entered into partnership with his former legal preceptor, Colonel Taylor, and ever since has been engaged in practice with him. Mr. Anderson is a young man of more than usual talent in the profession he has chosen, and has already secured by his learning, skill and care in his profession, a large and Incrative practice, and an enviable reputation as an attorney. He is a gentleman of cultivated tastes, and continues to study with zeal the science of law in all its manifold branches; he is universally esteemed, and is a gentleman of integrity and excellent moral character.
,ORDON, W. J. M., Chemist, was born on the 25th of December, 1825, in Somerset county, Maryland. When very young he removed to Baltimore, and there obtained his education, general and scien- tific. Ilis education was conducted with a view to his becoming a practical chemist and druggist, and he studied chemistry under Professor William E. Aiken, of the University of Maryland, the oldest medical college in the State. In the year 1848 he removed to Cincinnati, and at once established himself in the drug business there, and this he carried on successfully and with but little interrup- tion for a period of twenty years ; although during a portion of the time it was conducted in connection with chemical manufacturing, having established a laboratory for the pro- duction of chemicals and pharmaceutical preparations gen- erally. Gradually this branch of his business grew into
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proportions of great magnitude and importance, and al- though he continued his business as apothecary, his business as manufacturing chemist became the one most widely iden- tified with his name, and the one hom which the most hu- portant results have followed. He has always kept well up with the latest and most important developments in chemical science ; and has always, in the production of new and valu- able articles, been in advance of most other manufacturers in the country. lle was the first in the United States to produce glycerine as a commercial article, and it is said that he has been longer engaged in the manufacture of it and has produced more than any other manufacturer in the world; and the glycerine which he makes is universally acknowl- edged to be superior to either German or French production, and only equalled by one made in London. Ile has taken the first premium in every instance when exhibited in com- petition with the production of other manufacturers. A number of years ago he abandoned the general drug trade, and devoted himself exclusively to the chemical manufactur- ing business, and ever since then the productions of his labora- tory and its branches have occupied his attention and his energy almost exclusively, except so far as the importation of foreign drugs was concerned. Within the past few years he has devoted himself quite largely to the manufacture of sulphate of ammonia from the waste liquor at the Cincinnati Gas Works, and ke is the only man in the West who is en- gaged in such manufacture. The material from which the article is produced is one which had always been held to be waste and worthless. In the manufacture of glycerine he also utilizes material which was before held to be worthless; this is the waste material from stearine candle factories, and he now pays large sums for what a few years ago yielded not a cent to any one. With his customary restless enter- prise, he is now introducing an article of lumpblack pro- duced from natural gas, which is said to be superior to all others in the manufacture of ink for engravers, lithographers, and all others who require especially fine inks. Fluid ex- tracts and sugar coated pills have been favorite productions with him; and among his other enterprises, years ago, was the manufacture of nitro glycerine long before it was used as an explosive. lle made it in small quantities; under the name of " glonoine," to meet the demands of the homoeo- pathic practitioners, by whom it was employed as a remedy for the headache. His large manufacturing business, con- ducted with consummate shrewdness, caution, skill, enter- prise and integrity, has been greatly successful; but he has had obstacles, some of them of no small magnitude, to en- counter and overcome. For four successive years, beginning with the year 1868, destructive fires occurred in his labora- tory, resulting in each case in disastrous losses, far exceed- ing the amount of the insurance. These in no way em- barrassed or hindered his progress, however, and in each case he immediately rebuilt and went on with his work. As his business grew, one laboratory, although a very large one, wa, insufficient for the requirements of his trade, and
he some time ago added another, supplied with all the latest and most improved appliances. Besides these, he has in operation munerous mills and engines for grinding drugs, etc. For many years he was President of the Cincinnati College of Pharmacy ; wa, one of those engaged in estab- lishing the American Pharmaceutical Association ; was for five years Recording Secretary ; for one year Vice- President, and in 1864 President of the association ; and has always been in the largest sense identified with the most advanced scientific and literary interests of his profession. At one time he edited a pharmaceutical paper in Cincinnati. Ile is one of the most comprehensively active men in Cincinnati, the city of active men, and finds time to participate intelli- gently and effectively in matters of public interest. He is a prominent member and an active worker in the church, and, in short, occupies a high place in society, as a Christian, a business man and a citizen.
AN, JOILN, Inventor and Manufacturer, was born at L'Assumption, forty-five miles from Montreal, Canada, April 15th, 1812. Ile is of French ex- traction. This remarkable man was reared in the country, in the poorest circumstances, and abso- lutely without training or education. While in his seventh year he was placed under a farmer, with whom it was arranged that he should remain until the attainment of his majority. In course of time, however, this master having subjected him to treatment of an' unwarrantably brutal nature, the surrounding neighbors interfered in his behalf and placed him under the charge of the Sisters of Charity of Montreal. While there the Sisters guided him in the pursuit of various occupations, in some of which he managed to secure an amount of earnings sufficiently ample for the support of his father's family. At the age of sixteen he entered into an engagement with a tinner to labor in his employ for five years at a salary of one dollar per month- with this sum he was required to clothe himself. Ile sub- sequently began the performance of extra work, the pro- ceeds of which, together with the earnings of his wife, were from time to time put away safely in an iron box. At the termination of his apprenticeship he, assisted by his em- ployer, embarked in the tin trade in Montreal, Canada. Being endowed with great natural mechanical ability, his entry into life, if not made under very auspicious circum- stances, was at least characterized by hopeful energy and in- dustry. Ilis first venture for himself was, however, made unsuccessful by the cholera scourge of 1832. After this failure he resmed his former subordinate position, and was thus engaged as an active employe until 1835, when by the death of his uncle he fell heir to a large fortune. In 1837, on the outbreak of the Canadian rebellion or patriot war, he connected himself with the fortunes of the insurgents. At the battle of St. Charles he disbursed ten thousand dollars
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of his money in obtaining supplies for the patriots ; and in City he began with an attempt to introduce the " new im- 1835, at St. Eustace, was captured by the governmental proved range," the result of a second patent. Once more, misfortune overtaking him in his partnership association, he was again compelled to carve out for himself a new avenne in commercial life. Then was inaugurated one of the most remarkable periods of an uncommon and peculiarly active life; in the face of the greatest opposition to sheet-iron ranges, stoves and heating apparatus, he began to invent range and stove fixtures of every kind, patented them, and introduced them everywhere into the Union army. During those days of continuous activity, until the close of the war, he invented and patented twenty or more ranges and heat- ing and cooking appliances, and did over a million and a half dollars' worth of business in them. "Wherever the Union army was found, there was also found an imamer- able quantity of Van's army ranges, heating stoves, camp- fixtures, and galley and naval stoves." Notwithstanding the great successes then and there encountered, and the vast amount of business done with the United States forces, he was again constrained in 1864 to initiate a fresh departure. During the course of that year he purchased the interests of those men with whom he had been connected during the progress of the rebellion, and founded a business under the firat-style of Van & Sous. During the ensuing two years, which held several heavy losses, occasioned by one of his employes, various changes occurred in the house, and in ISOS it assumed the style, simply, of John Van, under whose conduct its affairs have since been most successfully prose- cuted. Ilis sheet-iron range, at one time cried down bitterly and widely as a frand, is now sold in vast quantities through- out the entire civilized world, and from Maine to California countless imitations of his invention are daily sold and used. He is the inventor not only of the sheet-iron range, in all its forms and with all its varied appliances, but also of many other valuable and useful articles connected with the kitchen and culinary department. His ranges weigh from a few hundred pounds to six tons cach, and cost in some cases as much as seven thousand dollars. It may truly be said that he is one of the most remarkable business men of the time ; unable to read or write a single word, he has, as his check- cred history indicates, often been the prey of designing men ; and yet at the present time, having valiantly warded off dis- couragement amid all his misfortunes, and triumphed over startling reverses that would have beaten down far more than the majority of business men, he stands to day in the front rank of the more influential leading spirits of Cincinnati, Ohio. Few men have been endowed with such excellent executive ability or such inventive genius. Had but his early life afforded him favorable opportunity for the acquisi- tion of even merely a thorough elementary education, his versatile talents would more than probably have secured for him as high a position in any professional line as he has attained as a man of business. He has more than an ordi- pary share of the mercurial versatility of the Gaul, and a full share also of the national politeness and sociability of the forces, and subsequently sentenced to be hanged. Three day, before the appointed time of execution he escaped from the jail at Montreal, and, after many days of incredible hard- ship, arrived in New York State. Upon his arrival in Troy, New York, he learned that a reward of four hundred pounds had been offered by the Canadian authorities for his capture, dead or alive. His large estate was thien confiscated, and still remains in the hands of the government of Canada. The " patriots " were pardoned in 1847, since which time he has made several visits to Canada and secured extensive trade arrangements with its business community. Shortly after the fiasco which had resulted in his temporary banish- ment, he brought his family to Troy, New York, and there worked at his trade until 1842, when he was induced, under favorable circumstances, to remove to Cincinnati, Ohio. There his superior skill placed him in a very advantageous position as compared with the ordinary workman, and he obtained a desirable position as foreman of the tin, stove and steamboat-furnishing works of Lockwood & Burton, where he remained until 1846. He then initiated on his own ac- count and responsibility the taking and filling of large coa. tracts for sheet-iron and tin work. His success within the year in this department of business was so great that he was enabled to panchase the entire interess and establishment of his former employer. That business be prosecuted until 1849, the date of his removal to St. Louis, where he con- tracted to supply the Mormons at Salt Lake with all goods needed by them from the Gentiles. Within seventeen days after making this contract he had filled four warehouses with goods for that trade -of these three were consumed by live in the memorable confligration which occurred in St. Louis on the following May 17th. His unflagging energy and vast fund of resource, that has, apparently. yet to desert him, soon, however, placed him on his feet again ; within twenty four hours he had contracted for new buildings, and withm an incredibly brief space of time had this large trade again un- der full way. In 1851, during another cholera epidemic, he was forced by the errors or dishonesty of his partner to mike an assignment for the benefit of his creditors. Some of these creditors were Cincinnati men, and they, having (like all others with whom he had dealt) unlimited confi- dence in his integrity and business ability, assisted him to start afresh in Cincinnati, in 1852, in the tin, stove and roofing business. Here again misfortune visited him, and again by the hands of others. In 1853, after making several strong efforts to better hi, condition, he returned to St. Louis and made a new venture, with his former head-clerk as a partner. Once more a repetition occurs of past events ; similar causes interposed between him and success. After a short cancer, replete with incident, in Chicago, Illinois, and other places, he again settled in Cincinnati, Ohio. While at Muscatine, low, he had invented and patented his first wrought iron range, and in opening business in the Queen
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French people. He was married in 1829 to Margaret Du Kenche, who died in 186%; and again in 1868 to (Mr.) Louise Ballett, of Cincinnati, formerly of France. Of his large family nearly adl of his sons are in one way or other connected with him in business.
HASE, PHILANDER, D. D., Protestant Epis- copal Bishop of Ohio from February 11th, 1819, to September 9th, 1831, and subsequently Bishop of Illinois, was born at Cornish, New Hampshire, on December 14th, 1775. Ile sprang from the early colonists of America, his ancestor, Aquila Chase, coming from Cornwall, England, ,in 1640, and settling in Newbury. The grandson of Aquila, the Bishop's further, removed to a township above Fort No. 4, on the Con- nectient river, and founded the town of Cornish. After receiving his preliminary education in various schools, l'hi- lander became a student of Dartmouth College, from which he graduated in 1796. A severe injury to one of his limbs prevented his becoming a farmer. Having determined to enter the sacred ministry, he took a course of divinity, and was ordained Deacon May roth, 1798, and Priest November roth, 1799. For several years he was zealously engaged in missionary labors in western New York. In 1805 he went to New Orleans and took an active put in the organization of the Protestant Episcopal Church in that city. Ile re- turned to the North in 1811, and until 1817 officiated as Rector of Christ Church, Hartford, Connecticut. On Feb- ruary 11th, ISIg, he was consecrated Bishop of Ohio, to which position he had been elected, and in 1823 proceeded to England for the purpose of soliciting aid for Kenyon College and Theological Seminary in his diocese, great success attending his visit. Difficulties having arisen with some of his clergy in regard to the disposal of fands he had collected, and other matters, he resigned the jurisdiction of his diocese, on September 9th, 1831, and removed to Michi- gin. On March 8th, 1835, he was made Bishop of Illinois, and shortly thereafter made a second visit to England on behalf of education in the West. In IS38 he returned with sufficient fonds to lay the foundation of Jubilee College at Robin's Nest, Peoria, Illinois. Although a large and cor. pulent man, Bishop Chise was excee:lingly active and labo- rious. Though not especially distinguished by learning, he possessed great diplomatic talents, intuitive knowledge of human nature and great shrewdness, qualities which en- AKER, WILLIAM, Lawyer, was born in Norwalk, Ohio, February 5th, 1822, and is the son of Hon. Timothy Baker, a native of Massachusetts, and a prominent citizen of Huron county, Ohio, In IS41 he graduated at Dennison University, and in 1844 at the Law School of Harvard University, Massachusetts. In November of the latter year he com- abled him to accomplish an amount of good tenfold greater than many incomparably his superior in scholastic knowl- edge. Ile published in two volumes, octavo, " Reminis- cenees" of his life and labors; " Plea for the West," in 1825; " Star of Kenyon College," in 1828; " Defence of Kenyon College," in 1831. A serious injury, caused by being thrown from his carriage, hastened his decease, which oc. I menced the practice of his profession in Toledo, Ohio, where curred a few days after the accident, on September 20th, 1852. |
ILL, REV. JAMES, Pastor of the Town Street Methodist Episcopal Church, Columbus, Ohio, was born in Badtimore, Manyland, May roth, 1815, his parents being natives of the north of Ireland, who were of the Presbyterian faith until 1831, when they united with the Methodist Epis- copal Church. They emigrated to America, and were mar- tied in Baltimore in 1803. Mr. Hill was educated at the Franklin Academy, in Reisterstown, Baltimore county, and became a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church at a camp-meeting, held on August 16th, 1832, in Clarke's Camp- ground, in the same county. In the autumn of 1834, in company with his father's family, he went West, and located in Indianapolis, where he resided four years, having been engaged during that time as a merchant. He retired from business and united as a licentiate with the Indiana An- nual Conference in 1838, having been recommended by the Quarterly Conference of Wesley Chapel, now Meridian Street Church, Indianapolis. On October 18th, 1839, he was married to Mary M. Patterson, daughter of Judge Robert Patterson of that city. By this marriage he had two sons and two daughters, His wife still survives. After thirty-two years spent in the Indiana Conference, and in nineteen different charges, during ten years of which period he filled the Presiding Eldership, he was transferred to the Northwest Indiana Conference, and was stationed for three years at the First Methodist Episcopal Church in Tene Haute. He was then transferred to the Ohio Conference, the transfer taking place in February, 1873, and was ap- pointed to the Town Street Methodist Episcopal Church of Columbus, in which his labors have been greatly blessed. He has been twice a member of the General Conference, and served in both sessions. For a number of years he was a Trustee of the De Pauw Female College, and also a Trastec of the Indiana Asbury University. Mr. Ilill Las a fine reput.dion as a pulpit orator, and is one of the ablest divines of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Ile is the for- tunate possessor of a robust constitution, 'and performs an unusual amount of efficient pastoral labor. He has built up a large and flourishing church, with a large and intelligent membership, and has distinguished his ministry by the fer- vency of his piety and by the earnest energy with which he has fulfilled every duty devolving upon him.
he has since been actively engaged in a general practice,
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and more especially in commercial and real estate law and | Holmes, Black & Millens, has one of the most interesting chancery. While attending sedulously to the fulfilment of his professional duties, he has also been for many years inti- mately idemified with the growth and prosperity of the city, and has actively supported all railroad and manufacturing enterprises, with many of which, including the Wabash Rail- road, the Toledo & Cleveland Railroad, the Milburn Wagon Works, etc., he has sustained important personal relations. lle has acted also as the trusted adviser and attorney of many of the corporations and leading business men of Toledo, who recognize in him a trustworthy and skilful practitioner. To all movements promising the promotion of the moral and educational welfare of the city also he has uniformly given his cordial and active sympathy and support. With the exception of local and minor offices, he has never evinced a predilection or desire for position of a partisan or political nature, and has, accordingly, persistently refrained from entering into the arena of contested place and patron- age. But all trusts, professional or personal, committed to him, have been discharged invariably with unassailable fi- delity, and admirable ability. He was married, August 28th, 1849, co Frances C. Latimer, of Norwalk, Ohio, by whom he has had five children-four sons and one daughter.
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