USA > Ohio > The Biographical encyclopedia of Ohio of the nineteenth century. Pt. 1 > Part 55
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was at the residence of an nucle, Henry Hollman, in Dutchess county, near Ithaca, New York. Here, to his amazement, he wa, solicited to take charge of the district school, and although having had but limited educational advantages himself, he, with characteristic self-confidence, accepted the situation, and during two quarters sustained the role of educator. Ile subsequently returned to farming, and in 1825, in company with a friend, started on foot for the far West, as Ohio and Kentucky in those distant days were denominated. On reaching the Allegheny river, the trav- ellers purchased a skiff, and continued their journey down this stream until they arrived at Pittsburgh, where passage was taken on a keel boat down the river. Maysville, Ken- tucky, was reached April ist, 1825. Here he at once en- gaged in driving horses to the New Orleans market, but the emoluments of several trips proving meagre and insignifi- cant, he relinquished that business without having in any perceptible way bettered his fortunes. He then, through the generosity of a Kentuckian, Mr. Blanchard, was enabled to purchase a horse and dray, with which he labored for six months; at the expiration of that thne he removed to Tarl- ton, Ohio, and began the business of buying and driving . horses to New Orleans. In Clinton, at a later period, he came in contact with William Neil, of the Ohio Stage Com- pany, and after brief negotiation, was employed as agent of the company at a salary of four hundred dollars per aunum. Ilis tireless industry, unswerving Gdelty and habitual promptitude soon produced their legitimate result ; his salary was increased to twelve hundred dollars per annum, and his fiekl expanded so as to cover half the State. After serving as agent for a period of six years, he took an interest in the company, and also became sole proprietor of what the company deemed its " poor contracts " in Southern Ohio, and from which by unremitting labor and attention he reaped a munificent harvest. William Neil, who had in- vested but three hundred dollars in this enterprise, was for ten years his silent partner, and ultimately retired with a share amounting to twenty-five thousand dollars, in addition to the heavy dividends which he had received in the mean- while. " Mr. Tallmadge, in connection with W. S. Sulli- vant, D. W. Deshler, and Peter Campbell, of Columl us, Peter and John Voorhes, of Dayton, J. S. Alvoid, of Indi- anapolis, Indiana, and K. Porter, of Wooster, Ohio, inang- urated the Western Stage Company. Their operations were at first entirely confined to the State of Indiana, but the advancing tide of civilization, with its railroads and other improved modes of travel and transportation, crowded the company successively into Iowa, Missouri, and Kansas, enjoying, however, in each State, a period of success and prosperity. This company was truly regarded as the most influential and powerful corporation in the Western States, holding a monopoly in those sparsely settled regions equal to that of any railroad now running through the same country. The enterprise was very remunerative to its pro-
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jeetors, having ' paid for itself' without a dollar being in- vested by the owners of the stock, and was closed with princely returns but tive years since, their property for dis- tribution being; very vadnable, consisting as it did of real estate in halianapolis, Des Moines, Sioux City, Council Bluffs, and other places along the route of their early opera- tions, in which they had invested." When staging in Ohio began to collapse as a remunerative business, the initial murmur of the coming California gold fever spread through the country, and he, ever ready to take advantage of the opening of any new and lucrative enterprise, immediately sent one hundred horses across the plains, and fifty stages around the Cape to the land of fabulous treasures. These horses, sent to California for the purpose of establishing a stage route there, were taken across the plains by his young- est son, James Augustus Tallmadge, who never returned, but went to South America, and died in Valparaiso, Chili, in the twenty-fourth year of his age. In 1833 he removed to Lancaster, Ohio, and there in IS47 projected a branch of the State Bank of Ohio, of which he served as President, and also during the existence of the charter of the State Bink, served as a member of its State Board of Control. By his nieety of management in monetary matters while thus employed, he acquired the reputation of being one of the most accurate financiers in the State. In the course of time and events he passed through several periods of per- sonal pecuniary embarrassment, "any one of which alone would have crushed an ordinary man." Ultimately, how- ever, he surmounted all adversities, and in his later years not only recovered his own financial prosperity, but was foremost with both money and labor in carrying out all public enterprises for the benefit of his town. It was through his individual instigation and exertion that the magnificent mineral resources of Hocking and Perry coun- ties were primarily developed, and he was ever in the front rank, with voice, hand, and money, in the maturing of projects destined to contribute to the safety and welfare of his fellow-citizens. " For more than forty years, it may be truly said, Lancaster never had a citizen who gave more attention and labor to its material advancement, or employ. ment to more men needing it because of their impecuniosity." Again, " Much of the prevailing taste exhibited here, much that is beautiful and healthful in artificial additions to the natural advantages of the city, have resulted from the exam- ples and the labors of Mr. Tallmadge in being really the pioneer in these matters. He was exceedingly benevolent, especially in middle life. His private charities were boun- tiful. Churches and benevolent societies ever found him liberal. Want of education alone interfered with a demon-
to enemies." He was a valued member of the Masonic organization, and through life was noted for his punctilious devotion to its more important requirements; and was a prominent featme of the xsemblage gathered together on the occasion of the laying of the corner-stone, by the bro- therhood, of the new Central Lunatic Asylum, at Columbus, Ohio. In February, 1873, three months subsequent to the first attack of pneumonia, at his own request, while on his sick-bed, he was baptized by Rev. T. R. Taylor, of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was married at the age of twenty-one, to Sarah A. Wood, daughter of Jonas Wood, who resided hear Ithaca, New York. She died in IS49, an amiable Christian woman, and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. About eighteen months afterward he was again married, to Elizabeth Creed, of Lancaster. Ile had two sons, one of whom, as before stated, died in South America; the other, Theodore Tallmadge, is now a resident of Columbus, Ohio, and well known and respected in Lan- caster, and throughout the State of Ohio. Ilc died at his rooms in the Tallmadge House, Laneaster, Ohio, on March 27th, IS74. Numerous obituaries, sketches, editorials, etc., were published, concerning his life, works, and eventful enreer, after his demise. The obsequies were of the most impressive nature, while the solemn funeral ceremonies attracted a large concourse of people from all parts of the city and the surrounding region ; and the discourse preached by Rev. J. R. Boyd, March 29th, 18744, in the Methodist Episcopal Church at Lancaster, Ohio, was forcible, eloquent and pathetic. At the grave the Masonic ritual was con- ducted by Judge Virgil Shaw, Past Master of the Lancaster Commandery.
UNT, HION. JOIIN ELLIOTT, Pioneer, Major- General of the Ohio militia, ex-Postmaster of Toledo, Ohio, etc., was born in Fort Wayne, In- diana-within the fort-April 11th, 1798. Ile was the seventh child in a family of eleven chil- dren, whose parents were Thomas Ilunt and Eunice (Wellington) Hunt, of Watertown, near Boston. Ilis father was an active participant in the first battle of the Revolution, at Lexington, and was wounded in the action at Bunker Hill, Boston, Massachusetts. Ile was also one of the forlorn hope under General Wayne at the storming of Stony Point, on the Hudson, and was there wounded by a bayonet in the calf of his leg. He was then commissioned Major by General Washington, for gallant and meritorious conduct, and afterward was successively commissioned Lieutenant-Colonel and Colonel of the old Continental First stration of a most remarkable natural power of mind. He | Infantry Regiment, by Thomas Jefferson. Subsequently he would have been great in any sphere, but could show his was ordered with his regiment from Detroit, Michigan, to tike possession of St. Louis, Missouri, where he commanded from 1803 to 1807. On the banks of the Missouri, fifteen miles from this city, he constructed a cantonment, and named it Bellefontaine. In St. Louis, also, he died, his notable natural capacities only in the practical pursuits of life. A man of strong prejudices, firm convictions, intense purpose, large heart, strong will, and nnimpeachable integ. rity, he was kind and true to his friends, while unrelenting
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faithful wife following him to the grave about three months after his demise; they both lie in Bellefontaine. In later years a cemetery was laid out about eight miles back of St. Louis, and is known as Bellefontaine. They left a fiumnily of eleven children. The eldest, Henry J. Hunt, who at that time was nineteen years of age, went with three Frenchmen in a pirogne from Detroit, Michigan, to St. Louis, Missouri, leaving the subject of this sketch and the rest of the children with various relatives scattered from Fort Wayne, Indiana, to Boston, Massachusetts, In 1812, when his brother-in-law, Dr. Abraham Edwards, of Dayton, Ohio, was appointed Surgeon-General to the army of General Ilull, John Elliott went to live with his brother, Henry J. Hunt, in Detroit, Michigan, and witnessed Hull's surrender to the British army under General Brock. He was present also at the retaking of Detroit, Michigan, by General Harrison. While in his fourteenth year, his brother, who was as a father to the children, sent him to Sandwich, Canada, to secure at least an elementary education, no schools being then in ex- istence in Michigan, Ilis student life in Canada, as well as all the schooling ever received by him, was embraced within the limits of one year. He was the first beholder of the landing of the celebrated travellers, Lewis and Clark, from their three years tour to the Pacific Ocean in ISO6. In 1816 he settled in Maumce City, then the capital of Wood county, Ohio, on the Miami of the Lake, and there, and in Toledo, in the same State, has since permanently resided. His first vote was east at the Presidential election in which Henry Clay figured, and was given in favor of that eminent statesman ; he subsequently voted at the ensuing Presidential election in favor of General Jackson, and his views concerning the proper policy of the American nation are expressed in the code and principles of the Jeffersonian Democratic clement. He was twice elected to the Senate of Ohio, and was elected a Senatorial Delegate to form the Constitutional Convention in 1849-50. For a period of eight years he held the office of Postmaster of Toledo, Ohio, and was elected Major-General of the Ohio militia, by the Legislature in 1837, since which time he has lived in retire- ment, secluded from the ceaseless whir and turmod which characterize the rapid and marvellous development of a people and interests whose incoming he has seen, whose growth he has noted with an intelligent and unflagging so- licitude. Thus he expresses himself, white with the snows of many years, loved, esteemed, and revered : " I was born at the head of this river, I shall ere long be buried at its foot." But a few simple words, yet they hold to a reflective mind, the varied incidents and circumstances of his career and life being passed in swift review, a wondrous kaleido- scope where are seen vivid pictures of adventurous pioneers and hostile Indians, British assailants and American defend- ers, log school-houses now replaced by stately institutes of learning in maible and in everlasting granite, great states- men of the olden time, lonely rivers whose very courses were almost unknown which are now crowded with sails
and smoke-stacks, forests and prairies in whose gloomy recesses and tank grass the wolf, the wild cat and the buffalo were, now the sites of teeming cities : all this and more, do those simple words evoke from the historic past, and give food for grave, sweet thought, to the patriot of to day. lle was married, May 29th, 1822, to Mary Sophia Spencer, sister of Mrs. General Cass, wife of General Gov- ernor Cass, of Michigan, at whose house the marriage cere- mony took place; she is a second cousin, also, of Chief- Justice Waite, now on the bench.
ENTON, GENERAL SIMON, one of the Pioneers of the valley of the Ohio, and a soldier of the Revo- Intion, was born, March, 1755, in Fauquier county, Virginia. Ilis father emigrated from Ireland, and his mother was of Scottish descent, her ancestors having been among the first settlers of Virginia. Ilis parents being in middling circumstances, he was em- ployed till the age of sixteen years in the cultivation of corn and tobacco. At that period an incident occurred which changed the destiny of his future life. A neighbor's son had married a lady to whom he was attached, and with him young Kenton had a series of personal rencontres which terminated in the complete discomfiture of his adversary, who exhibited no signs of life at the close of the last combat, determined him to flee from home without even seeing or consulting his parents or friends. Ile crossed the Allegheny mountains, April 6th, 1771, and at Ise's Ford changed his name to Simon Butler. Having met three men who were preparing to descend the Ohio river, he joined them, being possessed of a good rifle, the fruit of hard labor, and with them proceeded as far as Fort Pitt, now Pittsburgh. IFere he formed a friendship with the notorious Simon Ginty, who was the means, at a future period, of his rescue from the Indians, when doomed to the stake. Accompanied by a single companion, he descended the Ohio as far as the mouth of the Great Kanawha river, and ascending the Elk river, they built a camp, and passed the winter in trapping, selling their peltries to a French trader. They remained at this point until the spring of 1773, when, attacked by the Indians, the party became separated. Kenton with a com- panion, both being wounded, reached the mouth of the Great Kanawha river, where they met another party who dressed their wounds. Ilere they entered the employ of Mr. Bris- coe, who was then endeavoring to form a settlement on the Great Kanawha, contemporaneously with the founding of Wheeling, Grave Creck, and Long Reach. Kenton, with his first earnings, procured a good rifle, and immediately joining a trapping party, proceeded to the Ohio. In 1774, an Indian war being imminent, he with others repaired to Fort Pitt. Lord Dunmore, Governor of Virginia, having raised an army to chastise the aggressors, Kenton was em- ployed as a spy to precede the troops and report the condition
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of the country. After the enemy had been chastised, a treaty | but finding the fort in a quiescent state, he returned. Dur- was made with them, but no sooner had the troops with- ing the invasion of Kentucky by the British and Indians in 1779, he was appointed a Captain, and, commanding an active and numerous company of volunteers, he distinguished himself in that campaign. After this company was disbanded he remained in the employ of the several stations till 1782. At this period he heard, for the first time, of his long- abandoned parents, and of his former opponent, who had recovered from the effects of their mutual encounter. IIe now assumed his own name, and, after commanding another successful expedition against marauding Indians on the Great Miami, he concluded to make a settlement on a fertile spot on Salt river. A few families joined him, reared block- houses, cleared ground and planted corn, which being gathered, he concluded to visit his parents. Ilis glowing descriptions of the fertility of Kentucky induced his parents to accompany him on his return, but his father died ere the journey was accomplished. He remained at Salt river till 1734, and thence removed to near Maysville, where he formed the first permanent station on the northeast side of the Licking river. Many emigrants were attracted to the spot ; and the Indians were kept at bay by the activity and intelligence of the master-spirit of Kenton, who was ever foremost when danger threatened. Ilis opponent was some. times the celebrated chief Tecumseh, whose tact and in- trepidity he was sometimes powerless to conquer. In 1793 Major Kenton joined the army under General Wayne, which was varionsly employed. Emigration now set in, as the In- dian wars had ceased, and large numbers settled on the banks of the Ohio. Kenton was regarded as a large real- estate owner, yet his land-claims failed one after another, as he was ignorant of the law and how to protect his inter- ests. In the year 1800 he abandoned the soil which he had rendered tenantable by his courage and endurance, and settled on Mad river, Ohio. In 1805 he was made Brigadier. General of militia. In 1813, when his old companion, Gov- ernor Shelby, came to Urbana at the head of the Kentucky troops, Kenton could no longer remain inactive, but became a member of the Governor's military family. He crossed the lake and accompanied General Harrison and Governor Shelby to Malden, and thence to the Thames; was present in the battle, and played his part with his usual intrepidity. Here ended the military career of General Simon Kenton, a man who probably passed through as great a variety of border adventures as any of our most renowned Western pioneers. This condensed narrative, were it prepared at length, would form a volume not less interesting than the most marvellous fiction. Before his death the govern- ment granted him a meagre pension, which secured him from absolute want in his declining years. ITis hospitality was always commensurate with his means; during his pros- perity his house was ever open to the wealthy emigrant or the benighted traveller. He was a member of the Methodist Church, which he joined in 1810. . Ile died in Logan county, Ohio, April 3d, 1836, aged about eighty two. drawn than the treaty was broken. Colonel Lewis was now sent to chastise the enemy, Kenton being again employed as a scout. On his discharge from this service he resumed his old pursuits of trapping, in the course of which his party, with the aid only of their tomahawks, cleared a small piece of ground, which they planted with corn, and which yielded them a supply of this edible. This spot, called Kenton's Station, was about one mile from the present town of Wash- ington, in Mason county, Kentucky. He passed the winter with a settler named Stoner, about forty-five miles south of his former locality, and in the spring, the American revolution being in progress, and the natives stimulated by the British to destroy the infant settlements, the white men were obliged to flee. Kenton joined Major (afterwards General) George Rogers Clark, sent out by Virginia to pro- tect the settlers. Kenton again accepted the position of spy or scout, and by his faithful discharge of his arduous duties proved himself worthy of the confidence reposed in him ; he was always successful in giving the fort timely notice of a meditated attack, and to assist in preparing for defence. He next accompanied Major Clark on an expedition to Okaw, or Kaskaskia, where they surprised the French commander and took possession of the fort. He was then despatched to ascertain the strength of the fort at Vincennes, which having accomplished, after three days' lurking in the neighborhood, he sent one of his companions with the intelligence to Clark, while he and another repaired to Harrodsburg. He next joined several expeditions under Daniel Boone, and signal- ized his courage to the entire satisfaction of that celebrated pioneer. In 1778 he was one of the company with Alex- ander Montgomery and George Clark in an expedition to Ohio, with the avowed purpose of obtaining horses from the Indians, Proceeding cautiously to Chillicothe they fell in with a drove of horses, captured seven and made for the river. But the Indians soon overtook them, killing Mont- gomery and capturing Kenton; Clark escaped. After un- heard of tortures, he was doomed to the stake, from which fate he was rescued by Simon Girty, previously mentioned, who persuaded the Indians to carry him to Sandusky. On his way thither, the compassion of the celebrated chief, Logan, was excited in his behalf, and at his instigation a Canadian Frenchman appeared at the council of Upper San- dusky, who succeeded in having him taken to Detroit and delivered up as a prisoner of war to the British. Here he was lodged in the fort, where his health was soon restored, and where he earned some money through dint of hard. work. Passing the winter of 1778-79 mostly in inactivity, he grew restless, and forming a plan of escape, in company with two companions, effected his object, being assisted thereto by a lady of the neighborhood, the wife of an Indian trader. After a journey of thirty three days they reached the falls of the Ohio, July, 1779. Kenton thence proceeded on foot to Vincennes to join his old companion, General Clark,
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PALM, MICHAEL, Manufacturer, was born at | was made out for Ulysses S., and the latter has been ever Plain Top, Stark county, Ohio, January 18th, 1821, being the son of Abraham and Elizabeth ( (Kıyder) Halm. His means and opportunities for obtaining an education were very limited, his school days having been passed in Bucyrus, Crawford county, Ohio. . When he attained his majority he went to Columbus. This was in March, 1842, and he there commenced his apprenticeship to the cabinet-making trade. On January Ist, 1844, he started in business for himself, and has ever since continued it. While he has had to encounter many trying obstacles, and has been the victim of some mis- fortunes, his career as a manufacturer may on the whole be characterized as a very successful one. Ile started in busi- ness with no capital but skill and energy. Ile secured loans, and was able to repay them entirely within three years, having in the meantime secured to himself and family a comfortable home. In IS56 his factory was destroyed by fire, and he sustained a loss of thirteen thousand dollars. In 1861 his establishment was a second time burned out, and his losses were largely above his insurances. Since then he has prospered by a strict attention to business and through a studious effort to win patronage by turning out a superior quality of goods. During the rebellion he served in the Union army for cight months. He has held few places of publie trust and responsibility, but where he has served in an official capacity, he has discharged his duties with intelligence and fidelity. He is quite largely interested as a stockholder, Director and President, in a number of prosperous business corporations, and is an enterprising and public-spirited citizen. He was married on March 14th, 1844, to Mary A. Markley, and has two married daughters and one single; also three single sons, and five grandchil- dren. He became religious in early life, and attributes all his successes to temperance, religion, and devotion to God. Ile has given for charities and benevolent purposes thou- sands of dollars, and has thereby, while helping others, en- riched himself with a consciousness of having done what he could for the amelioration of the condition of his fellows. Ile has been an Odd Fellow for many years, passed all its chairs and received all its honors, and is sincerely devoted to its principles of " visiting the sick, relieving the distressed, burying the dead, and educating the orphan."
6 RANT, ULYSSES S., eighteenth President of the United States, was born, April 27th, IS22, at Point Pleasant, Ohio, descending from Scotch ancestry. He passed his boyhood in the village of Georgetown, Ohio, whither his parents removed in 1823, and by the appointment of Hon. Thomas 1 .. Harmer, Congressman, entered the Military Academy at West Point in 1839. His name originally was Hiram Ulysses but the certificate of appointment to the academy
since recognized as his name. He graduated in 1843, hay- ing in lus studies shown a marked proficiency in mathe- matics, Hle ranked twenty first in a class of thirty nine, and was made a brevet Second Lieutenant of infantry, being attached very soon after as supernumerary Lieutenant to the 4th Regiment, stationed at that time in Missouri. In the summer of 1845 he accompanied this command to Texas, where it joined General Taylor's army, and on September 30th was made a full Lientenant. His first service on the field of battle was at Palo Alto, May 8th, 1846, and subse- quently he participated in the engagements at Resaca de la Palma and Monterey, and at the siege of Vera Cruz. In April, 1847, he was appointed Quartermaster of his regi- ment, and for conspicuous gallantry at the battle of Molino del Ray, September 8th, 1847, he was made a First Lieu- tenant on the field. He was brevetted Captain for his con- duct at Chapultepec, to date from that engagement, which occurred September 13th, 1847. After the capture of the City of Mexico he returned with his regiment. In 1848 he married Julia T. Dent, sister of one of his classmates. In 1852 he accompanied his regiment to California and Oregon, and while at Fort Vancouver, August 5th, 1853, was commissioned full Captain. On July 31st, 1854, he re- signed and removed to St. Louis, cultivating a farm near that city and engaging in business as a real estate agent. In 1859 he was employed by his father in the leather trade at Galena, Illinois. Upon the breaking out of the Rebellion he took the command of a company of volunteers, with whom he marched to Springfield, Illinois, being there retained as an aid to Governor Yates, and acted as mustering officer of Illinois volunteers until he became Colonel of the 21st Regiment, his commission dating from June 17th, 1861. He joined his regiment at Mattoon, organized and drilled it at Caseyville, and then crossed into Missouri, where it formed part of the guard of the Hannibal and Hudson Rail- road. Ile was on July 31st placed in command of the troops at Mexico, forming part of General Pope's force, and on Angust 23d was promoted Brigadier General of Volunteers, the commission dating back to May 17th, and assumed at once the command of the troops at Cairo, who were re- inforced shortly after by General MeClernand's brigade. On September 6th he seized Paducah, at the mouth of the Tennessee, and Smithland, at the mouth of the Cumber- land, on the 25th. Ilis proclamation to the people of Pa- ducah announced that he had nothing to do with opinions, but should deal only with armed rebellion, its aiders and abetters, lle checked the advance of the Confederate General Jeff Thompson on October 21st, 1861 ; this being accomplished at the battle of Fredericktown, Missouri. When Halleck assumed command of the Department of Missouri in the following December, Grant was assigned to the control of the District of Cairo, which was then one of the largest districts in the West. In February of 1862, at the head of 15,000 meu, he started on his memorable march
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