USA > Ohio > The Biographical encyclopedia of Ohio of the nineteenth century. Pt. 1 > Part 7
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his native city the Young Men's Temperance Society, and made his first public speech; from that society sprang, under his manipulations, the first and largest Division of the Sons of Temperance in Pennsylvania. It was organ- ized in the spring of 1844, he being one of the charter members. In the autumn of the same year he was elected Grand Scribe of the State; in 1845 Grand Worthy Asso- ciate; in 1846 Grand Worthy Patriarch, being the recog- nized head of the order throughout the State. At the Third Annual Session of the National Division, in New York city, in 1846, although the youngest member of that body, he was elected Most Worthy Conductor; and in 1856, at Lexington, Kentucky, he was elected to the highest office save one in the National Division of North America. In 1855 he removed to Cincinnati, Ohio, and opened a book store, which has since been, and is now, the head-quarters of the American Sunday-School Union and of the Sons of Temperance. Mr. Crosby is a steadfast, earnest and sincere advocate of every reform which is destined to improve society; a true and sympathizing friend of every unfortunate person within the circle of his acquaintance; a genial and
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valued companion of all his associates. In 1840 he united with the Fifth Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia. He is now an elder in the First Presbyterian Church of C'in- cinnati. He has been married twice : first, in 1840, to Martha J. Northrop, of Philadelphia, and lastly, in iSOS, to Clara A. Hewitt, of Cincinnati.
ORWIN, THOMAS, Lawyer and Statesman, was born in Bourbon county, Kentucky, July 29th, 1794. In 1798 his father with his family re- moved from Kentucky to Ohio and located at Lebanon, Warren county, where his distinguished son lived, and where his remains now repose. Matthew Corwin, the father, was a representative man in the legislative halls of the State and on the bench, and died in 1829. During the war of 1812 Thomas Corwin, then a lad of seventeen, won the title of " The Wagoner Boy " by driving his father's team to the frontier, carrying supplies to our almost famished armies. He commenced reading law in 1816, and was admitted to the bar in IS17; was ap- pointed to the office of Prosecuting Attorney, March 24th, 1818, and performed the duties of that office till 1830. In 1822 his public career commenced ; in that year he was elected a member of the lower llouse of the General As- sembly of Ohio. Soon after his election, on November 13th, 1822, he was married to Sarah Ross, sister of the late llon. Thomas k. Ross, who served three terms in the lower House of Congress. The nuptials were celebrated in the same house in which he lived at the time of his death, and in which his widow, Mrs. Corwin, now eighty years of age, resides. Having served his term in the General Assembly, he resumed the practice of his profession until 1829, when he was again elected to the General Assembly. In 1830 he was elected a Representative to Congress, and continued to represent his district till 1840, when he was nominated for Governor at Columbus, on February 22d, and that year was elected to that office ; he resigned his seat in Congress, to take effect the following May. In 1842 he was a candi- date again for Governor, but was defeated. In 1845 he was elected to the United States Senate. In IS50 he was appointed Secretary of the Treasury by President Fillmore. In ISIS and in ISGo he was re-elected to Congress. In 1861 President Lincoln appointed him Minister to Mexico, and he sailed for that country on April 11th, 1861, one day before the firing on Fort Sumter. lle returned to the United States in 1864, when, at the age of seventy, he again commenced the practice of law in Washington City. On the evening of December 15th, 1865, while attending an evening party given by James C. Wetmore to the distin- guished men of Ohio, among whom were Chase, Wade, Sherman, Schenck, Bingham, Ward and others, Governor Corwin was stricken down with apoplexy, and in two hours was unconscious, and thus lingered until the 18th instant,
when he died. On the 19th instant a meeting was held in the large reception room of the Senate chamber, for the purpose of giving expression to the deep sorrow of his many friends. At this meeting Chief- Justice Chase pre- sided. Many elegant but merited tributes were there paid the honored dead. Among the speakers were Chase, Seward, Sherman, Davis and others. A committee con- sisting of Hons. R. B. Hlays, Benjamin Eggleston, Samuel Shellabarger, J. A. Garfield and Major Swain was ap- pointed to accompany his remains to Ohio. They reached his home on the 22d instant. The casket containing all that was mortal of Ohio's favorite son lay in state in his library until the 26th instant, where it was visited by large numbers of his numerous friends and admirers. On that day, as the sun was descending the western hills, the last funeral rites were performed, and the sorrowing multitude bade a final adieu to their eloquent orator, great statesman and dearly beloved friend.
RAMBLE, DAVID D., M. D., was born, Decem- ber 11th, 1839, at Montgomery, Hamilton county, Ohio. llis parents were among the carly settlers of the county, and of English origin. He at- tended school some little, and worked until his fourteenth year, when, having gathered a little money, he entered Farmers' College, at College Hill, Ohio. After completing his college course he entered the inter- mediate school at Montgomery as a teacher. At the ex- piration of a year and a half he was appointed principal of the same school. This position he held for two years and a half. During the time he was engaged in this school he lived and studied medicine with Dr. William Jones, of Montgomery. At the age of twenty he entered the Ohio Medical College as a student. Ile attended two courses of lectures, and graduated in the spring of 1862. Imme- diately afterward he was appointed House Physician in the Commercial Hospital, and served for one year. In 1863 he located on Broadway, Cincinnati, in general practice, and was at the same time appointed District Physician in the Thirteenth Ward. In the fall of the same year he was appointed Physician of the Pest Ilouse. This position he resigned, after holding it for three years and a half. In 1866 he accepted the chair of Anatomy in the Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery. During this time he served as Treasurer of the college. This professorship he held until 1872, when he was transferred to the chair of Surgery and made Dean of the college. These two po- sitions he still occupies. He is a member of the American Medical Association, the Ohio State Medical Society, the Cincinnati Medical Society and the Cincinnati Academy of Medicine. He is one of the proprietors of the Cincin- nati Medical News, an able medical monthly, and is one of its editors. A large private practice is now enjoyed by
Thatkorum
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him, and to it, the college and the Medical News he devotes | became familiar with the words, and at last able to read any his entire attention. Ile has a fine healthy physique, is in the prime of life and has doubtless yet before him a valu- able career.
OWEKAMP, F. H., Lawyer and Magistrate. For all practical purposes the workings of a free gov- ernment and free institutions are sufficiently illus- trated by the career of Mr. F. II. Rowekamp. It clearly demonstrates that energy and real worth need not fail of recognition even without money or friends as a basis. Ile is one of those who, while he never despised the day of small things, was ever on the alert to create circumstances by which he could not only better his condition in life but raise himself morally and intellectu- ally above the standard fixed for the illiterate and indigent under the tyrannical governments of Europe. He is the son of John and Margaret Rowekamp, of the county of Diep- holf, in the kingdom of Hanover, where he was born April 24th, 1817. Having the misfortune to lose his father, while still a child, he was under the necessity of supporting him- self and the rest of the family at a very tender age; and could only attend the winter school during the winter months. In the summer of 1831, his mother together with his uncle and his family determined on going to America. They embarked on a vessel at Bremen in October of that year, and after a tedious voyage of fourteen weeks they linded at Baltimore in the beginning of January, 1832. From Baltimore the party walked over the mountains to Pittsburgh, and from thence proceeded to Cincinnati direct by river, it being the time of the great flood. Arriving at Cincinnati in the month of February without friends, with but little money, and a very limited knowledge of English, our readers will agree that their circumstances were not of the most auspicious character; but not being afraid to work he might very soon have been seen going from house to house inquiring of the ladies in his imperfect way, " If she wanted to saw that wood ?" when the door would often be slammed in his face with a " No." His persistency, how- ever, was soon rewarded, and he earned his first money in that way. Having worn out that job, he was next employed to drive a team of oxen. In November, 1832, it was his misfortune to lose his beloved mother by cholera ; after which he moved to what is now called Avondale, where he was engaged during the winter at chopping wood, and dur- ing the summer at brickmaking. He was principally em- ployed in this way until 1838, when he moved to the city and commenced work at the saddle-tree business, for Bassett & Kendle, on Ninth strect. But although during the pre- vious six years he had seldom been absent from his post during working hours, he had been a diligent student of the English language ; the mode of procedure being as follows : he would read a chapter in the German Bible, and then read and reread the same in English, until he in that way
passage, and to this fact, unimportant as it may first appear, all that he has been or to-day is; for it being known that he could read both English and German, he was one day sent for by Mayor Davi, to translate the evidence of a German witness who had been called upon to testify on some case before him. This brought him into notice and inspired him with confidence in his own ability to improve his mind and become somebody and do something, although he was fearfully abashed at first in the presence of the chief magis- trate in his working clothes. After working at the saddle- tree business for about one year he was married to Sarah Jane Feeldon, and from that time forward worked at any- thing that offered, grading streets and other laborious work. But after a while he obtained the position of boss of a squad of navvies who were grading the first mile of the Little Miami Railroad. Not content with this he conceived the iden of commencing the trade of a mason; and suiting his action to the thought he went to work with a will, and in a short time had so perfected himself that he was able to draw a journeyman's wages. Still he was not satisfied, and it was well it was not so, for it induced him to take jobs on his own account, and among other pieces of work erected by him we may mention the Race street canal bridge. But as already intimated he was always on the outlook for some- thing better while making the most of what he had. And having a consciousness that he was not yet in his element, he was ready in April, 1844, to accept the office of Consta- ble of the Ninth Ward, to which he was then and in 1845- 46-47 elected. Ile was a member of the City Councils from the same ward in 1848-49-50. In April, 1848, he was also appointed Deputy-Sheriff. During his term in the council he studied law in the office of Furguson & Hodge, and was admitted to the bar in 1853. From December 2d, 1850, to 1865, a period of fifteen years, he was elected and re-elected a magistrate. He was elected a member of the School Board in 1855, and in that unthankful but responsi- ble position he labored with untiring devotion for ten years. Having suffered enough for want of early advantages to make him appreciate them, he did everything in his power to perfect the system of the city schools; in fact many of the excellent rules now in force owe their paternity to him. In 1872 the confidence and esteem of his many friends were again manifest by his election to the magistracy. laving lost his first wife, Mr. Rowekamp was married the second time in 1852 to Ellen Miller, daughter of the late William Miller, of Grecne township. The frequent re-elections to the same office which have characterized the public career of Esquire Rowekamp is the best mark of appreciation that a generous public can bestow, and when we contemplate the piecemeal educational discipline to which he was compelled to subject himself, long after he had become of age, in order to qualify himself for the responsible positions he has held, we are at a loss to know which most to admire, the high aims, the energy, and the untiring pursuit of an object
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in the man, or the institutions of a broad, free and noble | ing at this place shortly after the capture of Fort Sumter, country which permits one to pass for all he is worth. We | and then returned to Cincinnati, where he has since resided. From February, 1870, until 18744, he acted as Deputy Clerk of the Probate Court of Haunlton county. In October, 1873, he was elected County Recordler, and still retains that responsible office. He was married, November 1, 1870, to Ada Jack, a daughter of a pioneer of Clermont county, Ohio, and is the father of two children. He is a Democrat. Ilis life has been one filled with startling incidents and romantic episodes.
leave our readers to compile a mental analysis of the subject of this notice from the salient points of his history, and only add that all though his busy career he has found time to attend to religion, as well as secular duties; and never fails to range himself on the side of the moral and the right. He is a man of strong common sense, and is one of those practical men who make few mistakes because they first make sure they are right and then go ahead. He forms very strong attachments, and has gathered about him a host of warm friends.
ILLIAMSON, PAUL HI., Recorder of Hamilton county, Ohio, was born, May 28th, 1837, in Cole- € rain township, in the same county, and was the sceond of four children whose parents were David Williamson and Elizabeth Huston. The former, a native of New Jersey, at the age of nine months, was brought by his parents to this township in ISHI, and there he has since resided. A sketch of his interesting life will be found in its appropriate place in this volume. Ilis wife was a native of Ilamilton county, her family having been among the earliest pioneers to the West. Paul, their son, was liberally educated, and perfected his studies at Farmers' College. Ilis first occupation was that of teach- ing, for which he had an unusual aptitude not only in man- ner but in method as well, and for nine months the duties of this position confined his attention. In May, 1857, he went to lowa and found employment in agricultural pur- saits, and in the fall of that year, with three friends, travelled by wagon through the greater part of this State, Missouri and Kansas. Reaching Aviston, Illinois, the same year, he was selected as teacher of a flourishing school, and re- mained here during the ensuing winter. In April, 1858, in company with a friend he started overland to California, meeting at Leavenworth an emigrant train which he accom- panied to the same destination. Their route was via Santa Fe and the thirty-fifth parallel, Lieutenant Beale's route across New Mexico, and while on this wearisome journey the purty were attacked on the Colorado river by Indians and cigli were slain. They lost their wagons and stock, and through a gauntlet of hostile Indians, and suffering the most exquisite privations, were compelled to return east, a distance of seven hundred miles, to Albuquerque. At Albu- querque Mr. Williamson left the party, taking his way to El Paso, Mexico, remaining there two weeks, and then join- ing a Mexican wagon train to San Antonio, Texas, In a short time he left this place for Sequin, Texas, where for nine months he taught school. In the fall of 1859 he made the journey to Columbia, Arkansas, on horseback, where he again became teacher, and filled this station with great sue- cess until the breaking. out of the civil war. Thence he proceeded to New Orleans, again north to St. Louis, arriv-
TALLO, JOHN BERNARD, Lawyer and Author, was born March 16th, 1823, at Sierhausen, in the Grand Dachy of Oldenburg, Germany, where his father was a school teacher. After receiving his elementary education he was carefully trained in the ancient languages and mathematics. In 1839 he emigrated to the United States, and at first took up his abode at Cincinnati, where, after having charge of a private school for a few months, he became a teacher in St. Xavier's College, then recently established. There he devoted all his leisure hours to the study of mathematies, physics, and chemistry, and in the fall of 1843 was appointed Professor of Physics and Chemistry in St. John's College, New York. In this capacity he served until the end of IS47, when, after publishing his " General Principles of the Philosophy of Nature " ( Boston, 1848), he entered upon the study of the law, and returned to Cincinnati. He was admitted to the bar in 1849, and in 1853 was appointed by Governor Wood to fill a vacancy in the Court of Common Pleas and District Courts of Ilamilton county, Ohio. In the fall of the same year he was elected to the same position by the people, but resigned in 1855 and resumed the practice of the law, in which he has been engaged ever since, having never sought or held any office other than the judicial one above referred to, except that he was for a number of years a member of the Board of Examiners of the Public Schools, and is now one of the Trustees of the University of Cincinnati. In ISyo he was of counsel for the Board of Education, in the city of Cincinnati, in the case of Minor and others as. The Board of Education, involving the question whether or not a resolution passed by the board to prohibit the reling of the Bible and other religious exercises in the public schools, supported by the general taxation of all the inhabitants of the State, without distinction of creed, was valid. Ilis argument, with those of his colleagues and opponents, may be found in a volume, entitled " The Bible in the Public Schools," published by Robert Cluk & Co., Cincinnati, Judge Stallo is also an occasional contributor to the seien- tific and other monthlies, such as the " Popular Science Monthly," writing chiefly on scientific subjects. He has but rarely taken any part in political movements. Origin- ally a Democrat, he advocated the election of General Fremont in 1856, and continued to act with the Republican
Pub, En Philadelphie.
Ewilliams
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party until 1872, when he sympathized with the reform j of that commmmmion he has been much before the publie as movement which culminated in the Cincinnati Convention ; but being dissatisfied with the action of that convention, retired, after delivering a speech in St. Louis, in which the grounds of his opposition to General Schurz and others were stated.
OLFF, CHARLES II., Wholesale Dry-Goods Mer- chant, was born in Lippe Detmold, Prussia, in 1824. Ilis parents, who were well educated and highly respectable people, emigrated with their family to America and settled at Windsor, Canada, opposite Detroit, Michigan, where Charles enjoyed the advantages of a good classical academy, and was also for some time under the instruction of a private tutor. IIc made rapid progress in his studies, and laid a good founda- tion for the thorough knowledge he afterwards gained through self-culture of the English, German, and French languages and mathematics; for, although at the head of a great business establishment from a very early period of his life, he has always found time by a judicious use of spare moments to prosecute scientific and literary studies. In biblical learning especially, embracing history, chronology, geography, and doctrines, few laymen have made such pro- gress. For twenty-five years he has taught and is still teaching one of the largest Bible classes ever organized in the State, and with such marked success and wide reputa- tion that he was three times in succession elected President of the Ohio State Sunday-School Association, an organiza- tion embracing all the evangelical denominations of the State. In this position Mr. Wolff gained a most enviable reputation as a presiding officer. His firmness, promptness, and great executive talents, together with a thorough knowl- edge of rules of order, combined to make him remarkably successful and efficient as the chairman of a large delibera. tive body. Under his lead, during this period of three years, the work of organization for the promotion of Sunday- school interests was carried on with an enthusiasm through- out the State unknown before or since. At the age of fifteen he came to Cincinnati and was employed as a clerk in a dry-good> house, where he rose so rapidly in the confidence and esteem of his employers that, at the end of two years, the firm honored him with their power of attorney, and from that time he conducted the entire business correspondence of the house. In his twentieth year he was admitted as a partner, and soon after laid the foundations of what is now 1932144 one of the leading wholesale dry-goods houses of the West. The firm is now composed of the brothers Charles II., ILLIAMS, EIKANAHI, A. M., M. D., Oplithal- mologist, was born in Lawrence county, Indiana, December 19th, 1822. His father, Captain Isaac Williams, was a soldier under General Jackson in the war of 1812. Ile was one of the early settlers of the State of Indiana, and one of her George II., Alfred, and William F. Wolff, 131 and 133 Race street, Cincinnati. In 18.10, when but sixteen years old, Mr. Wolff became a member of the Methodist Episco- pal Church, and has always taken an active interest in the affairs of the denomination, especially in educational and Sunday-school work. As a leading representative layman / most esteemed and wealthy farmers. His mother was a
a lecturer on Sunday school and other moral and relig- ions topics. He has also written largely and with marked ability for various periodicals of the chinch. His contribu- tons of illustrated black-board lessons for Sunday-schools, with original designs by himself, to the early volumes of the " Golden Hours " will be remembered as a leading feature of that magazine as long as they were continued. In 1846 he was married to Sarah A., daughter of Rev. L. Sworm- stedt, widely known as Senior Agent for many years of the Methodist Book Concern, Cincinnati. Three sons and two daughters are the fruit of this happy and congenial union. Their home is at Mt. Washington, one of the beautiful sub- urban village, for which Cincinnati is so justly celebrated. The family residence is a noble mansion surrounded by a charming park of many acres of very great natural beauty, but which, under the liberal and artistic cultivation of the proprietor, has become a most charming and elegant villa. Not the least attractive feature of the establishment is the library, an unusually large and well-selected one, embracing a very wide range of subjects. Here Mr. Wolff delights to spend his leisure hours, being still an enthusiastic student of the sciences, languages, and general literature; a fact which goes far to account for the freshness, elasticity and vigor of his mental faculties at an age when many business men begin to show symptoms of decline. He has been throughout his life a warm, earnest friend to young men who were struggling to make their way in life and carve out their own fortunes. His own example, however, care- fully studied, is worth far more to such than any pecuniary assistance could be. It illustrates what energy, pluck and perseverance can accomplish in a country in which there is no royal road to eminence in any department of life. It shows how a stainless character tells in the long run on even business success. It proclaims aloud in the cars of young men especially the importance of good personal habits-habits of temperance, regularity, frugality. It also proves that Christian activity is no hinderance but rather a help to diligence and success in business. It shows how a life devoted to well-doing in earnest labors for the good of mankind may be one at the same time of great enterprises. It is in short an example that may well inspire in young men increasing faith in the Divine saying, "Them that honor me, I will honor,"-a law as absolute and unvarying as that which regulates the rising and setting of the sun.
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