USA > Ohio > The Biographical encyclopedia of Ohio of the nineteenth century. Pt. 1 > Part 75
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In IStg he was elected a member of the State Senate of Ohio, which place he held for two years. Having been elected United States Senator, he took his seat in 1824, and was appointed Chairman of the Military Committee, in place of General Jackson, who had just resigned his seat in that body .. In 1828 he was appointed, by President John Quincy Adams, Minister Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Colombia. Ile landed at Maracaibo, December 22d, and thence proceeded to Bogota; but his residence there was not long, as he was recalled immediately on Jackson's accession to the Presidency, in 1829. For several years after his return he took no active part in political affairs, but lived in retirement on his farm at North Bend, on the Ohio, a few miles below Cincinnati. Being in but mod- crate pecuniary circumstances, he accepted the office of Clerk of the County Court, which he continued to hold for the next twelve years. In 1836, as the close of General Jackson's second term of office drew nigh, the opposition were somewhat at a loss for a candidate for the Presidency. Webster had been nominated in Massachusetts, but did not find much support out of that State; and Henry Clay did not care to become a candidate in a contest which he regarded as hopeless. The success which had attended General Jackson in his several canvasses for that high office gave rise to the idea of adopting a candidate who had military reputation. Harrison, while in command of the Northwest Department during the war of IS12, had en- joyed a high popularity in the West, and principally on that ground he was now brought forward as a Presidential candidate. Ilis character was unimpeachable, his retire- ment had kept him out of the sphere of party, and his position as a simple citizen seemed to identify him as one of the people. Ilis nomination, seconded by the anti- Masonie party, was more successful than many had antici- pated. Ile received seventy-three electoral votes, a greater number than Clay had obtained four years previously, al- though Massachusetts, which now voted for Webster, then had given her suffrages for Clay. Martin Van Buren be- eaine the President, being inaugurated March 4th, 1837, and in less than ten weeks from that event the country was convulsed by reason of the State banks suspending specie payments. Trade was prostrated and financial ruin was predominant. Business houses which had withstood many a financial panic went down like reeds before the wind. This state of things was seized upon by the opposition, who put the blame where it doubtless properly belonged, to the ruinous measures adopted by the party under Jackson, who had made war against the " monster," as the United States Bank was termed. The position of the opposition being thus strengthened, the defeat of the Democratic party, which had renominated Van Euren for a second term, seemed practicable, providing the anti-administration party could unite on a candidate. Henry Clay was again brought forward, and his claims as the father of the "American system " of protection to domestic manufactures were
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strongly urged. General Scott was also proposed. The | days, superinduced, as was supposed, by the fatigue and fuet that both these gentlemen were Virginians by birth excitement incident to his inauguration, he died, April qth, 1Sq1, and was interred at North Bend, Ohio, and training caused their patisaus to believe that the prestige attached to their native State as the " Mother of Presidents" would somehow be to their advantage. A - national nominating convention, at which twenty-two States were represented, met at Harrisburg, December URLBUT, IIINMAN BARRET, Railroad Presi- dent and Capitalist, was born, July 29th, 1819, in St. Lawrence county, New York. His father, Abiram Hurlbut, was a Connecticut farmer who had been a soldier in the Revolutionary war. On his grandmother's side he was descended from Governor Hinman, of Connecticut. Until fifteen years of age he attended the common schools and worked on the farm; then he went out into the world without money to seek his fortune. First, he found employment as a clerk in a store in Waddington, where he remained about three years. In 1836 he removed to Cleveland and entered his brother's law office as a student, and was ad- mitted to the bar in August, 1839. Ile at once opened an office in Massillon, but in his journey to that town his last cent was expended, his only stock being a few sheets of paper. Ile soon was known as one of the most successful lawyers in a circuit of several counties. In 1846 he formed a law partnership with Hon. D. K. Cartter, Chief- Justice of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, which proved lucrative and extensive. In 1850 he retired from the profession of law and engaged in the banking business, as a member of the firm of Hurlbut & Vinton. Hle aided in organizing the Merchants' and also the Union Bank, of Massillon. Ile was a director in each bank, and repre- sented the Union branch of the State Bank of Ohio in the State Board of Control, until he sold his interest in the bank. Ile subsequently represented the Bank of Toledo in the same Board, until the expiration of its charter. In 1852 he removed to Cleveland and commenced business under the name of Ilurlbut & Co., although he still re- tained his banking interests in Massillon. Ile then pur- chased the charter of the Bank of Commerce and reorgan- ized it for business, with Parker Handy as President and himself as Cashier. A year later Mr. Ilandy resigned and Joseph Perkins became President. The capital stock of the bank was increased from time to time, until it became the Second National Bank. While thus managing the affairs of the bank in Cleveland, he, in company with other capitalists, purchased the charter of the Toledo branch of the State Bank of Ohio, and aided in its management before and after its reorganization as a national bank. In November, 1865, he was stricken with paralysis. lle resigned his position in the bank as Cashier, and was elected Vice-President, and left for Europe with the hope of regaining his health, Ile returned in 1868, much improved, but refrained from active busi- ness until 1871, when he was chosen Vice- President of 4th, 1839, to decide between them, On the ground of availability General Harrison, also a native of Virginia, was preferred, and received the nomination. A very ardent and exciting canvass followed, and every means to promote the success of the Whig candidate was employed by his supporters to arouse the popular enthusiasm, Mass meet- ings and political processions were now first introduced, and that canvass marked an era in the style of conducting elections. The history of the war of 1812 was eagerly read, and its pages carefully scanned for details of the skirmishes and battles in which he had led the American troops to victory. Thus the 4th of October was the anni- versary of the battle of Chatham, and on the succeeding day was the battle of the Thames, where the celebrated Indian chief Tecumseh was slain, and were both seized upon by the Whigs, who celebrated their twenty-seventh anni- versary from one end of the country to the other as had never before been done, and, it may be added, was never repeated. The slur which had been cast on General Ilar- rison, that he lived in a " log cabin," with nothing to drink but " hard cider," was also made use of as an electioneer- ing appeal. Log cabins became a regular feature in politi- cal processions, and " hard cider" one of the watchwords of the party. Songs were written and sung to popular airs, and the nomince was familiarly called "Old Tippecanoe," in allusion to the repulse of the Indians on the battle-field of that name. Canes cut from trees supposed to have grown near North Bend, the home of the General, and mounted with miniature cider barrels to form the handle, were manufactured and sold by thousands; while pocket- handkerchiefs and other apparel were printed with favorite designs, or with Harrison's portrait, and scattered broad- cast throughout the country. Political caricatures were in vogue, and scarcely a day elapsed that some new one was not designed and published. In addition to all this, politi- cal feeling ran so high that, where different members of the same family advocated opposite sides, much ill blood was stirred up, and in many cases personal conflicts took place. In the autumn the election was held, and the Whig party swept through the land like a tornado, and of the twenty- six States that voted, giving 294 electoral votes, William II. Harrison secured 234, while his opponent scored but 60. The popular vote was : Harrison, 1,274,783; Van Buren, 1,128,702, and Birney (Abolitionist), 7609. Harrison was inaugurated, March 4th, 1841, and as his cabinet was ju- diciously composed great expectations were formed of his administration ; but before any distinctive line of policy could be established, and after a brief illness of but eight the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati & Indianapolis Rail-
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road Company. Mr. Hurlbut has ever been liberal in aiding benevolent enterprises, education, literatme, and the arts and sciences. Being the President and chief founder of the Cleveland City Hospital, he has been very generous to it in his donations. He founded the Hurtbut Professorship of Natural Sciences in the Western Reserve College, and endowed it with $25,000, and was for many years a Trustee of that institution. Ile contributed to every charitable institution in Cleveland and vicinity. During the great war of the rebellion he gave money freely to support the army and benevolent enterprises called into existence by that struggle. In politics he was a Whig, and when that party ceased to exist he became a Republican. He was a delegate in the national convention which nominated General Taylor to the Presidency. He was an able stump speaker, and his services were in great demand throughout his district. As a financier he was held in high repute wherever known, and the financial enterprises with which he was connected were always, when under his management, remarkably successful. The most discouraging obstacles were overcome by his great energy, fearlessness and thorough knowledge of financial matters. In private life he indulged in a line taste in paiming, music and horticulture. In the latter especially he took great pride, his collection of plants being widely known for its extent and variety. In 1840 he was married to Jane Elizabeth Johnson, of Oneida county, New York.
AVIS, IION. SIMON STEVENS, Merchant, Banker and ex-Mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio, was born at Rockingham, Windham county, Vermont, December 19th, 1817. Ile is a son of Iliram and Melinda (Stevens) Davis, and like most of the " Yankee boys " was trained to hard work upon the farm, with few opportunities for book education, except the few months he spent each year as a pupil, and afterward as a teacher, in the common schools. He left the farm in 1840, and spent one year in teaching and study at Howell Works, New Jersey; but the ill health of his father recalled him to the farm in 1841. There he re- mained until 1843, when he came to Cincinnati and re- mained in that city, St. Louis and New Orleans until he went to Brooklyn, New York, in 1847. Ile was engaged in mercantile pursuits there and in New York city until August, 1853, when he returned to Cincinnati and estab- lished the banking house of S. S. Davis & Co., which he has continued to the present time ( 1876). During the war of the rebellion he was most active in his support of the Union arms, and, by the inauguration of a committee system for the care of the families of soldiers, did much for the encouragement of enlistments and the alleviation of suffer. ing among a class which appealed strongly to the sym- pathies of a humane and patriotic public. During his life
he has been identified with the Whig and Republican parties, though he has never made a business of politics. Hle served with efficiency and credit in the City Council, and in April, 1871, was elected Mayor of the city for two years. Since the expiration of his term he has devoted his time to his private business, except so much as is taken up in attention to the public institutions with which he holds an official relation. Among others he is a Trustee of the Protestant Home for the Friendless and Female Guardian Society, as well as of the Iligh Schools and the Cincinnati Relief Union, an offshoot of the Soldiers' Relief Committee. In both the latter he has been a Trustee for fourteen con- secutive years,
OHNSON, HON. NATHAN PORTER, was born in Hartford, Washington county, New York, Jan- mary 30th, 1801, and at an early age removed to Champion, Jefferson county, New York, where he attended a district school. In 1832 he emigrated to Lagrange, Lorain county, Ohio, and there, in the course of time and events, became widely and favorably known as a prominent and influential citizen, and as an efficient lender in political movements and public enter- prises. While engaged mainly in agricultural pursuits, he yet devoted a considerable portion of his time to study and research, and uniformly kept well abreast with modern progress, In 1844 he was elected to the House of General Assembly from Lorain, and in 1846 secured a re-election. Subsequently, in 1848, he served for one term as Senator from Lorain county. For many years also he officiated as Justice of the Peace, and during the last fourteen years of his life held the position of Postmaster. Ile was a supporter successively of the Whig and Republican parties, Ile was married, October 20th, 1822, to Laura Waite, who died in January, 1846; and again, August 13th, 1846, to M. R. Hart. Ilis life and career present many noteworthy and admirable points; unvaryingly faithful in the discharge of every duty, loyal and energetic in his support of all projects designed to further the general welfare, his death was a serious loss, not only to his immediate circle of relatives and friends, but also to the wider circle of the public. Ile died in Lagrange, Ohio, December 22d, 1874.
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ORGEY, WILLIAM S., Soldier and Lawyer, was born, May 11th, 1845, on a faim in Union town- ship, Lawrence county, Ohio, and is the eighth of a family of nine sons. Ile worked on his 62 father's farm, attending school during the winter months, until September 15th, 1862, when he enlisted in the United States service for three years, at Ironton, in Company K of the 20 Ohio Cavalry. From that place the recruits went to Camp Portsmouth, then
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