USA > Ohio > The Biographical encyclopedia of Ohio of the nineteenth century. Pt. 1 > Part 8
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woman of rare traits of character, many of which Dr. Wil- liams inherited. Very early in life he took a fancy for the study of medicine, and urged his father to put him in school that he might begin lus preparation for that profession. Accordingly at the age of ten he entered the seminary at Bedford. Ilere he laid the foundation of his collegiate education. Until his twenty-first year his time was passed in school, in teaching, and in working on his father's farm. Ile then entered college, and after four years of hard study graduated in 1847 at Asbury University, at Green Castle, then under the Presidency of Bishop Simpson. After graduation he immediately returned home and began the study of medicine according to his boyish fancy. After a year's study with the leading physician of Bedford he was married to Sarah L. Farmer, and removed to Louisville, Kentucky, in order to attend the lectures in the university there; at the same time remaining two years under the private tutorage of Professor T. G. Richardson; also deriving no small assistance from Professor S. D. Gross, who enjoyed a widespread surgical reputation. In the spring of 1850 he graduated and received the degree of M. D. from the university. Ile now returned to Indiana and commenced the successful practice of his profession. In the course of two years, his wife dying, he again went to Louisville, and attended a third course of lectures at the university ; this time enjoying the office instructions of Pro- fessor Gross. Inspired by Dr. Gross's eminent example, he conceived a strong taste for the study of surgery, and oph- thalmology especially. In the spring of 1852 Dr. Williams located in Cincinnati, and in the fall of the same year crossed the Atlantic in order to pursue his medical studies in the great schools of Europe. This was a step in his early plan, and to prepare for this partly he made himself master of the German language before leaving this country. lle first visited Paris in order to study French. By labor- ious study and daily attendance at the hospital clinics, he was soon able to speak the French and fully comprehend the medical lectures in that language. llis chief object being the thorough study of ophthalmology, he was for eighteen months a daily attendant at the clinics of the dis- tinguished Desmarres. During this time he lost no oppor- tunity of improving his general medical and surgical knowledge. In 1854 he crossed over from Paris to London, and faithfully devoted himself to his special study under Bowman, Critchett, Dixon, and others in the London Royal Ophthalmie Hospital. About this time the wonder- ful ophthalmoscope was discovered by Helmholtz, at leidel- berg, and Dr. Williams had become thoroughly acquainted with its use at the clinics of Desmarres, in Paris ; yet it had not found its way to London, and to Dr. Williams was left the rare pleasure of introducing it to the profession in that city. This fortunate circumstance, and his professional enthusiasm, secured for him a warm reception and the valu- able instruction and lasting friendship of the leading oph- thalmic surgeons of London. Leaving London in IS54, hie
went to Vienna, where ophthalmology had first been taught as a separate branch of medical science by the famous Beer, who defined amaurosis as a " disease in which the patient sees nothing and the doctor sees nothing." Then there was no ophthalmoscope. In Vienna Dr. Willians enjoyed the advantages of the instructions of Rosas, Jaeger, and Stellwag von Carion, men distinguished in his specialty. From Vienna he went to Prague to profit by communication with Professor Arlt, who now fills the chair of ophthalmol- ogy in the university at Vienna. After a few weeks' stay in Prague he was attracted to Berlin to attend the most popular clinics in Europe-those of Albrecht von Graefe. llere he remained several months, and a warm personal friendship sprang up between himself and this great oph- thalmologist. Finally returning to Cincinnati in the spring of 1855, he opened an office for the exclusive treatment of diseases of the eye and car. This was against the advice of his professional brethren, who predicted failure for any specialist. Dr. Williams is the pioneer ophthalmologist in America, and Cincinnati, therefore, has the honor of intro- ducing this new science to the western world. Notwith- standing the confidence reposed in him by the medical profession, his progress was at first necessarily slow; and the remarkable fact may here be recorded that the first six months of professional career in Cincinnati brought him but one patient and five dollars in money, not paying his ex- penses the first two years. In 1856 he was invited to con- duct the eye clinics in the Miami Medical College. Now his private practice began to increase. The pioneer chair of ophthalmology was established in this country in the Miami Medical College. This chair in the college Dr. Williams has always filled. All respectable medical insti- tutions of the country have followed the example of this one. To the writings and labors of Dr. Williams must be put the credit of this advance of medical science in Amer- ica. For twelve years he was ophthalmologist to the Cincinnati Ilospital. This position his growing private practice compelled him to resign. During the war he was Surgeon for the Marine Hospital; but in 1862 he again visited Europe for the purpose of attending the Ophthalno- logical Congress at Paris. Before this assemblage he read an important paper which was published in its proceedings. In 1866 he made his third trip to Europe to meet the oph- thalmologists. Dr. Williams has contributed largely to American and foreign journals, and is now arranging the materials for a work to embody the results of his research and vast practice. Dr. Williams' success has gone far be- yond his most sanguine expectations, his reputation extend- ing over the entire nation, and his private practice being simply immense. In 1872 he made another trip to Europe to assist at the Ophthalmological Congress held that year in London. Out of deference for Dr. Williams, who has done so much for this great canse, and other American ophthal- mologists attending that Congress, it was decided to hold the next meeting of that angust body in New York city, in
R.m.Bishop
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1876. This, of course, will be its first meeting in America. Dr. Williams is a member of the American Ophthalmologi- cal Society, the Universal Ophthalmological Congress, the American Medical Association, the Ohio State Medical Society, the Cincinnati Medical Society, and the Cincin- nati Academy of Medicine. In April, 1857, he was mar- ried to Sallie B. MeGrew. The history of ophthalmic science in America is largely embraced in the life of Dr. Williams. Few American surgeons enjoy, so deservedly, s.ich a widespread reputation, and yet no man bears more unaffectedly and quietly such distinction. The accompany- ing portrait depicts a character without a line of vanity, nor vaunts a word of all the man has done. It is the face of a Christian.
LLEN, MARSTON, Merchant, was born at Barn- stable, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, May 11th, 1789. His father, John Allyn, was descended from a Welsh family who emigrated to America some two hundred years previous to the birth of our subject. Ilis educational advantages were lim- ited. Ilis native place afforded little scope for the exercise of that inherent energy so characteristic of his later years, and at the age of fourteen he went to Boston, where he obtained a situation in a hardware store. Ile subsequently became salesman in the store of a leading paper hanger of that city, and while there devoted his evenings to the acquirement of a practical knowledge of the business from one of the journeymen. By 1812 they had saved between them a sufficient sum to warrant the formation of a copart- nership, and they engaged in business on their own account. Ile married in Boston and there united with the Baptist Church ; but he afterward became familiar with the writings of Swedenborg, warmly embraced his doctrines, and was brought under the discipline of his church. Upon his re- fusal to recant, that body pronounced the sentence of expulsion ; his former pastor, Rev. Dr. Sharp, acquiessing in the decision on the ground that under the church rules it could not do otherwise, but earnestly soliciting the pres. ervation of the close personal intimacy which had existed, and which was continued with the utmost cordiality until 1318, when Mr. Allen left Boston to explore the western El Dorado. He was so favorably impressed with Cincin- nati that he removed his family-consisting of wife and two ISHOP, RICHARD M., Wholesale Grocer, was born November 4th, 1812, in Fleming county, Kentucky. Ilis parents were from Virginia, and of German and English lineage. Ile was bred to merchandising, and for many years carried on business in his native State. In 1848 he removed to Cincinnati and commenced the wholesale grocery busi- ness at No. S Public Landing, under the style of Bishop, Wells & Co., which, on the retirement of Mr. Wells, in 1855, was changed to that of R. M. Bishop & Co. The sons-thither the following year, and in addition to his regular business, engaged successively and with limited success in dry goods, pork packing, and manufacture of nails. Several of his outside speculations, notably that of a tobacco merchant, proved unsuccessful, and he learned therefrom a useful lesson. Having finally prepared him . self by a long-continued, extended, and thorough course of reading and study, he embarked in the drug business in 1224. The terrible fire of the winter of .S26 swept away his all; but he was not overwhelmed by this catastrophe, firm is now composed of himself (Richard M.) and three
and upon the ruins rose another warehouse in which for many years the firm of Allen & Co. carried on the drug business in connection with paper hanging. This firm founded the Cincinnati Laboratory, and in 1840 the busi- ness was divided, Mr. Allen taking the drug store at Fifth and Main streets. Shortly after this he suffered from an- other disastrous fire, but the same indomitable energy triumphed over adversity, and from the ashes sprang an- other structure more complete in all its appointments than its predecessor. As the years rolled on he reaped the just rewards of integrity, perseverance, and an intimate knowl- edge of human nature, and he lived to enjoy the abundant fruits of his labors. Ile was blessed with two other sons after his removal to Cincinnati, and of the four three sur- vive and succeed him in business at the old stand, all known as men of culture, integrity, and true benevolence. Marston Allen was a man of sterling integrity, decided and indepen- dent, but as unassuming as he was benevolent. Ile never aspired to nor accepted political office, but devoted his energies to business pursuits, the training of his sons for usefulness in life, and the promotion of those charitable objects commending themselves to his judgment. Being a practical mechanic, he became one of the originators of the Ohio Mechanics' Institute. Subsequently, when it was financially embarrassed, he and Mites Greenwood, by muni- ficent donations, saved it for its future career of usefulness. The institute proposed to recognize this spirit of truc philan- thropy by placing his portrait in the proscenium at Green- wood Ilall, but it was only after a long and persistent solicitation that he yielded a reluctant consent, and it there stands to remind young and old of the value and durability of the lessons inculcated by jure hearts and noble lives, Ile was long an active member of the New Jerusalem Church, and for some years previous to his death lived in retirement at Glendale, surrounded by his family and a circle of devoted friends. He passed away August 12th, 1868, mourned alike by rich and poor. His deeds of love are green in the memory of all who knew him and appre- ciated them for their nostentatious performance. Ile was honored by the great, and loved, revered, and deplored by those in the humbler walks of life.
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sous, viz. : W. T., R. 11., and J. A. They are now doing business at Nos. 85 and 87 Race street, and it is one of the most extensive grocery houses in the West, their sales some years amounting to nearly $5,000,000. It is rarely that a merchant with such heavy business interests devolving upon him has been so largely in public life. Honors and respon- sibilities have been thrust upon him, not sought. In 1857 he was elected to the Common Council, and in the succeed. ing year his fellow-members chose him their President. In 1859 he was elected Mayor of Cincinnati, which office he held until 1861, when he declined a renomination succes. sively tendered him by each of the political parties. During his administration many remarkable events occurred, and it was characterized by wisdom, courage, and an active inter- est in everything that looked to the material and social prosperity and upbuikling of the city. In January, 1860, when the Union was threatened by the leader, of the rebel- lion, the Legislatures of Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee visited Cincinnati to encourage each other to stand by the old fhg. At the grand reception given them at Pike's Opera House, Mayor Bishop made an address of welcome amid a storm of applause. In the September en- suing His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales visited Cincinnati at the invitation of the Mayor, and received from him a cordial welcome. In February, 1861, when Presi- dent Lincoln was passing, on his way to his inauguration, through Cincinnati, he was received in a speech by the Mayor. Mayor Bishop presided at the great Union meeting held in Cincinnati the same year. During his administra- tion the laws were rigidly enforced, of which the Sunday ordinance and those against gambling houses were notable examples, Liquor selling and various other forms of Sab- bath desecration were in the main suppressed. He inaugu- rated amid much opposition most important reforms in the management of the city prison, work-house, and police. Mr. Bishop has become widely known for his liberality and devotion to the Christian Church, of which he has long been a most conspicuons and honored member. From 1.850 to 1800 he was President of the Ohio State Missionary Society, and was the successor of the late Dr. Alexander Campbell in the Presidency of the General Christian Mis. sionary Convention, which office he held until 1875. Ile is President of the Board of Curators of Kentucky Univer- sity; is also one of the Curators of Bethany College; was for many years Trustee of the MeMicken University; is Director of the First National Bank and several insurance and other business as well as philanthropie institutions. Ile was a member of the Ohio Constitutional Convention of 1873-74. lle was President of the Great National Commercial Convention, held at Baltimore in 1871. Ile was one of the prime movers in that great enterprise, the Cincinnati Southern Railroad, which is being so success. fully managed, having been a Trustee from the beginning. The laborious work of obtaining charters for the road was largely his. Few men in the State can point to so many
substantial benefits conferred upon society as the results of their single labors. Prompt decision, constant industry, sound judgment, and a desire to benefit his fellow men, accompanied by a frank, hearty address, are his great char . acteristics.
HATFIELD, WILLIAM HENRY, Paper Man- ufacturer and Merchant, was born July 16th, 1828, at Middlebury, Summit county, Ohio. Ilis parents, Leonard Chatfield and Nancy l'. Clark, were from Waterbury, Connecticut. When he was in his fourth year the family removed to Cincinnati, where his father engaged in the occupation of master of a steamboat in the New Orleans trade. At thir- teen years of age, having been left an orphan, he entered as an errand boy in the Fireman's Insurance Company, and thenceforth entirely supported himself. In his leisure hours, by close application, he remedied the deficiencies of his education. From the age of seventeen to that of twenty- five he was engaged in the Cincinnati Post.Office, rising in the interim from an inferior position to one wherein he was given the entire charge of the delivery department, with the salary of $1200 per anmim. In 1853, on the advent of Dr. J. L. Vattier as Postmaster, he was offered a higher position, with a salary doubled. Wishing to learn the mer- cantile business, and feeling that the remaining a mere government official would prove the grave of his ambition, he refused, and accepted the position of clerk in the paper warehouse of Nixon & Co., at $600 per annum. By the end of the year he became Bookkeeper and General Man- ager. The next year the firm was reorganized, the business trebled, and he shared in the profits. In 1857 he became a full partner, the firm-name Nixon & Chatfield. In 1860 Mr. William Woods, a native of Maryland, a brother-in- law of Mr. Chatfield, entered the firm ; and in 1855 the present fum of Chathekl & Woods was formed, and is now doing business at No. 25 West Fourth street, Cincinnati. When Mr. Chatfield entered the paper business, in 1853, it was a small branch of manufacture. Now it is second ouly to that of iron ; the capital involved in paper mills alone in the country being $60,000,000. Their establishment is the heaviest in the West. They have two mills, and their sales as manufacturers and dealers amount annually to about $1,500,000. The manufacture of paper bags is a heavy item with them. They were the first to introduce machin- cry in the West for the purpose, being the sole lessees under the Rice Patent. They were the first, also, in the West to manufacture paper from straw. In 1857, rags for paper manufacture having become so searee that it threat- ened the annihilation of this industry, they began experi- ments with straw as a substitute; the late far-seeing M. D. l'otter, of the Cincinnati Commercial, for the printing of his sheet, agreeing to take all the straw paper they conkl manufacture. They expended in experiments about $75,000.
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Now so successful have been these efforts that there is scarcely a daily sheet in the country but what prefers the straw paper. Cincinnati and vicinity is now the great paper centre of the West, supplying largely Chicago, St. Lonis, and the South with the finest book and writing pipers as well as the commoner article. On November 23d, 1554, Mr. Chatfield married with Mary A. Disney, daughter of William Disney, of Cincinnati, She died December 31st, 1869, leaving two children, Albert II. and Mary K. with the refinement of his education, has won for him the highest esteem. To him is due the honor of having origin- ated the landscape lawn method for the development of rural cemeteries in this country. It is a curious and interest- ing circumstance that this iden may be traced to the Chinese, dating back to a period long anterior to the Christian era, and that its application and modification in its present form was suggested to Adolph Strauch by no less an intermediary than the celebrated natural philosopher, Alexander Von IIumboldt, in whose " Cosmos " every page may be found pleasing and instructive. In 1863 Adolph Strauch crossed the Atlantic on a tour of inspection to most of the principal TRAUCII, ADOLPII, Superintendent of Spring Grove Cemetery and the Public Parks of Cincin- nati, was born, Angust 30th, 1822, at Eckersdorf, near Glatz, in the Prussian province of Silesia, his parents being natives of that country, where they died. At the age of sixteen he entered zealously upon what has since been his favorite study, the art of land- scape gardening. This he pursued in the Austrian domin- ions for six years, under prominent masters in the imperial gardens at Vienna, Schoenbrunn and Laxenberg. In 1845 he started on a tour of inspection through Germany, Ilol- land and Belgium, spending about six months in Berlin, Ilamburg and Amsterdam. At the conclusion of this pro- fitable tour he remained for about three months in the celebrated horticultural establishment of Louis Van Houtte, near the city of Ghent. Paris, that great centre of taste and public and royal parks, zoological gardens, agricultural col- lege grounds and rural cemeteries, a description of which was given by his travelling companion, Charles L. Flint, in his eleventh annual report as Secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture, and also in the " History of Spring Grove Cemetery," compiled by Adolph Strauch and published by Robert Clarke & Co. in 1869. For twenty years he has devoted much of his own time and money to the importation of rare and useful birds and water-fowls, which, having been successfully acclimated and reared, can now be seen in large numbers by every visitor to the ceme- tery, and from which he has donated many specimens to various parks and public institutions throughout the country. The services of this master have since been called into requi- sition by many cities of the American Union, viz. : Nash- ville, Hartford, Chicago, Buffalo, Detroit, Cleveland and refinement, was now his objective point, and here he spent [ others. Judge Walker, of Detroit, in delivering the in- three years in the culture and perfection of his professional augural address of Woodmere Cemetery, near that city, uscd the following flattering comment : " No man has done more for the correction and cultivation of the public taste in this particular than Adolph Strauch, Superintendent of Spring Grove Cemetery, near Cincinnati." What Spring Grove has done for that place was well expressed by the Ion. Lewis F. Allen at the dedication of Forest Lawn Cemetery, Buffalo, in 1866, from which the following is an extract : " Were I, of all cemeteries within my knowledge, to point you to one taking precedence as a model, it would be that of Spring Grove, near Cincinnati." . . . Again : " Intrusted with its superintendence, and guided by his genial taste, during the time of his administration hundreds of individual lot enclosures, with their forbidding gates and locks, have been voluntarily swept away by their proprietors; and in their places broad undulations of green turf, stately avenues and tasteful monuments, intermingled with noble trees and groups of shrubbery, now meet the eye, conferring a grace and dignity which no cemetery in our country has yet equalled-thus blending the elegance of a park with the pensive beanty of a burial-place." Nor should its financial success be overlooked. Since the adoption of his plan of improvement the current expenses have all been paid from the sale of lots ; about 400 acres of additional territory have been added, for which over $330,000 have been paid, and an improvement fund of over $100,000 still remains in taste. At the breaking out of the Revolution of 1848 he went to England and passed three years in the vicinity of the world's metropolis, being last employed in the Royal Botanic Society's Gardens, Regent's Park, London. At the expiration of this period he started for America, and landed at Galveston, Texas, November 5th, 1851. During the winter succeeding his arrival he travelled through the western portion of that State, stopping at San Antonio and other places, and in the spring following went North by way of New Orleans to Cincinnati, where he made an en- gagement with the late R. B. Bowler, a gentleman of great taste, and an enthusiastic admirer of arboriculture and land- scape gardening. During the two years he remained at Clifton he inaugurated the lawn system, which continued by others has made the environs of the Queen City the rival unrivalled of any in the world. His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales visited this spot during his travels in the United States in 1860, and expressed himself much de- lighted with the Bowler Place, as it reminded him of old England. In 1854, after making a tour of the United States and Canada, he returned to Cincinnati to take charge of Spring Grove Cemetery, where he has continued to reside, and where his genius has enabled him to present the noblest effects of landscape gardening as applicable to the adorn- ment of rural cemeteries. Ilis courteous manner, united
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the treasury, which it is Strauch's intention to increase to a [ ances of an average of fifty cases a day the year throughout sum the interest of which will suffice to keep Spring Grove Cemetery in perpetual order after all lots shall have been taken up. Thus a system of improvement is established by our subject which will last through all time, and under which the dead may rest secure while the living enjoy its purifying and refining influences.
TRAUB, WALTER FERRY, Lawyer and Judge, was born on the 13th of February, 1834, at Milton, Northumberland county, Pennsylvania. This town was founded by his grandfather, Andrew Straub, in 1791. Here also were born his father, Isaac Straub, and his mother, Anne Straub. They sur- vive still in the enjoyment of a green old age, living a few miles from Cincinnati, in Kentucky. In April, IS3S, the family went to Cincinnati to live, where the subject of this sketch has ever since resided. At an early age Walter entered one of the district schools of the public school system of Cin- cinnati. When the "Central School" (the nucleus of the present High School of Cincinnati) was established he was one of the boys selected, after a rigid examination, to enter upon the advanced course there. He remained a pupil there until 1848, when, at the age of fourteen, he found it necessary to commence work for a living. From that time until 1853 he was, by turns, errand boy, clerk and bookkeeper. During 1853 he was engineer at his father's factory. He had early developed a taste for writing and considerable ability in the expression of his ideas, and by this time had become a con- tributor to the newspaper press of his city. During all this time he was a devoted student at nights, which, he has told the writer of this sketch, "yielded good fruit." In 1854 he took the first important step of his life, entering the office of llon. Henry Stanbery as a law student. lle was ad- mitted to the bar in 1857, and remained at it until the war of the rebellion broke ont, when he entered the Union army as Aide-de-Camp to General MeCook. He was compelled to leave the service, however, in about a year by reason of ill health, which was brought about by an attack of typhoid fever, contracted on the march to Shiloh, in which action he participated. He returned to Cincinnati, where several months of home nursing restored him to comparative health, although he has never since been physically rugged. In the spring of 1863 he was elected City Prosecutor by the Republicans. At that time the writer's acquaintance with him commenced. He discharged the onerous and important duties of this position with such ability and fidelity that he was re-elected for two years in 1865. In 1867, on the ex- piration of his second term as Prosecutor, he was rewarded for his fidelity and manly course in that place by election by the Republican party to the office of Judge of the Police Comt, which he held for three terms-of two years each- retiring in 1873. Judge Staub distinguished himself on the beuch of the Police Court- in the midst of the daily amoy.
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