The Biographical encyclopedia of Ohio of the nineteenth century. Pt. 2, Part 17

Author: Robson, Charles, ed; Galaxy Publishing Company, pub
Publication date: 1876
Publisher: Cincinnati, Galaxy publishing company
Number of Pages: 760


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existing corporation. In 1853 work was commenced for building the Cleveland & Mahoning Railroad. The com- pany, of which he was President, he having been very in- fluential in procuring the charter, had but a small stock subscription, and the tightening of the money market worked to prevent much increase. The bonds were disposed of with great difficulty, and when the financial crisis came the road was still unfinished, and the bonds could not be sold. Railroads which were to connect with the Mahoning, to prolong the route to the sea, were abandoned, and the prospects were thus more gloomy. One of two things had to be done : either abandon the enterprise and lose all that had been done, or complete it, at the risk of the private fortunes of the managers, from Cleveland to the coal fields. They chose the latter, by Mr. Perkins agreeing, in case of disaster, to pay the first one hundred thousand dollars of loss, and to share equally with the others in any further loss. In 1854 he went to England. to raise money, but was un- successful. In 1856 the road was completed to Youngs- town, and the development of the coal and iron business commenced. In June, 1857, his wife, to whom he was most devotedly attached, died of consumption; and his close attention to her sick-bed broke down his constitution. The next winter he spent in the Southern States, and the summer of 1858 he returned again to the South ; but his disease was beyond cure, and on the 12th of January, 1859, he died in Havana, Cuba. Ilis remains were embalmed and brought home, and interred in his beautiful Woodland Cemetery, in Warren. Richly endowed with natural gifts, he sacrificed, in the interest of humanity and freedom, a !! hope of a political career he was so well fitted to adorn. Ile cheerfully laid on the altar for the public benefit, ease, wealth, health, and his fond love of study. One of his last remarks was that on his tomb stone might justly be en- graved : " Died of the Mahoning Railroad." Ile was married, October 24th, 1850, to Elizabeth O. Tod, daughter of Dr. J. I. Tod, of Milton, Trumbull county, Ohio. Ilis wife and two of his three children died before his own" death. Ilis son, Jacob B. Perkins, is still living.


ROOK, GENERAL GEORGE, was born near Dayton, Ohio, September 8th, 1828. He entered West Point in 1848, and in 1852 was appointed to a Brevet Second Lieutenancy in a regiment serving in California. He saw much service in the Indian country, and was once severely wounded. Hle was promoted to a Captaincy in the regular army, May 4th, 1861. Leaving San Francisco for New York in August of this year, upon his arrival he was ten- dered the Coloneley of the 36th Ohio Infantry. Accepting the position, he at once entered active service. Early in the spring of 1862 he was placed in command of the Third


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Brigade of the Army of West Virginia, and on the 24th of | honorably mustered out of the volunteer service, and again May defeated the rebel General Heath, capturing all his entered the regular army, where he at present holds the rank of Brigadier General. He has been for several years on frontier duty, and but few regular atmy officers have been more conspicuous than he since the close of the war. Thoroughly conversant with the Indian mode of warfare, he is called upon to direct some of the most important movements against unruly tribes, and has the reputation of being one of the very few good Indian fighters in the service. artillery and mmy of hi, men. In July he was tradened to the Army of the Potomac, and later took a prominent part in the battles of South Mountain and Antietam. For services in these campaigns he was made a Brigacher- Gen- eral of Volunteers, and placed in command of the Kanawha Division, composed almost entirely of Ohio troops. At the request of Rosecrans, in January, 1863, he was transferred to the Army of the Cumberland, being placed in command of the Second Cavalry Division, He commanded it at the battle of Chickamauga, and immediately thereafter was despatched in pursuit of the raiding General Wheeler, whom he badly routed and sent flying in confusion. For this he was recommended for promotion by Thomas and Rosecrans. In February, 1864, he was assigned to the command of the Third Division, Department of West Vir- ginia. In the spring, with this command, he displayed his excellent fighting qualities, being engaged in several battles and innumerable skirmishes, and in two months having marched nine hundred miles, and crossed the Blue Ridge and Alleghenies sixteen times, Ile lost, in killed and wounded, in this ardaous campaign nearly one-third of his command, but captured ten pieces of artillery and nearly two thousand prisoners. On July 20th, 1864, he was brev- etted Major- General, and placed in command of the De- partment of West Virginia. He was ordered to follow Early up the Shenandoah Valley, and to make his track a waste. With a small and poorly-equipped force he made this attempt, but was met by a superior force and driven back. When Sheridan organized the Army of the Shenan- douh, the Army of West Virginia became a part of it, and the commander of the latter was conspicuous in all its movements. For gallantry at the battles of Opequan and Fisher's Hill, he was recommended by Sheridan (after the war) for promotion to the rank of Brevet Major-General in the regular army. After the successful fall campaign in the Shenandoah Valley in 1864, he was made a full Major- General of Volunteers, and his army went into winter-quar- ters. On the 21st of February, 1865, by the adroit move- ment of a party of guerillas in Federal uniform, he was taken prisoner from his private room at his head-quarters at Cumberland, Maryland. The guerillas were pursued at once, but escaped with their prize, and it was not until a month after that the general was exchanged. Returning to his old command, he was the next day transferred to the command of the cavalry of the Army of the Potomac, Ile bote a brilliant and conspicuous part in the closing scenes about Richmond. After the surrender, when Sheridan was sent to take command in the Southwest, he was placed in command of the Cavalry Corps, which he retained until relieved at his own request. In August, 1865, he was or- dered to report to General Schofield, in the Department of North Carolina, and was assigned to the command of the District of Wilmington. On January 15th, 1866, he was


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6 OORE, DAVID HASTINGS, D.D., President of . Cincinnati Wesleyan Female College, was born near Athens, Ohio, September 4th, 1838. His father is a well-known and influential citizen, who has served honorably in various civil capacities, including that of Representative in Congress. The Mcores and Ilastings, from whom he descended on his father's side, are old Massachusetts families, and his maternal ancestors, the Barkers and Ilarpers, were also Eastern people. While a student in college, David was converted with the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1855. Soon thereafter he was licensed, first as exhorter, then as local preacher, and, under the direction of his professors and the ministers, preached very frequently during the re- mainder of his course. In 1860 he graduated with honor from the Ohio University. June 21st, 1860, he was married to Julia S. Carpenter, of Athens. In September of the same year he was admitted at Gallipolis as a probationer into the Ohio Conference, and sent to Bainbridge circuit. One year later he was stationed at Whitney Chapel, Mari- etta. The war of the rebellion having broken out, he stumped Washington county under the direction of the Military Commission, and aided in recruiting the 63d and 77th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. In May, 1862, he volun- leered in a three months' company to aid in defending the national capital. The company had a large proportion of students from Marietta College, and when he was elected. Captain, two seniors were chosen lieutenants. This event- ually became Company A of the 87th Regiment of the Ohio Volunteer Infantry. After four months' faithful ser- vice, he shared in the humiliation of Miles' surrender of Harper's Ferry. Having been exchanged, the regiment was reorganized for three years, but failing to fill up, was consolidated with another detachment, as the 125th, a regiment that General Thomas dubbed, on the battle-fiekl of Chickamanga, the "Ohio Tigers," and which, under Colonel, afterwards Major- General, Opdycke, achieved a splendid reputation. In the consolidation Captain Moore lost the position of Lieutenant-Colonel, to which he had been assigned. However, he was suffered to remain out but a short time, and then, on the petition of all the field and line officers of the 125th, was commissioned by Gover. nor Tod as Major, and detailed to recruit the two companies


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which the regiment still lacked. This he did, and having despatched Company I to the regiment he followed with Company K to the Army of the Cumberland, then in East Tennessee. Colonel Opdycke having been detailed to command a brigade, Major Moore, promoted now to Licu. tenant Colonel, commanded the regiment and shared in the trials and triumphs of the famous Atlanta campaign. When Atlanta fell, seeing the beginning of the end, shattered in health and feeling that he had exhausted his leave of ab. sence from the pulpit, he resigned his commission and returned to civil life. Ile was immediately called as supply to Bigelow Chapel, Columbus, In the autumn of 1865 he was stationed at Second Street, Zanesville; in 1868 at St. Paul, Delaware; in 1870 at Wesley Chapel, Co- lumbus ; in 1872 transferred to Cincinnati and stationed at Trinity. This important charge he served until his term ex- pired by limitation, in August, 1875. Meantime he had been unanimously elected President of the Cincinnati Wesleyan College, one of the largest female colleges in the United States. He was inaugurated June 10th, and entered upon his duties September 16th, 1875. On June 24th, 1875, the Ohio Wesleyan University honored him by conferring the degree of Divinitatis Doctor.


EDRICK, HENRY, Insurance Agent, was born in Fleming county, Kentucky, on December 25th, ISIo, of American and German parentage. About the year 1814 his father removed with his family from Kentucky to Clarke county, Ohio, where he purchased a large tract of land and established himself thereon as a successful farmer, Ile continued in the prosperous cultivation of his farm until the time of his death. Henry received his education at the common schools of the county, attending school in the winter and working on his father's farm in the summer until he was twenty years of age. Then he commenced teaching school in the village near his father's place, and continued teaching there for six months. In 1831, when he had attained his majority. he entered a mercantile house in Springfield, Ohio, and after serving there a few years as a cleik he became a part- ner in the firm. He remained there, engaged in mercantile business, until the summer of 1855. During his residence in Springfield he held most of the offices in the Methodist Church. He was Trustee, Treasurer and Secretary of the Ohio Conference High School, and for more than forty years, covering the time of his residence at Springfield, and a considerable portion of his subsequent residence at Cin- cinnati, he was an active worker, as teacher, secretary and superintendent in the Sabbath-school. In the fall of 1855 he removed from Springfield to Cincinnati, and there en. gaged in the insurance business. In the year 1863, in connection with R. M. Bishop, A. D. Bullock, Lowell Fletcher, William F. Thorne and others, he organized the Ohio Valley Fire and Marine Insurance Company, of which


company he was President for three years, managing its affairs with very great success. Since January, 1866, he has given his time and attention almost entirely to the in- terests of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York, the representative of which he has been since the spring of 1856. He has conducted the business of this * great corporation with great success and in a manner satis- factory to all parties, and has witnessed and aided in its development from the possession of assets amounting to some $3,000,000 to its present condition, when its assets amount to $75,000,000. Henry Hedrick was married on the 30th of August, 1836, to Mary J. Werden, a resident of Springfield, Ohio.


OLMES, ENOS, Physician, was born on January 13th, 1821, in Tuscarawas (now Carroll) county, Ohio. Ile was the fourth of a family of twelve children, whose parents were Enos HI. and Mary (Wilkins) Holmes. On the father's side he is of Scotch descent, his father's ancestors having emi- grated from Scotland to this country and settled in New Jersey. Ilis paternal grandfather, Jacob Holmes, was in early life a resident of Pennsylvania. He removed thence with his family to Virginia, and thence to Ohio, where he settled in Jefferson county in its very early days, and was one of the leading pioneers of that region, when to be a pioneer meant much more than it does in our day. The task of founding a new settlement, far away from the old established haunts of civilization, is a sufficiently hard and trying task, even when the surroundings are peaceful and there is only the unbroken prairie to bring under cultiva. tion. But the pioneers of Omfio had still harder experiences and still greater privations to endure. They had not only to make a home, but they had to make a place for that home by felling the forest and bringing the soil, with in- finite labor, into a condition to cultivate. Worst and most trying of all, they were surrounded on all sides by furious savages, who rendered their lives and their homes at all times insecure. To cope with such surroundings and to conquer such difficulties required men who were men : men who were brave to the heart's core and manly in every fibre. Such a man was Jacob Holmes. In common with the other brave men about him, he endured and triumphed over all the hardships and privations inseparable from the task he had undertaken. He was an active participant in the early Indian wars of Ohio, and won great distinction as an intrepid and successful Indian spy and scout. As was very often the case, his undanuted courage was supple- mented by the finer and higher attributes of humanity, and by a serious regard for religion, which his constant nearness to death developed, instead of quenching. He was hos- pitable to the last degree, as was the case with most of the pioneers. Ilis cabin in the wilderness was always open to all in need of a cordial welcome, a helping hand and an


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encouraging word. Particularly was this the case with all the laborers in the cause of the Methodist Church in the wilderness. He was never weary of forwarding the efforts and lightening the labors of such men, and as soon as a church was known in the wilderness he became a zealous `member of the organization and labored efficiently for its interests. He married Elizabeth Huff, daughter of Michael and Hannah (Doddridge) Huff. The latter was a sister of the celebrated Philip, Joseph and Benjamin Doddridge, of Virginia, the Doddridges being a family of the highest intellectual, social and political position in the best days of the Old Dominion, and of historical celebrity as well. Many of them were associated with the pioneer settlement of Ohio, and the names of all of them are familiar to Ohioans, either through history, tradition or personal ac- quaintance. The son of Jacob and Elizabeth Holmes, Enos HI. Hohnes, was born in Pennsylvania, and removed


relinquish his professional labors, but continued to prose- cute them in connection with his studies and exertions as a student. He subsequently practised with great success at New Petersburg until 1856. In that year he removed to Hillsborough, Highland county, where he has continued to reside ever since. He is in possession of an extended and successful practice, and enjoys the entire and well-merited confidenee of the community in which he lives. He stands high in the esteem of his professional brethren, and is a member of the Highland County Medical Society. During the war of the rebellion he served, by the appointment of Governor Tod, as Examining Surgeon, and while acting in that capacity was stationed at Milliken's Bend and Young's Point, Tennessee, and at various places in Kentucky and Ohio. All through the war, and for three years afterwards, he was assiduously engaged in medico-military duties. Ile is an earnest and consistent member of the Methodist


with his parents to Ohio in those early pioneer days. Ile Church, and, like his father and his grandfather before


was the worthy son of a worthy sire, and became a man him, he has rendered efficient service in promoting the in- terests of that body. Politically he is a Democrat. From earliest manhood he was a strong anti-slavery man, and has always opposed oppression in every form. Ile holds that these principles, embodied in the policy of the Democratic party, constitute the true basis for the government of the nation. In 1875 he was the nominee, on the regular Democratic ticket, for the position of State Senator. The characteristics of his Scotch-Irish ancestry are very evenly balanced in his constitution, the attributes of the shrewd, far seeing Scot being complemented by those of the impul- sive and more mercurial Celt. Ilis fine social qualities render him universally popular, while he is equally es- teemed for his professional skill and his scholarly attain- ments. lle was married in 1840 to Eliza A. Huff, daughter of Eleazer Iluff, an early pioneer of Highland county. She died in 1847, and in 1849 he married, for his second wife, Cynthia A. Hulitt, daughter of Britton C. Hulitt, an- other of Highland county's pioneers. She died in 1852, and he married again in 1855, taking for his wife Anna Jones, daughter of John Jones, also of Highland county, and, like Mr. Huff and Mr. Hulitt, one of its earliest pioneers. widely known in pioneer anuals. He inherited from his parents a devout and earnest nature, and this early de- veloped in him to fervent religious zeal. Ile became an ardent and efficient laborer in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and his long life was devoted to promoting its interests and its growth in the wilderness of Ohio. He was thoroughly imbued with the spirit of his work, and labored first as a local and then as a circuit preacher. Ilis en- deavors were eminently successful, and his associates in the church for over thirty years were men of eminence in the history of Ohio Methodism. Ilis hospitality was extended alike to the rich and the poor, and his house was the wel- come home of the weary workers in the cause he so zeal- ously espoused. Ile continued his labors to within a few days of his death, in 1871. His wife, Mary Wilkins, was a native of Harrison county, Ohio, and was a daughter of Robert Wilkins, a farmer and one of the pioneers of that county. She was through a long and laborious life the effi- cient helpmeet of her husband, and her death occurred in 1870, a year before he finished his labors, It was from such ancestry that Dr. Enos Holmes sprung. His life, until he was seventeen years of age, was passed upon a farm, and his education up to that time was obtained at the ordinary log school house of the frontier settlement, in the winter months, when the active labors of the farm were suspended. UTTON, WAYLAND W., the Alderman from the First Ward of the city of Cincinnati and one of the presiding officers of the Board, is a merchant in avocation. He is a native of Clermont county, Ohio, and is now forty-two years old. His an- cestry were among the old pioneer stock of Cler- mont county, where his father, William D. Sutton, was for many years a prominent and successful merchant and an influential citizen. He attended the best schools of his native county until the opening of Antioch College, when he entered this institution as one of the first students, and Ile had early decided that he would adopt the medical profession, and in 1837 he commeneed the reading of medicine at Leesburg, Highland county, near which place his father had settled in 1831. In the year 1843, after having completed a thorough course of medical studies and received his diploma with the degree of M. D., he com- menced the practice of his profession at New Petersburg, in the same county. In the winter of 1847 and 1848 he attended lectures at the first session of the Starling Medical College, at Columbus, Ohio, and graduated from that in- stitution in 1848. He did not in the meantime, however, " was enrolled by Dr. Horace Mann. In 1854 he relin-


Wrb. Holgate


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guished college life and entered the store of his father, and | 1841 he received the degree of A. M. from his Alma Mater. there remained until 1856, when he engaged in business in Cincinnati on his own account. His father dying in 1858, he returned to Amelia, and there remained in business until 180%. He then established himself permanently in the Queen City, where he now conducts the leading retail dry- goods house of the place, on Pearl street. He has won an enviable position in Cincinnati, both as an able and success. ful business man and as a publie-spirited and energetic citi- zen. Ile has never been what is known as a seeker after office. Very reluctantly, in 1873, at the urgent solicitation of his friends, he accepted a nomination for the Board of Aldermen-it was the higher compliment, inasmuch as in that ward reside an unusually large number of able and wealthy citizens. In 1875 he was re-elected to the Board over a highly popular citizen, who had been for many years an active and efficient member of the City Council. In 1862 Mr. Sutton was married to a daughter of the late Colonel Jacob Ebersole, for many years one of the most prominent citizens of Clermont county. As intimated, had it not been foreign to his tastes, which were entirely for business pursuits, an official career both of emolument and honor might have been pursued by him with success.


COLGATE, WILLIAM CURTIS, Lawyer, Capi. talist, and Landowner, was born, November 23d, 1814, at Burlington, Vermont, of American parentage, and of English and Scotch ancestry. He has in his possession an ancient English coat of arms, without date, and of which he has no knowledge, save that it has been handed down from his ancestors. The first of these who came to America was his great-grandfather, on his father's side, who came whilst we were colonies of Great Britain, as a surgeon of the British army. He died and was buried at sea between Boston and Halifax, whilst in this service. He left one son, who at seventeen, being without a home, enlisted as a private in the British army, then engaged in the old " French war," prevailing in America prior to our Revolu- tion. This ancestor, at the close of this war, married a daughter of Captain Kathan, a Scotchman, who had settled upon the Connecticut river near the site of Brattleboro', Vermont, and had purchased the fine bottom-lands along that river, for a distance of nine miles. On his mother's side, whose maiden name was Prentice, one great-unele assisted in throwing the tea into Boston harbor; another was killed at the battle of Bunker Hill; and a third was killed at Burgoyne's surrender. The cminent editor of the Louisville Journal descended from this Premice family. Mr. Holgate was prepared for college at the academy in Utica, New York, and a select school in the same city ; and about the year 1832 entered Hamilton College, from which institution he graduated in the summer of 1835; in


After leaving college he commenced the study of law with Willard Crafts in Utica, and remained with him until April, 1836, when he removed to Defiance, Ohio. At this place he entered the law office of Horace Sessions, with whom he concluded his studies, and was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of Ohio, in the summer of 1838. On the death (about that time) of George T. Hickcox, clerk of the court, he was appointed to succeed him, which posi- tion be resigned in the spring of 1839, to accept the office of Prosecuting Attorney for Williams county, and as such commenced his first practice of the law. The present Chief-Justice of the United States, Hon. M. R. Waite, about this time delivered his " maiden speech " in the small brick building, now occupied by Ilon. Henry Hardy, on the cast side of the old publie square, which was then the court house of Williams county, in a case wherein Mr. Ilolgate was the opposing counsel, the Ilon. A. P. Edgerton, now of Fort Wayne, was Mr. Waite's client, and the Hon. Emery D. Potter, of Toledo, was the presiding judge; and this, too, was also the first of Mr. Holgate's cases in a court of record. In January, 1845, he drafted the bill to erect the county of Defiance, and by his persistent efforts and in the face of a well-organized and powerful opposition, the bill became a law March 4th, of the same year. Ile was active in the organization of the first agricultural society for the county, in 1848; and in successfully initiating the movement for an annual fair, in 1851. He was cver vigilant in promoting manufacturing and kindred enter- prises, and in the projection and construction of roads, and the care of all public interests affecting the town and county. In the years 1851-52 the business prospects of Defiance seemed likely to be lost by the construction of railroads passing it on all sides, and at some distance. Foresceing and fearing this danger, by most untiring and unremitting efforts he succeeded in securing to the town the Toledo, Wabash & Western Railway. In 1853 his health became very precarious ; owing partly to climatie influences and partly to over exertions on account of railways and in his profession, and with a partial attack with congestion of the brain, he became seriously threatened with apoplexy. Unable to read or write, for the greater part of the suc- ceeding twelve years, he relinquished the practice of law, which he has never resumed. In March, 1864, when the land granted to the town, fourteen years previously, for the Defiance Female Seminary, had been forfeited for non- payment, and a bill was on its passage in the Legislature, requiring the State Auditor to sell the same, he visited Columbus, and by his personal efforts succeeded in securing the passage of an act, authorizing the lands to be deeded on payment of the necessary amount. This amount Mr. Hol- gate and Horace Sessions, since deceased, advanced, and so these lands, embracing 1280 acres with their growing avails, were retained and secured to the town. In the year 1869, with a realizing sense of the very great importance




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