The Biographical encyclopedia of Ohio of the nineteenth century. Pt. 2, Part 21

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


USA > Ohio > The Biographical encyclopedia of Ohio of the nineteenth century. Pt. 2 > Part 21


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practice, and enabled him to assume and maintain the fore- most position at the bar, until, in 1817, he retired from the practice of the law. In the year 1821 he was persuaded to accept an appointment by the Governor to the bench of the Supreme Court of the State, and was subsequently elected by the Legislature to the same place. In 1828 he resigned his position on the bench and was elected to the United States Senate to fill a vacancy occasioned by the retirement of General William HI. Harrison, and accepted the position on the condition that he should not be considered a candi- date for re-election, but on the expiration of his terin be permitted to carry out his long-cherished purpose of retiring to private life. Ilis term expired in 1833, and from that time until his death, in 1853, at the advanced age of eighty- three years, he took no further active part in public affairs. As a lawyer and legislator Judge Burnet was without doubt the most influential and prominent person in the section of country he represented and with which his interests were identified. Educated amid the stirring scenes of the Revo- lution, and the scarcely less stirring scenes connected with the discussion and adoption of the Federal Constitution; brought into association with Washington and Ilamilton and other leaders of the struggle for independence, through his father's intimacy with and friendship for them; with great natural ability united to thorough scholarship, and having with it all strong and decided convictions and great energy and persistence in enforcing them, he was eminently qualified to take the leading part he did in developing the resources of the great Northwestern Territory and in shaping its institutions. As a lawyer he was the acknowledged leader of the bar in the West. Within the period of twenty years-which was about the extent of his practice at the bar -few men have been engaged in more important causes or with more uniform success. His fame as an advocate was coextensive with the West, and the story of his forensic efforts is perpetuated in the traditions of his profession, About the time, also, of his appointment to the Supreme Bench of Ohio, he was elected to fill the Professorship of Law in the University of Lexington, Virginia, and received from that institution the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws, an honor subsequently conferred upon him, also, by his own Alma Mater, Nassau Hall. It has already been stated that while in the Territorial Legislature Judge Burnet was the author of most of the necessary legislation. During the session of 1799 alone he prepared and reported the following bills: " To regulate the admission and prac- tice of attorneys-at-law," " to confirm and give force to certain laws enacted by the Governor and Judges," a bill making promissory notes negotiable, a bill to authorize and regulate arbitrations, a bill to regulate the service and re- turn of process in certain cases, a bill establishing courts for the trial of small causes, a bill to prevent trespassing by cutting of timber, a bill providing for the appointment of constables, a bill defining privileges in certain cases, a bill to prevent the introduction of spirituous liquors into certain


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Indian towns, a bill for the appointment of general officers | ing out this project, in which he took a warm and active in the militia of the Territory, a bill to revise the laws adopted or made by the Governors and Judges, a bill for the relief of the poor, a bill repealing certain laws or parts of laws, and a bill for the punishment of arson. He was also appointed to prepare and report rules for conducting the business of the Legislative Council, and an answer to the Governor's address to the two houses at the opening of the session. Also to draft a memorial . to Congress in be- half of purchasers of land in the Mian country, and a complimentary address to the President of the United States. After the formation of the State government he succeeded, by his researches into the laws of Virginia and his lucid demonstration of the same, in settling in favor of the State of Ohio the right which Kentucky controverted of arresting criminals on the river between the two States. Under the system established for the sale of the public domain by the law of iSoo and acts supplementary thereto, an immense debt was contracted and became due to the government of the United States from the people of the West, exceeding the entire amount of money in circulation in the West. The debt had been accumulating for twenty years, and was swelling daily with increasing rapidity. The first emi- grants to the West, and the greater part of those who fol- lowed them from time to time, were compelled by necessity to purchase on credit, exhausting their means to the last dollar in raising the first payment on their entries. The debt due the government in 1820 at the different Western land offices amounted to $22,000,000, an amount far ex- ceeding the ability of the debtors to pay. Thousands of industrious men, some of whom had paid one, some two, and some three instalments on their lands, and had toiled day and night in clearing, enclosing, and improving them, became convinced that they would be forfeited and their money and labor lost. This appalling prospect spread a deep gloom over the community, and it was evident that if the government attempted to enforce its claims universal bankruptcy would ensue. Serious fears were felt that any attempt on the part of the government to enforce its claim would meet with resistance, and probably result in civil war. Judge Burnet, at this crisis of affairs, gave the matter his most earnest attention, with a view of devising a plan of relief, and was able to mature and propose a plan which met the approval of all the sufferers, and so commended itself to Congress and the government that it was speedily adopted. The evils threatened were thus averted, and the prosperity and rapid settlement of the county greatly pro- moted. Judge Burnet recognized at a very early period the importance to the trade and commerce of the West of the unobstructed navigation of the Ohio river, and espe- cially the importance to the trade of the upper Ohio of removing the obstruction caused by the falls in the river at Louisville. Ile was one of the first to advocate the con- struction of a canal around the falls, and was appointed by the State of Indiana one of several commissioners for carry.


part. Considerable progress was made in the work when the rival project of a canal on the Kentucky shore was started, which met with more general favor. This caused the abandonment of the lichiana canal, and the canal on the Kentucky shore was constructed, thus removing one of the most serious obstructions to the navigation of the upper Ohio. The construction of a canal from the Ohio river, at Cincinnati, to Lake Frie, at Toledo, Ohio-thus affording water communication between the commerce of the lakes and the Ohio and Mississippi valleys-was another matter that enlisted the warmest support of Judge Burnet. Under an Act of Congress, making a large grant of public land in aid of this project, considerable progress was made in the work, when it was found that certain conditions and re- strictions in the original grant were such as to greatly embarrass, if not to defeat, the completion of the work, which greatly languished and was about to be abandoned. Judge Burnet, on taking his place in the Senate, secured the appointment of a committee of the Senate to take into consideration the modification of the original grant so as to remove its objectionable features, and appearing before the committee in behalf of the measure. Ilis representations were so effective that he was requested by the committee to draw up a report embodying the principal facts in support of the claim, and also a bill to carry it into effect. The committee presented the report and bill, with a recommend- ation that it should pass. It did pass both houses and became a law during the session, and without doubt secured the completion of the' canal. In the Senate he was the friend and associate of Adams, Clay, and Webster, and was especially the friend and admirer of the latter, with whom he occupied a desk in the Senate chamber. When General Haynes of South Carolina made his celebrated speech on nullification, which elicited Mr. Webster's more celebrated reply, Mr. Webster was absent from the Senate, and it was remarked that in his reply he answered General Haynes' points seriatim, as if he had been present and heard them. Judge Burnet, who heard Haynes' speech, took full notes of it and gave them to Mr. Webster, who was thus prepared to make his reply as if personally present. No one was more delighted with Mr. Webster's unanswerable rejoinder than Judge Burnet, who had thus assisted to call it forth. With the close of Judge Burnet's term in the Senate his public career ended. In full vigor of mind and body, with brilliant prospects of political preferment before him if he would but seek it, he chose rather to spend the remainder of his days as a private citizen. Ile was not ambitious of place; he was driven to accept office from a sense of duty, and not by ambition. As soon as the duty was discharged he returned to private life. In the year IS37, at the request of a friend, he wrote a series of letters detailing at some length such facts and incidents relating to the early settle- ment of the Northwestern Territory as were within his recollection and were considered worth preserving. These


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letters were laid before the Historical Society of Ohio, and | He moved with his parents to Ohio when three months of ordered to be printed among the transactions of that institu- tion. A few years later, at the solicitation of many personal friends, he revised and enlarged these letters and put them in a form more convenient for publication, and in 18.47 published his " Notes on the Northwestern Territory," which is a very valuable contribution to the history of this region. Judge Burnet was married on the second day of January, 1800, at Marietta, Ohio, to Rebecca Wallace, daughter of the Rev. Matthew Wallace, a Presbyterian clergyman, with whom he lived in wedlock fifty-three years, and who outlived him fourteen years. By her he had eleven children, five of whom arrived at maturity and sur- vivel him at his death. In appearance Judge Burnet was rather above medium height, erect in form, with animated countenance and piercing eyes. His manners were digni- fied and courteous to all. Reared in the school of Wash- ington and Hamilton, he had the manners of that age. Ilis colloquial powers were uncommonly fine. He expressed himself in ordinary conversation with the precision, energy, and polish of an accomplished orator. His opinions were clear, sharply defined, and held with great tenacity. Ilis friendships were ardent and lasting. Time or ontward changes made with him no difference. He who once won his friendship, unless proved to be unworthy, enjoyed it for life. It is related of him that when Aaron Burr was in Cincinnati seeking to enlist in his treasonable designs as many prominent persons as possible, he sought an interview with Judge Burnet, who, although unaware of Burr's de- signs, yet peremptorily refused to receive him, giving as his reason that he would never shake the hand of the murderer of Hamilton, his father's friend and his own. In morality and integrity he was above suspicion both in his public carcer and in private life. He was a firm believer in the truth of Christianity and the inspiration of the Bible ; and although a Presbyterian both from conviction and prefer- ence, he was far removed from anything like sectarian bigotry. Ministers of all denominations were at all times welcome and honored guests in his house. On the 10th of May, 1853, in his eighty-fourth year, with his mind still vigorous, his memory still unimpaired, and his bodily vigor such as to give promise of still more advanced old age, he died at his home in Cincinnati, of acute disease, after a comparatively short illness.


age, settling in Morristown, Belmont county. Ilis carly education, necessarily limited in degree and kind, was ob- tained in a common school and in a seminary which had a brief existence in the village of Lloydsville. After the age of twelve years his studies were pursued with ardent perse- verance at home, but without the aid of a preceptor. While in his seventeenth year he began the study of medicine under the supervision of Dr. C. Schooley, then of Martin's Ferry, Belmont county, Ohio, and finished the standard course, as it was constituted at the time, in three years. Deterred by his extreme youthfulness from entering at once and actively on the practice of his profession, he assumed the role of educator temporarily, and found employment in teaching until 1856. He then began the practice of medi- cine in Somerton, Belmont county, Ohio, and in the early part of the year 1862 attended lectures at the Medical Col- lege of Ohio, in Cincinnati, graduating in the following June. Upon a call being made for surgeons, for service in the Union army of vohinteers, he attended an examination held in Columbus, Ohio, and was commissioned Assistant Surgeon of the 126th Regiment of Ohio Volunteers, No- vember 18th, 1862. He joined the regiment at Cumber- land, Maryland. June 14th, 1863, when that force was driven out of Martinsburg, Virginia, he volunteered to remain with the wounded Union soldiers, and consequently fell into the hands of the enemy, by whom he was paroled and kindly treated. About the 12th of the succeeding August he rejoined his regiment at New York city. While at Martinsburg two corps of Lee's army passed through the place en route to Gettysburg, and he then counted 256 pieces of artillery in their train. On their return he " had the pleasure of hearing Lee's troops d-n him for the de- feat." Following the fortunes of the regiment, he received a commission as Surgeon, February 8th, 1864. In the ensuing March he passed the examination of the United States Board of Examiners, at Washington, District of Columbia, and was commissioned Assistant Surgeon of United States Volunteers by the President, April 21st, 1864. The eve of the inauguration of the Wilderness campaign being at hand, he resolved to hold this commission and remain with the regiment. He was subsequently assigned to the operating staff of his brigade, and there found inces- sant, trying, and exhaustive work. Upon the arrival of the army at Cold Harbor he .reported to the head-quarters of the Army of the Potomac, and was assigned to duty with the depot field hospitals at White House, Virginia. In the latter part of June, 1864, these hospitals were removed to City Point, Virginia. He was there on duty for a time with Corps Hospital. On December 22d, 1864, he was placed in charge of Cavalry Corps Hospital, principally, however, for the purpose of accomplishing its reorganization. Early in January, 1865, he was placed in charge of the Depot Field Hospital of the 6th Army Corps, and retained that


LY, JAMES SYKES, M. D., Physician, Surgeon, Druggist, was born near Darlington, Hartford county, Maryland, August 22d, 1832. His par- I the 6th Army Corps Hospital, and also with the 5th Army ents, Jacob Ely and Sarah (Brown) Ely, were members of the Society of Friends. flis paternal ancestors came from England to America in the year of the foundation by William Penn of the city of Phil. adelphia, and under the auspices of that famous Quaker.


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position until after Lee's surrender and all the hospitals at the place were broken up. May 26th, 1865, having re- mained until the last moment, he transferred all the remain- ing hospital inmates aboard the hospital steamer "Connect- ient," in charge of J. B. Hood, Surgeon of United States Volunteers, for transit to Washington city. After turning in all medical and hospital supplies, he was ordered to duty at the Camp Dennison Ilospital, June, 1865, under Dr. McDermot, Surgeon of United States Volunteers. On the following August 12th he was ordered to take charge of the City General Ilospital at ludianapolis, Indiana, where he was eventually mustered out, leaving the service October 16th, 1865. Ile then returned to his home, and November 7th of the same year moved to Barnesville, Belmont county, Ohio, where he has since permanently resided, engaged in the control of a prosperous drug trade. After reaching home he received a brevet promotion from the United States. In 1868 he was appointed United States Examin- ing Surgeon for Pensions. Ilis first votes were cast in favor of the " Free-Soil " party, and since the rise of the Republican party he has uniformly given it a warm and earnest support, and used his best endeavors to contribute to its success.


TEWART, HENRY C., Proprietor of the Empire Bakery, Cincinnati, was born October 3d, 1838, at the village of Mount Washington, Ilamilton county, Ohio. Ou the paternal side he is of Scotch extraction. Ile worked at farming until he was sixteen years of age, attending the district school during the winter months. Ile then entered a country store as clerk, where he remained two years, in the meantime devoting his leisure hours to the study of book- keeping, and was quite a proficient when his engagement ceased at this store, having also gained a general knowledge of business. He subsequently found employment as a bookkeeper and salesman in a lumber establishment, where he gave entire satisfaction to the proprietor during the year of his service. 'At the expiration of his engagement there, it now being the autumn of 1859, he made a trip South with a flat-boat laden with produce, and returned in July, 1860. In September of the same year he commenced making preparations for a second trip, and started in November and returned in April, 1861, this venture also proving a successful one. On his return home he was elected to the clerkship of Spencer township, on the Demo- cratie ticket, and served in that position with satisfaction until the following September, when he resigned and enlisted as a private soldier in the 48th Ohio Regiment of Infantry, and soon after-on account of his superior quali- fication for the position-was made a Quartermaster Ser- geant, which office he held until January, 1863, when by a special order, at his own request, he received a discharge and returned to Cincinnati, where he remained until March.


| He then proceeded to Lagrange, Tennessee, to accept a position in the Quartermaster's Department as clerk, again returning to Cincinnati in the following November, and again entered the Quartermaster's Department as Auditing Clerk, under Captain D. W. MeClellung, which position he held for two and a half years, or until three months after the close of the war, his services being highly appreciated during the whole period. On returning to private life he accepted a position as bookkeeper in a wholesale mercan- tile house on West Front street, where he remained until August, 1870, at which time he purchased a furniture factory north of the canal, and commenced the manufacture of bedsteads. The business, however, did not prove re- munerative, and he disposed of the establishment in 1872, and subsequently opened a flour store at No. 33 Vine street, under the firm-name of II. C. Stewart & Co., and shortly after the house went into operation he established a bakery at 344 West Sixth street. This latter business soon grew to such proportions as to oblige him to close his busi- ness on Vine street and devote his whole time to the bakery. lle accordingly disposed of his interest in the flour store, and has since given all his energy and attention to his last venture. It was not long, however, before, his increasing business demanded more commodious quarters. He accord- ingly removed to the large store and bakery in the Murch block, on Sixth street near Central avenue, known as Murch's Arcade. After two years, again finding the prem- ises too restricted for the business, he was obliged to seck a larger building, and finally secured the commodious struc- ture Nos. 336 to 342 West Sixth street, between Smith and Mound, formerly known as the Central Market. Here he has fitted up the largest and most complete establishment of its kind in the West. He is a thorough business man, affable, polite, and courteous to all. Ilis success furnishes evidence that by industry, energy, and perseverance, with correct principles and integrity of character, a man can raise himself to the highest standing among the business men of a great city. Ile was married June 22d, 1864, to Irene Roll, of Cincinnati, and is the father of four children, three daughters and one son.


NDREWS, COLONEL LORIN, cx-President of Kenyon College, was born in Ashland county, Ohio, April Ist, 1819. His early life was passed on his father's farin, and in obtaining a good common school education. He afterwards took a collegiate course, and spent some time in com- mon school teaching. Ile became warmly interested in the improvement of the common schools. Ile was a prominent member and officer of the Ohio Teachers' Association ; in 1853 its choice for State School Commissioner, and in 1854 its President. At the height of his influence and labors he was chosen President of Kenyon College, and, as was said


Hoffework


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by Bishop Mellvaine in his funeral sermon, "all the | founded Marietta, General Fearing is the lineal descendant highest expectations of his administration were more than fulfilled." In April, 1861, when President Lincoln made his call for troops, his was the first name received by Gov- ernor Dennison. Ile was commissioned Colonel of the 4th Ohio Infantry, enlisted for three months. When this organization was changed to one calling for three years' ser- vice, he was retained in the same command. Ile fell a victim to the exposure incident to camp hife while stationed in West Virginia. Ilis death occurred at Gambier, Ohio, whither he had gone to be cared for, September 18th, 1861. Ile was a patriot of the purest type, and one of the earliest and costliest offerings of Ohio to the cause of the Union.


EITZEL, COLONEL LEWIS, Collector of In- ternal Revenue, First District of Ohio, was born in Cincinnati, August 20th, 1837. lle received his education in the common schools of that city, and afterwards served an apprenticeship to the trade of brass. After finishing his trade he went to New Orleans, and remained in the Southwest until the breaking out of the war. Returning home, he enlisted as a private in the 28th Ohio Infantry. He rose from the ranks to a First Lieutenancy, and then resigned his commission to return home to attend to some interests demanding his at- tention. Hle re-entered the army as a Captain and Aide-de- Camp on General Butler's staff, being afterwards transferred to the 25th Corps, commanded by his brother, General God. frey Weitzel. After the fall of Richmond he accompanied his brother's command to Texas, and was mustered out of the service in March, 1866. A month later he entered the revenue service in a subordinate capacity, and .in April, 1869, he was appointed Collector. When the consolidation of the districts took place he was made an Assessor, but was even- tually again appointed Collector.


HEARING, BRIGADIER GENERAL BENJA. MIN DANA, Merchant, was born in Harmar, Washington county, Ohio, October 10th, 1837. Ilis paternal grandfather, Hon. Paul Fearing, moved to the West with the first colony 'of the Ohio Company, and at the first court organized in the Northwestern Territory, hekl in the block-house at Cam- pus Martius, now Marietta, Ohio, in 1788, was admitted an attorney, and was the pioneer lawyer of the Territory. In 1797, in Cincinnati, he was appointed Judge. Ile also was the first delegate from the Northwest Territory, then em- bracing the whole of the United States possessions west and north of the Ohio river, to the national Congress. Through his maternal grandfather, Benjamin Dana, also a member of the Ohio Company, and one of the colony which


of the fourth generation from General Israel Putnam, Ilis youth was spent in his native place, chiefly in attendance at various schools, and in 1856 he graduated from Marietta College. The following two years he passed in the whole. sale book and publishing house of Moon, Wilstach & Kay, Cincinnati, and the succeeding three years in the wholesale house of Shaffer & Roberts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. While on a visit to Cincinnati in 1861 he received there.the news of the firing upon Fort Sumter. Two days later he enlisted in the Zonave Guard, which immediately upon its organization set out for Washington, District of Columbia. At the subsequent organization of regiments at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the Guard became Company D of the 2d Regiment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry, with which he pro- ceeded to the imperilled capital, and thence to Virginia under the command of General Schenck. On the march, attending the battle of Bull Run, in which his company par- ticipated from the opening to the close, he received his first promotion, being made Fourth Corporal. After the battle he was offered, at Washington, by the Representatives in Congress from his district, the Adjutancy of the 36th Regi- ment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and again had it urged upon his acceptance at Columbus, Ohio. On both occasions the offer met with a refusal, as it was his intention to enter a regiment then in course of formation in the Quaker City. While with the Zouave company he was under the tuition of a French drill-master, and one of Ellsworth's best drill- sergeants, then an officer in the guard. Hle also had the ad- vantage of the instruction given the regiment by Colonel Alexander McCook, and, as he purposed serving until the termination of the contest, he spent every available moment in study and practice, and lost no opportunity to gain infor- mation that could be of service in the eventful future. On the day of his discharge from the army,.at the request of Lieutenant-Colonel Clark and Major Andrew, he entered the camp of the 36th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, to assist in the instruction and organization of this body. At their urgent request, he accompanied those troops to West Virginia, on a sudden call to the field, serving in the double capacity of Acting Adjutant-General to General Slemmer-then in command of an important expedition- and Adjutant to Major Andrew, then in command of the forces, While in that service he received the appointment of First Lieutenant and Adjutant of the 63d Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Winning the esteem of General Slem- mer by his zeal and ability, he was recommended by this officer to the Governor of Ohio for appointment to the Colonelcy of the 36th Regiment. Major Andrew, who had left the regiment in order to bear the recommendation to the Governor, met at Rosecrans' head-quarters Captain George Crook, of the 4th Regulars, the possessor, in propria persona, of the commission applied for. He then served through an important period as Crook's Adjutant, and re- ceived an appointment as Major, with orders to report to




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