USA > Ohio > The Biographical encyclopedia of Ohio of the nineteenth century. Pt. 2 > Part 29
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manufacture of frames for pictures, glasses, etc. Thus from the humble beginning, with a capital of a few hundred dol- Hus, the business of the house has increased to a vast extent, and their goods are shipped to all points of the Fast and West, literally from Maine to California, and the establish- ment is one of the most prosperous in the country. Since the inauguration of this industry, Edward W. Pape has made four visits to Germany, revisiting his home and kin- dred; on one of these occasions he was shipwrecked in the English Channel. He has taken but little interest in politi- cal matters, or any of the excitements of public life. He is a member of the Board of Trade of Cincinnati. He is now in the prime of life, with an enviable business reputation. Ile has many friends and no enemies, and ranks as one of the wealthy manufacturers of the West. Ile was married, 1865, in Germany, to Sophia Keysser.
EAVITT, REV. SAMUEL K., son of Thomas C. Leavitt, was born in Levant, Maine, June 23d, 1830. Ilis early life was spent on a farm in hard labor, with no educational advantages except those of the district school a few weeks each year, until he was fourteen years of age; after which time, for several years, there was added a part of the spring and fall terms at the East Corinth Academy, five miles distant. There all the children of the family, four in number, would rent rooms and keep house by themselves, to save expense during the few weeks they could be spared from the farm. With these limited advantages he made good proficiency in the natural sciences, the higher mathe- maties, and the classics, so that he commenced teaching school at sixteen years of age, and followed this employ- ment every winter thereafter during his minority, working on the farm in the summer. At home he spent all his spare hours in hard study, often working till late in the night, and sometimes going a few miles twice each week to recite. Having a little money, saved from teaching and other kinds of labor occasionally performed, he entered Colby University in 1851, where he graduated in 1855, having completed the regular college course of study. Employing his winter vacations, and occasionally a college term, in teaching at a good salary, and practising rigid econ- omy, he managed to support himself, and nearly meet the expenses of his education, leaving only a small debt to pay afterwards. During the first year of college life he was converted, and became deeply interested in the study of the Bible. After a long and hard struggle to find the truth, with strong prejudices to overcome, his mind settled upon | Columbus, where he took charge of the Five-Mile Furnace. the views and practices of the Baptist denomination, and in the early part of 1855 he was baptized in the Connecticut river, and united with the Second Baptist Church in Holyoke, Massachusetts, where he was then teaching. Leaving college, he commenced studying law with the
Ilon. Josiah II. Drummond, at Waterville, Maine, but after a few months left the law office to teach the high school at Hallowell. In the summer of 1857 he went to Evansville, Indiana, where for several years he taught and studied law at the same time, in the office of II. Q. Wheeler. There he was admitted to the bar, and commenced the practice of law under very favorable circumstances, holding at the same time an important office in connection with the public schools, and soon after forming a law partnership with S. R. Hornbrook. In 1862 they assisted in recruiting the 65th Regiment Indiana Infantry Volunteers, in which they both received commissions as officers, and served to the end of the war. During this service Mr. Leavitt was several times appointed Judge Advocate, to conduct impor- tant trials -at courts-martial, and was detached as Pest- Quartermaster and Commissary at Smithland, Kentucky, and afterwards as Division Commissary in the cavalry com- mand under General Israel Garrard. In the Georgia and North Carolina campaigns, under General Sherman, he commanded his company, and was mustered out of service with the regiment as Captain in July, 1865. Returning to Evansville, he resumed the practice of law, holding also for a while the office of City Treasurer, to which he was twice elected; and the law partnership between him and S. R. Ilornbrook was afterwards renewed. In the spring of 1870, feeling called to the ministry, he closed up his law business, sold his possessions, and was ordained to preach by the First Baptist Church in Evansville, where he had long been a member, and for several years an ordained deacon. Ile was immediately called to the charge of the First Baptist Church in Keokuk, Iowa, where he enjoyed a pleasant and successful pastorate, till December, 1872, when he became pastor of the First Baptist Church in Cincinnati, where he has since labored. He has been twice married : in August, 1859, to Mary E. Armstrong, of Niagara Falls, New York, who died in a month afterwards, and in September, 1866, to Abbie A. Fisher, of Bangor, Maine, who is still living.
OWEN, WILLIAM MEADE, member of the Legis- lature, was born in Logan, Ohio, April 13th, 1830. Ilis father was a mechanic, from Maryland; his mother a Virginian and a descendant of Sir Thomas Drake. William Meade attended the district school at Logan until he was sixteen years of age, when he entered a dry-goods store as clerk, remain- ing there for five years. Ile pursued this vocation until 1854, when he graduated from the Commercial College at There he remained until the furnace suspended operations, in the financial crash of 1857. For the next year he con- ducted a drug store in Logan, closing out that business to accept the position of Cashier of the Citizens' Bank. Ile remained in the bank until July of 1861, when he reernited
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Company B, 31st Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and was elected Captain. In 1862 he was obliged to resign his commission, on account of failing health. Ile next went to the oil regions of Pennsylvania, where he operated with success. He was Cashier of the Venango Bank of Franklin, Pennsylvania, until the fall of 1864, after which he held a like position in the First National Bank of Corry, Pennsyl- vania, until the summer of 1865. Ile then bought a con- trolling interest in the First National Bank. of Logan, Ohio, of which he was President until 1867, when he turned his whole attention to a hardware store which he had opened a short time previous. This he conducted until 1872, when he engaged in agriculture on a large farm which he owned, near Logan, and which he sold in December, 1874. In IS74 he was elected to fill a vacancy in the Ohio House of Representatives, caused by the death of Mr. Case, being re- elected in 1875. In that year Mr. Bowen organized a stock company, under the name of the Logan Fire- Brick and Hollow. Ware Manufacturing Company, of which he is President. He is a public-spirited man, of varied practical experience and safe business habits. Ile is extensively engaged in building operations. He was one of the original projectors of Venango City, now part of Oil City, Pennsyl- vania. December 25th, 1851, Mr. Bowen married E. Crook, of Logan, Ohio.
modest and retiring nature has kept him out of political strife. He is a genial, companionable, energetic, and irre- proachable character. On the 13th of July, 1852, he mar- lied Kezia Hinson, of Waverly, Pike county, thio.
0 AILEY, EZRA, Retired Lumber-Merchant and Builder, was born, August 18th, 1802, in Chester county, Pennsylvania, and is a son of Emmor Bailey, a member of the Society of Friends, and of English descent, his mother being of Welsh ancestry. Ilis father was originally a clock and watch maker, but afterwards became a farmer in Maryland, having removed thither in ISOS, and settled near Baltimore. Ezra attended first a country school, and afterwards one in the city. In 1814 his parents removed to Ohio, and settled near Mount Pleasant, in Jefferson county. Ile soon com- menced learning the carpenter's trade, and also mill-wright- ing, attending school during the winter months. About the year 1820 he left his father's residence and procceded to Baltimore with a view of perfecting himself in the avoca- tion he had chosen. Ile contented himself with receiving low wages for the work he performed, for while so occupied he was a learner, and attended a school where architecture was taught. He remained at Baltimore altogether about three years, and believing himself a proficient in his calling, returned to his father's house, first making a trip to Old Point Comfort, Virginia. He remained at home about a year looking after his father's interests. In the spring of IS28 he commenced the builder's business at Steubenville, Ohio, being a master builder, and remained there three years, steadily pursuing his calling. Early in 1831 he re- moved to Cincinnati, where he rented a house and shop and resumed his business with a view to permanency and a successful career. At that time cornfields were cultivated where lordly mansions now rear their lofty walls, or more unpretentious homes give shelter to a motley crew. This was prior to the railroad era, and the Miami canal was the only great internal highway. At that date architecture was in a most primitive and incipient condition. Ile soon made the acquaintance of the late Nicholas Longworth, the great real-estate monarch, who was generous to a fault, and useful beyond estimate in the early history of Cincinnati. He
, UTT, SPENCE ATWELL, M. D., was born, Sep- tember 19th, 1824, in Ross county, Ohio. He was one of seven children of Nimrod Hutt and Fanny B. Atwell. His father was a Virginian who followed mercantile pursuits for the greater part of life, and in his latter days was proprietor of a hotel in Bainbridge, Ross county, Ohio. About 1805 the senior ITutt left his Virginia home, and settled in Circle- ville, Ohio. From there he moved to Chillicothe, and thence to Bainbridge, where he died in 1849. S. Hutt's mother died June 30, 1875, at Hillsborough, Highland county, Ohio. He worked as a farmer's boy, and while so employed, thought of a trade, and accordingly went to work at blacksmithing, in Bainbridge, Ross county, where he worked at the forge for about two years and a half. From here he went to New Petersburg, Highland county, where he was engaged as a clerk until about 1845, when he took a position in a Chillicothe store. Returning to New Peters- I purchased from him a lot on Simth street, to be paid for in ten regular annual payments. Ile also was furnished with lumber by Mr. Longworth, or with the necessary security to obtain it, as he was anxious to possess a home of his own. He was enabled to discharge his debt in seven years time, paying no money whatever, but giving the equivalent in work and designs. Ile resided in that house, so erected, for thirty years, up to the outbreak of the rebellion in 1861, when he disposed of the same and purchased the property where he now resides. In 1842, owing partly to failing
burg, he was again employed as clerk in a store. Ile now began to read medicine with Dr. James D. Miller, devoting his days to business and his nights to study. In the fall of 1848 he matriculated at the Starling Medical College, at Columbus, Ohio, and in the spring of 1849 he began the practice of medicine at Sharonville, Pike county, Ohio. In the following fall he took up his residence in Waverly, in the same county, where he has since lived in the enjoyment of the fruits of industry applied to the practice of his pro- fession. Although a Democrat of pronounced views his : health, he engaged in the lumber and saw mill business in 5%
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copartnership with James Langstaff, the mill then occupying | Divinity was conferred upon him by Marietta College. the site of the present depot of the Ohio & Mississippi From 1860 to 1863 Dr. Bushnell was Superintendent of Public Schools in Fremont. . In 1865 he joined the army, at Petersburg, Virginia, in the interests of the Christian Commission. He has been a Trustee of the Western Re- serve College since 1861. At Iludson, in April, 1850, he married Julia E. Baldwin, who died in September, 1856. In April, 1858, he married Cornelia K. Woodruff, in San- dusky. Railroad: This partnership terminated in 1854, when he removed his business to the foot of Main street in Coving. ton, Kentucky, but the enterprise did not equal his expecta- tions, and owing to unforeseen circumstances did not prosper. Ile soon after returned to the Ohio side of the river, where he resumed the lumber and saw mill business, and continued the same prosperously until about 1871, when he in a great measure retired from business. Ile has always been most successful in all operations, and was constantly accumulating. 6 ILL, PHILIP W., M. D., Physican and Druggist, was born, February 27th, 1824, in Warren county, Ohio, and is the fifth of ten children, whose parents were James and Amelia ( Ilarris) Ilill. Ilis father was a native of North Carolina, and through life was engaged in agricultural pursuits. Having realized a handsome competence, he retired from active pursuits. He was a member of the City Councils in 1836, and was opposed to the license system. One of his colleagues was the late Chief-Justice Chase, who finally voted with him on this subject, he at the first being the sole opponent of the traffic. Ile was for many years a member of the old volunteer fire department of the city. In religious In 1804 he removed to Ohio and settled in Ilamilton town- belief he follows in the footsteps of his parents, never fail- ing to be found in the meeting-house on the first day of the week, or at the week-day gatherings. He was married, December 27th, 1827, to Elizabeth Bye, of Columbiana county, Ohio.
ship, Warren county, where he opened a farm and resided on it until his death, which occurred in July, 1863. Ile was a soldier of the war of 1812, attached to General Har- rison's command, and participated in a number of sorties and skirmishes with both the British and Indians during the campaign. Ile married Amelia, daughter of Isaiah Harris, a native of Campbell county, Virginia, who was one USTINELL, REV. EBENEZER, D. D., was born in Granville, Licking county, Ohio, November 18th, 1822. Ile is the son of Thomas II. and Charlotte S. Bushnell, natives of Norwichtown, Connecticut, who cmigrated to Ohio in 1816, making the trip through Pennsylvania in wagons, in company with a party of friends, being seven weeks on the road. The paternal grandfather of our subject graduated from Yale in the class of 1777, with Noah Webster. Rich- ard and Mary Bushnell, married October 11th, 1648, at Saybrook, Connecticut, were ancestors on the paternal side. of the first settlers of Warren county, Ohio. Dr. Hill's early education was a limited one, but he supplemented the rudiments he acquired at the village school by study at home during his leisure hours, laboring on his father's farm until he attained the age of seventeen years, when he again attended school, devoting two years for that purpose. In 1844, having acquired a liberal education, he commenced teaching school, and was thus engaged for three years, de- voting his unoccupied time to the study of medicine under the supervision of Dr. Alfred Noble, of Goshen, Ohio, com- pleting the same in 1849, having during the two preceding When the subject of this sketch was fifteen years old, his years attended the usual course of lectures in the Ohio Medical College. Ilaving received his diploma, he com- menced the practice of medicine in the spring of 1849 at Middleborough and Osceola in Warren county, where he continued for seven years. In 1856 he went to Kansas, where he passed two years in prospecting and travelling, and during his sojourn in that region was a voluminous cor- respondent of Eastern papers, giving full particulars of the resources and condition of the then Territory, which was passing through the troublous times familiarly known as the " border ruffian " difficulties. He returned to Ohio in 1858, and located at Madisonville, Ilamilton county, where he has since resided, and resumed the practice of his profession. In 1873 he opened a drug store, since which time he has not been actively engaged in professional calls, but gives advice in connection with the dispensing of drugs and medicines, and the carrying on of an extensive apothecary store. Ile has also given considerable attention to building,
father died, leaving him on his own resources. He had laid the foundation of a good education, but he desired a collegiate course. He went to learn carpentering, at which trade he remained two years and nine months, until, to use his own homely but happy expression, he had " planed and sawed his way through college." He graduated at the Western Reserve College in 1846, receiving his second degree in 1849. After graduating he taught Greek for two years in the preparatory department at Iludson. The next year he had charge of this department, and the following year he taught mathematics in the college. He then went to Burton, Geauga county, Ohio, where he supplied the pulpit of the Presbyterian Church for one year. In June, 1851, he was ordained and installed as pastor of this church. Ile remained at Burton until April Ist, 1857, when he assumed pastoral charge of the Presbyterian Church at Fremont, Ohio, remaining there till now, firmly fixed in the affections of his flock. In 1871 the degree of Doctor of and has designed and erected some of the finest residences
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in the town of Madisonville. He is a devoted and earnest member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and has been for the past twenty years a prominent member of the Masonic order. In political feeling he is identified with the Republican party, but although solicited to accept a nomina- tion has never consented to allow his name to be presented before a political convention. He has been thrice married. llis first wife was Amelia Conover, of Hamilton county, Ohio, who died in 1854, leaving two children. He was subsequently married to Mary Myers, also a native of Hamilton county, who died in 1866. He has since been united to Nancy Freeman, who was born in Pennsylvania, and widow of the late John W. Langdon, by whom he is the father of five children.
ILLINGS, JOHN K., Lawyer, was born, Jannary 12th, 1815, in Saratoga county, New York. He is the second of three children born to Ezra Bil- lings and Elizabeth Slocum, nee Himpland. Ilis father, a native of Connecticut, was an agricul- turist all his life; he settled in Michigan in 1831, and died there in the fall of that year. Mrs. Billings, a native of Vermont, died in May of 1861. On the paternal side the family is of English, and on the maternal side of Irish origin. On both sides they were patriots in the great struggle for colonial independence. The subject of this notice was taught lessons of morality and industry from his early days. Ile worked on a farm continuously until his sixteenth year, with the exception of one summer spent in a confectionery store at Saratoga Springs. His early educa. tion was received in the ordinary county school and was quite limited. At the age of sixteen his aggregate attend- ance at school amounted to about one year. At this time he was sick in Michigan, suffering a whole year from fever and ague. But he did not allow the time to be wasted. Ile addressed himself to study with great profit. He not only stored his mind with valuable knowledge, but he created an appetite for study which he has not yet satisfied. Recover- ing from his illness he worked on a farm for about six months at eighteen dollars a month, which would indicate that he was a good farm hand. He next went to a common school for about four months, working morning and night to pay his way. The following summer he went to Detroit, Michigan, and did general work in a hotel for about three months. The next winter he cut and chopped wood at five dollars an acre. During the next year he was again em- ployed at farm work. Still dissatisfied with the education he had been able to get, he determined to have a better one, and he could only hope to secure it by hard work. Ile therefore went to Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1833, and was the first to enter the Manual Labor Seminary at that place, an institution organized nuder the auspices of the Presby- terian Church. Having worked and studied here for about
eight months, he began teaching school about seven miles from Ann Arbor. At the close of the school term he went to Ashland, Ohio, and there attended the academy for about three months, after which he resumed teaching. In 1843 he moved to Adams county, Ohio. In 1851, after an exten. sive course of legal reading, and some general experience and practice, he was admitted to the bar. Ile immediately began the practice of his profession at West Union, where he has since resided. Close attention to business and un- swerving integrity have drawn to him a large clientage and a paying practice. In 1851, shortly after his admission to the bar, Mr. Billings was elected Prosecuting Attorney of Adams county, holding the office for two years. He was afterwards elected to the same office in 1861, 1873, and 1875. Mr. Billings is a Democrat. In religion he is a member of the Christian Church. He is a man of sterling character, pleasing and affable in his social relations. His success in life under circumstances far from favorable at the outset bespeaks for him strong resolution and industry that does not tire. He may well be regarded as a self-made man. In June, 1844, he married Elizabeth II. Burly, a native of Adams county, by whom ten children have been born to him.
OOKE, HON. ELEUTHEROS, Lawyer, was born, 1780, in Granville, Washington county, New York. Ilis ancestry on the paternal side were among the first settlers of Massachusetts, Francis Cooke being one of the original Pilgrim fathers, and who erected the third house mm Ply. mouth. He received a liberal education at the academy in his native town of Granville, and some time after leaving school commenced the study of law. He pursued his read- ings with such diligence and earnestness, that he was en- abled to pass his exammation before Chancellor Kent, with great credit to himself. He was admitted to the bar in 1813, and commenced the practice of his profession early in the same year in western New York, where he remained for about two years, and thence removed to Madison, Indiana. Ile continued his professional duties in that place, occasionally appearing in the courts of the adjoining State of Kentucky. While passing through Ohio in his re- moval to his new home from New York State, he traversed that portion of the State where the present city of Sandusky is situated, and also its vicinage, and was so charmed with its general appearance that he removed in 1818 to Bloom. ingville, Ohio, a short distance from Sandusky, and remained there in the practice of his profession until the latter place was laid out, when he at once commenced the erection of a residence and became one of its residents in 1819, and so continned until his death. He was prominently identified with all the carly enterprises of Sandusky and especially of that portion of the State, taking a particular interest in the first railroad projected in the State which connected the
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Chio river with Lake Erie, from Cincinnati to Sandusky. Ile was for many years a member of the Ohio Legislature, and was elected to the Twenty third Congress, 1833, from the Sandusky District. He was successively a member of the Federal, Anti Jackson and Whig parties, and towards the close of his life was affiliated with the Republicans, In IS40, during the Harrison campaign, he was the orator of the day in the great celebration of the Battle of Fort Meigs. Ile was a prominent member of the Masonic order, and was for many years Grand Orator of that fraternity in the State of Ohio. As an advocate he was eminently success- ful, whether in his appeal to the jury or in his argument before the bench. Ile was married to Martha Caswell, of Salem, Washington county, New York. Ile died in San- dusky, December 24th, 1864, leaving three sons, Pitt, Jay, and Henry D. Cooke, born respectively in 1819, 1821, and 1825. They were members of the well-known firm of Jay Cooke & Co., so favorably and prominently identified with the negotiations of the national loans from 1861, and dur- ing and after the termination of the civil war ; having their main house in Philadelphia, under the control of the founder of the firm, Jay Cooke ; the branch house in New York city, with Pitt Cooke as the resident partner, while the Washing- ton city office was under the direction of llenry D. Cooke, who was also the first Governor of the District of Columbia, and who still resides in Georgetown. Pitt Cooke is now a resident of Sandusky, and Jay Cooke continues in Phila- delphia.
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