USA > Ohio > The Biographical encyclopedia of Ohio of the nineteenth century. Pt. 2 > Part 30
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WING, HION. THOMAS, Lawyer and Statesman, was born in Ohio county, in what is now West Virginia, December 28th, 1789. His father, Lieutenant Thomas Ewing, was a native of New 611 ... Jersey, and served in the patriot army during the war which resulted in the independence of the colonies. Soon after the treaty of peace was concluded he removed to the frontier, where Thomas was born, and from there, in 1798, to Ames township, Athens county, Ohio, of which section he was the first white settler. During his residence here he was a man of local prominence, and held several positions of trust. In 1818 he removed to Perry county, Indiana, where he died in 1830, at a green old age. Thomas was raised amid the rude experiences of pioneer life, and had but few educational advantages in early life, but these he absorbed with a precocious avidity. Ile was very fond of reading, but had few books to select from, and so read everything that came in his way. Ilis constitution and intellect were alike vigorons, and he soon became known as a youth of uncommon hardihood and intelligence. It was his pleasure to read to the field hands employed by his father, and they, no doubt, returned the favor by flatter- ing the smartness of the lad. In 1800 the little settlement raised a fund-about one hundred dollars-to purchase the nucleus of a library, and Thomas contributed his share in
the shape of ten coon-skins. Sixty books were purchased, and, to quote his own words, " The library of the Vatican was nothing to it, and there never was a library better read." Through this library and the primitive schools of the neigh .. bor hood he obtained a sufficient knowledge to wurant the prediction of his elders that he would become a scholar and a man of learning. But his appetite for knowledge was fir from being appeased, and at the age of nineteen he was somewhat discouraged at the prospect of further advance- ment. He now resolved to make a bold effort to obtain a collegiate education, and accordingly engaged himself as a boatman on the Ohio river, and after a time saved enough money to attend the academy at Athens for three months. Ilis novitiate over, he returned to work in the salines of Kanawha: At the end of the third year he had saved enough money to enter upon a regular course of study at Athens, where he remained until the spring of 1815, when he considered himself a " pretty good though an irregular scholar." During his term at the academy he taught school for a short time at Gallipolis, and was also occasionally en- ployed as a surveyor in Athens county. In July, 1815, he went to Lancaster to study law under General Beech, and after a self-imposed discipline of most laborious application, was admitted to practise in Angust, 1816. Ilis first speech as a counsellor was made at Circleville soon after, and his next attempt was at Lancaster, where he was asked to under- take a case by Mr. Sherman, whose distinguished son, the general, afterwards became a member of his family, and eventually his son-in-law. Some time after this his pecu- niary resources were much reduced, and he was anxiously canvassing his prospects. At this juncture he was offered a small fee to go to Marietta and become counsel for the defendant in a case of larceny. Ile says of this episode : " I have had several fees since of $10,000 and upwards, but never one of which I felt the value,.or one, in truth, as valuable to me as this," Successful in the case, he at once found his time fully employed in criminal practice. This was the starting point from which he rapidly gained promi- nence as a lawyer, and was soon one of the leaders of the Ohio bar. Presently he was appointed Prosecuting Attorney of Athens county, which office he held for several years. Ilis fame had now grown so wide that he became the Whig candidate for the United States Senate, to which position he was elected in 1830. Ile served one term, and during that time his reputation as a legal reasoner became national. In 1840 he took the stump for Ilarrison, and when the old soldier was elected President, Thomas Ewing entered his cabinet as Secretary of the Treasury. In the campaign of 1844 he was a strong Clay Whig, and in that of 1848 warmly advocated the election of Taylor. When the latter was elected, he was again appointed to the cabinet, this time having charge of the portfolio of the Interior. But complications arising, he resigned, and was soon after ap- pointed to the United States Senate to fill the unexpired term of Hon. Thomas Corwin, who had been called to a
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place in the cabinet. He resigned office again after serving associated with the late Nicholas Longworth, and the one session, and resumed the practice of the law. In the | nephew of the latter, Thomas Longworth, as a partner in the firm of Longworths & Worthington, attorneys and counsellors at law. On the retirement of Nicholas Long- worth hom the finn, aber a long and highly prosperons course of practice, he attended to all the law business of the senior member until his death, and then took charge of the estate, which he managed until 1866. He has been one of
crisis of 1861 he was a staunch patriot and supporter of the administration, and was appointed by Governor Dennison a member of the Peace Commission which sat in Washing. ton. Thonghont the war he was unwavering in his loyalty, and President Lincoln had an admiration for him almost akin to reverence. During the greater part of the war era he practised law in Washington, but when peace came he the most indefatigable workers ever known to the bar of give up most of his practice. During the latter years of his life his conservatism alienated him from the administra- tion, and he acted with the Democratic party. His intellect was vigorous to the last. He died at Lancaster, Ohio, October 26th, 1871, surrounded by his children and their families.
ORTHINGTON, HON. VACHEL, Lawyer and State Senator, was born, February 2d, 1802, near- Stanford, Lincoln county, Kentucky. His father, James T. Worthington, was born in Baltimore county, Maryland, and his mother, Margaret P. (Stade) Worthington, was a native of North Caro- lina. He remained with his parents until he was eight years old, when he went to live with his uncle near Dan- ville, attending the academy in the latter town about two years, and then became a student in the academy at Stan- ford, where he commenced a classical course. When he was sixteen years okl, his father purchased Boone Station, lit Vachel remained at Stanford, afterwards returning to his uncle and resumed his studies at Danville. At the age of seventeen years he entered the Transylvania University at Lexington, where he remained but a short time, having determined to allow a year to lapse, and returned to Dan- ville, where he passed through a more thorough preparatory course of study. Ile then re-entered the university as a member of the junior class, and remained there until July, 1822, when he graduated, taking the third honor in his class, being ranked as the best mathematician, and also as first in monal science and philosophy. In 1825 his . Ama Mater conferred on him the degree of Master of Arts. Shortly after his graduation he went to Maryland, where he passed about a year with his relatives, returning to Ken- tucky in 1823, when he commenced the study of law with Hon. C. J. Boyle, who was then on the bench, and who examined him monthly as to his proficiency in his readings. Ile was never in a law office until he established his own, which he did after passing his final examination at Cincin- nati, in which he gained for himself and for his preceptor also great credit for his thorough acquirements in his pro- fession. At the commencement of his practice, as well as through his long earcer of over half a century, he has con- fined his attention entirely to the civil courts. After a period of five years, being eminently successful in the diffi- cult and intricate cases committed to his charge, he became and with edification. The members were wise enough to
Cincinnati; and his hand is seen on all the court records, as also in the establishing of wholesome municipal and State laws. During this long period of over half a century, having been admitted to the bar in 1825, he has been con- stantly occupied in the practice of his profession, and the great amount of labor that he has performed can hardly be estimated. His writings have been and are very volumi- nous ; and all his manuscripts are neatly and legibly executed. Although better on paper than in oral argument, he has made many long and excellent speeches, in which his line of argument and his deep and abstruse reasoning has not been appreciated by the jury or even by the court, perhaps from their inability to grasp it. He was for several years of counsel for the Ohio Life and-Trust Company, although not at the time of its failure in August, 1857; but he has also represented other leading banks and incorporated in- stitutions. In real estate law he has always held the high- est ground, and in these has won his best trophies; and is perfectly at home in that highest department of jurispru- dence, and has realized an ample fortune from that practice. Ilis legal learning is undoubtedly his best distinction, and he has ever taken a high rank as a counsellor ; but he finds time to inquire into philosophy and all the problems con- nected with man's present and future existence. To these studies, and especially to the views of the ablest. modern thinkers, he has, for several years past, given a large share of attention, probably even more than the average profes- sional man allows to reading the daily press and other ephemeral literature. He delights in grappling with large interests and difficult questions, and is a must safe, enlight- ened and conscientious adviser and counsellor ; and has been of great assistance to those who placed reliance upon his judicious advice in regard to business enterprises and speculative undertakings. In all his intercourse with men and their affairs, he is earnest, honest, zealous, and courage- ons. Ile neither courts nor fears any one, and is utterly above dissimulation, hypocrisy, or any kind of deception. No means could be employed to coerce him from the posi- tion he takes, and while he respects those who honestly differ from him in sentiment, he maintains his own views at all hazards. For two years past he has been a member of the State Senate, having been elected on the Democratie ticket in 1873, and his career so far has been of great ser- vice to the State. In the committees on the Judiciary and on Finance, and in open session, he has been heard often
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know that he could instruct them more than they could ae- quire without him, that he told them the truth, and advo- cated nothing but justice and equity; and there was no danger in following one so faithful and intelligent. He has rendered a great service to his adopted city of Cincinnati, and which is daily appreciated more and more. This is the result of what is known as the " Worthington Bill," which requires cash payment in all city dealings; he would even have effected more, but his colleagues required to be edu- cated to the task, and perhaps might not have supported him. The Southern Rulroad scheme, to the building of which into Kentucky and Tennessee, Cincinnati has been committed by an evasion of the Ohio State Constitution, had a sleepless and most formidable opponent in him. He is a thorough master of the principles involved, and has elab- orately considered the facts and consequences of that heavy expenditure. The first appropriation of ten millions of dol- lars provided for by the Act of 4th May, 1869, he terms the entering wedge for at least as much more, and a consequent heavy if not fatal indebtedness of the city. He struggled for an act of the Legislature to amend or repeal the law of IS69, on the ground of its unconstitutionality, and because the so-called ancillary legislation of Kentucky and Tennes- see was a heinous contradiction of the Ohio statute, by divesting the city of its road, and vesting it in the trustees under the statutes of both the other States. Ilis arguments were able, exhaustive, vehement, overwhelming, and unan- swerable. No one was prepared to reply to them, and they have created a profound impression on all thoughtful men throughout the State, leading them to oppose the scheme for the construction of tIns road; in fact, so perfect and con- sistent has his reasoning been, that public opinion in Cin- cinnati has been reversed. Of all the old Hamilton county bar, he is the last survivor yet in practice, except Charles Fox, who is some years his senior in age, and of the same upright character and laborions professional habits. Per- sonally, he presents the figure of a student, thin face, blue eyes, andI head slightly bald. He is about five feet ten inches in height, but not robust. He has been twice mar- ried ; first, in 1825, to Mary, the eldest daughter of Judge Barnet; and in 1839 to Julin Wiggins, both of Cincinnati. He has had three sons, and William is his law partner, and worthy of his position.
ELAMATER, JOIIN, M. D., L.L. D., was born, April 18th, 1787, in Chatham, New York, and died, March, 1867, in Cleveland, Ohio. As his name indicates, his family were of French origin, his ancestors having been Huguenot exiles who found a refuge in Holland. They were inter- married with the people of the country, and traces of that Dutch descent were seen in the features of his face. Ile was originally destined to follow the occupation of his father, that of farming. But a slight injury from over labor, when
a lad, rendered him unfit for farm work, and so it was de. cided to fit him for the ministry. The family removed to Duanesburg, Schenectady county, where he was taught by a finely educated clergyman, who had himself been edu- cated abroad. Ili, own inclination was for the law, but to please his father he gave it up and began the study of medicine. When nineteen years of age the Medical Society of Otsego licensed him to practise, and he at once entered into partnership with his uncle, Dr. Dorr, a physician in Chatham. Three years later he removed to Florida, a town in Montgomery county ; later, after a year spent in Albany, in 1315, he established himself in Sheffield, Berkshire county, Massachusetts. At the expiration of eight years in that place, in 1823, he was invited to a professorship in the Berkshire Medical Institute at Pittsfield, Massachusetts. In IS27, when a new medical college was opened by the Re- gents of the State of New York, for the benefit of the West- ern District, at Fairfield, Herkimer county, he was invited to a leading position in the faculty. He remained at Fair- field eight years, and had acquired a reputation as a physi- cian of the first rank. At that time Dr. Jackson, of Boston, considered one of the ablest physicians in the United States, said, in reply to a gentleman in Utica, who had sought his advice in a peculiarly grave and obscure malady : "You have no need to write to me. You have Dr. Delamater ucar at hand, than whom there is no abler practitioner in the country." At this time he was forty years of age. From Fairfield he removed to Willoughby, Ohio, having previ- ously visited that State, and delivered a course of lectures in Cincinnati, where he was urgently invited to remain as a permanent instructor. He however preferred the Medical Institute at Willoughby, and remained at that place six years. In 1842 be removed to Cleveland, and with able coadjutors organized and established the Cleveland Medical College, the medical department of the Western Reserve College. Notwithstanding the professorship in his college, he found time to deliver full courses of lectures at Bowdoin College, Dartmouth, Geneva, and at Cincinnati. Ilis manuscript notes show that he had delivered not less than seventy courses of lectures, treating almost every subject which belongs to medical science. At seventy five years of age, in 1860, he closed his labors, having aided in the instruction of more young men, in the science of medicine, than any other man at that time. On resigning his active duties at this period, he received the title of Doctor of Laws and was made Professor Emeritus. Subsequently he practised all that his infirmities would permit, and in doubt- ful and obscure cases his opinion was sought. One of the professors being temporarily absent on duties relating to the war of the rebellion, he consented to take the chair thus temporarily vacant, and delivered fifty lectures, which proved to be his last public instructions. He was a man of rare refinement and of high cultivation ; and had few if any indulgences. While he was speaking, few appreciated how well and how thoroughly he was speaking; but when he
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had concluded it was clear that the subject was exhausted ; nothing of importance omitted. In every condition of life -- a> a teacher, as a colleague, as a friend, as a citizen, a> an office bearer in the church -- the only question with him was of simple justice. le once said : " Through my most active years I never went to bed without the consciousness that I had done that day all that any man could require of me, professionally or otherwise." Ile was one of the most generous men, both with his professional services and with his money, who has ever lived in this country. An early and decided advocate of temperance, he often lectured on that subject with great force and cloquence. He made a public profession of religion at the age of twenty-five, and, like everything else about him, it was genuine. Ile never entered on any critical operation in surgery without first making it a subject of prayer; and his family devotions never were omitted, whatever might be the pressure of his professional calls. In politics he was always interested ; first as a Jefferson Republican, then an Adams Federalist, then a strong supporter of the rising Democrat party. While Jackson was President he changed his views, becoming a Whig, and later a Republican. He was from the first an opponent of slavery; yet the treatment he received at the hands of colored men in Sheffield, in repayment for volun- tary services as a physician, and his liberal gifts of what money he had, with base ingratitude, formed in him the deeply-rooted conviction that the negro is by nature unfit for citizenship. This opinion he maintained until his death.
ONKLING, WILLIAM M., was born, March 11th, 1815, in Butler county, Ohio, near the vil- lage of Reily. He is the first of nine children of banc Conkling and Rebecca ( Marsh) Conk- ling, both natives of New Jersey. Isaac Conkling was a blacksmith and farmer, who moved to Ohio in 1805, in company with his father, Joseph Conkling, and his uncle, Stephen Conkling. They settled in Hamil- ton county, at the point now known as East Walnut Hills, near Cincinnati. The Couklings were among the best as well as earliest settlers of Hamilton county. William M.'s mother was a daughter of John Marsh, who settled in Hamilton county in 1794. The subject of this sketch re- ceived his early education in the schools of Cincinnati, under the instruction of John 1 .. Tolbert, a prominent edu- cator of that city. Ile was bred a farmer, working with his father until his twenty fourth year, when he rented a farm from his father in Sycamore township. At the end of ten years, in 1849, by industry and frugality he had accu- mulated enough to enable him to buy a home. Ile pur- chased the farm upon which he now resides, in Sycamore township. He has always taken great interest in the affairs of his township, especially in its educational interests. For fifteen years he has been a Supervisor. He has been an
active member of the Presbyterian Church for many years. Politically he is a Republican. He is held in high esteem in his locality, where he has lived the life of an honest, public-spirited citizen. In $839 Mr. Conkling manied Elizabeth D. Glenn, daughter of Isaac Glenn, a prominent farmer of Hamilton county. Six children have been born of this union.
VANS, HON. NATHAN, Lawyer, was born, June 24th, 1So4, in Belmont county, Ohio. His par- ents emigrated to Obio in 1803, from London coumy, Virginia, where his father was a farmer. Until 1830 Nathan attended the county school in winter and worked on the farm in summer, acting as County Clerk in 1827 and the following year. After teaching school for a short time, in 1830 he read law with General James Weir, at St. Clairsville. At the end of one year he was admitted to the bar and opened his office at Hillsborough. Here he remained one year ; but being at- tacked by typhoid fever, he left for Cambridge. Here he recovered his health and was elected Prosecuting Attorney for Guernsey county, holding the office for four years, In 1846 Mr. Evans was elected to represent the district com- posed of Guernsey and Belmont counties. Ile served a second term with credit to himself and satisfaction to his constituents, and then resumed practice in Cambridge. In 1858 he was elected a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for a term of five years. Ile continued the practice of law until 1873. April 15th, 1834, he married Elizabeth Jane Way. January 9th, 1855, he married Susan M. Lap- land; and Jannary 9th, 1865, he was joined to Tirseh Duvall.
6 AMBLIN, EMMETT, Coal Operator, was born in Madison county, New York, August 31st, 1826. Ilis father and mother were both natives of New York. His parents moved to Pennsylvania in 1829; thence to Steuben county, New York, in 1834; and finally settled in locking county, Ohio, in 1838. Emmett received his education in the schools of Ilocking county. His father dying Jamiary 20th, 1839, the support of his mother and sister devolved upon young Emmett. Ile assumed the charge willingly and with stout heart, determined to make the best of his oppor- tunities. Ile secured work as a laborer on the locking Canal, and was so employed for six years. From 1845 until 1847 he was engaged on a farm. In the latter year he rented a farm, which he tilled until 1860, when he pur- chased a farm in Hocking county. In this year he was elected Treasurer of Hocking county, being re-elected at the expiration of his term, in 1862. Ile vacated this office in 1865. In the meantime he continued farming and stock raising until 1869, when he sold his land to the county for
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an infirmary, and resigned the County Commissionership to | In the latter year he commenced the study of law in George- which he had been elected in 1867. Since then he has been engaged in operating and speculating in coal lands in Blocking and Peny counties. He was the first in his see. tion to tmn his attention to the valuable deposits of coal which had lain there awaiting the energy and enterprise that should develop them. A life of thrift and industry has enabled him to become possessed of some of the best coal lands in Ohio. Mr. Hamblin now makes his home in Logan county. May 16th, 1847, Mr. Hamblin married Calistia Cook, of locking county, who has borne him four boys, all living.
SHELMAN, HION. EPHRAIM B., was born, December 8th, 1830, in Lancaster county, Penn- sylvania. Ile is the son of Peter Eshelman and Mary (Carlysle) Eshelman. He began his edu- cation in the common schools of his native State, and finished at a select boarding-school. lle learned his trade as a printer in the office of The Intelli- gencer, at Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Shortly after reaching his majority he went to Ohio and worked a few years at his trade in Trumbull county. In 1853 he purchased the Chillicothe Advertiser, which he edited and published until January 1st, 1865, when he became connected with the daily Ohio Statesman, as part owner and editor-in-chief. Hle retained this connection until February, 1869, since which time he has been editor and half owner of the Wayne County Democrat, published at Wooster. Mr. Eshelman was Postmaster at Chillicothe under Buchanan's administra- tion. In 1873 he was elected from Wayne county, as a Democrat, to the Ohio House of Representatives. Ile was Chairman of the Committee on Finance and a member of the Committees on Federal Relations and Public Printing. Mr. Eshelman is a forcible writer and an effective speaker.
ARSHALL, JOHN G., Soldier and Lawyer, was born, May 3d, 1823, in Trumbull county, Ohio, and is the fourth of six children, whose parents were John and Margaret M. (Grant) Marshall ; the latter being a sister of Jesse Grant, an early pioneer of Clermont county, and father of General Ulysses S. Grant, now President of the United States. She was born in Pennsylvania. John Marshall, her husband, was a native of Virginia who settled in Trumbull county at an early day, and who followed through life both agricul- tural and trading pursuits. John G. Marshall was early trained to industry. From the age of nine until he was fourteen years old he worked in the tannery of his uncle, Jesse Grant, and then entered a printing office, where he learned the mysteries of that art, and worked at this occu- pation in various parts of Ohio and Kentucky until 1845.
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