The Biographical encyclopedia of Ohio of the nineteenth century. Pt. 2, Part 33

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 33


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EGUR, DANIEL, Merchant and Real Estate Dealer, was born, 1812, in Herkimer county, New York, and is the fourth of a family of eight chil- dren. Ilis paternal ancestry were of French ante. cedents, having emigrated to Rhode Island in the early part of the seventeenth century, to escape the persecutions levelled against the Huguenots. Ilis grandfather was a Brigadier General of the Rhode Island Colonial Militia nuder George 111., and was one of the first colonial officers who declared for the independence of the colonies after the promulgation of the Declaration of Inde- pendence. Being a man of means he invested his property in continental serip, to aid the Congress to carry on the revo- lutionary war, and although he was the owner of landed estates, he fell into straitened circumstances, in consequence of the repudiation of the continental currency. With him the parents of Daniel removed from Rhode Island to llerki- mer county, New York, where he died, after suffering years of invalidism consequent upon wounds received during the revolutionary conflict. In 1815 Daniel's parents removed to Oneida county in the same State, where his father engaged in farming and milling. At that period Oneida county was an unsettled wilderness, the Indians from whom it derived its name had not been removed to Western reservations, and


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Daniel, in his infancy and early childhood, became inured to the adventurous life and the hardships and privations every- where incident to pioneer life; and he was thereby pecu- liarly well fitted to encounter them again in his early man- hood, in the newly settled districts of Ohio, The severe labors and hardships that he was obliged to endure in a new country, as well as the maintenance of a large family, ren- dered his father prematurely aged; and he succumbed to disease in his forty-fifth year. Upon Daniel the support of his mother, of an invalid sister, and numerous younger brothers, chielly devolved. Having evinced talent for the legal profession, it had been the wish of his father to edu- cate him therefor, but the early death of his parent rendered it necessary for Daniel to leave school, and give all his at- tention, time and energy to immediate remunerative labors. When but fifteen years of age he took leave of the family, and went to Utica, where he found employment in a hotel. Reserving a seanty pittance for his own wants, he remitted monthly the greater part of his earnings to his mother. His industry, perseverance and sobriety attracted the attention of Henry Huntington, a wealthy and influential citizen of Rome, New York, who was at that time President of the Bank of Utiea. This gentleman offered to send him to school, and take him under his patronage, but his elder brother, who had established himself in business at Buffalo, had written to Daniel to join him there, and, imbued with a desire of going farther West, he removed to Buffalo, and became clerk of the Mansion House, at that period its lead- ing hotel. The Mansion House was a favorite resort with the travelling public, who, in those days of stage-coaches, frequently rested there for days, before resuming their jour- neys. The then prominent men of Buffalo also passed many of their evenings within its portals. Among those of its guests whose names have become historical was Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet. Mr. Segur's reminis- cences of the great impostor may be appropriately men- tioned. Ile relates, that during the autumn of 1830, while a convivial company of Buffalo's leading social spirits were gathered in the office of the Mansion House, among whom he remembers George P. Barker, subsequently Attorney- General of New York, Stephen K. Grosvenir, John G. Camp, and Henry Miller, the door opened, and Ira Bird, the proprietor of a line of stages from Westfield, entered with a quaint, antiquated-looking man, whose eyes, "in a fine frenzy rolling," gave the company the idea that he was an escaped lumatic. Bird introduced him as a " natural cu- riosity," named Joseph Smith; and " why a natural curiosity ? " was the query. " Because," replied Bird, " he has a new revelation, which is going to turn all sinners into saints. He has a manuscript which will explain itself." The company manifesting curiosity to see the manuscript, Joseph Smith was induced to produce it. Drawing it from his coat pocket, it was handed to Attorney Barker, who, from a mischievous inclination to create merriment at the expense of its owner, began reading therefrom. The re-


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semblance of its composition to the Bible caused several | with his chest brother, he kept the Mansion House, pros- members of the company to regard it as a blasphemous pering pecuniarily, until the autumn of 1835, when the hotel was destroyed by fire. In the following spring he re- moved to Toledo, and began keeping a hotel in what was then known as the " Mansion House," a large wooden building, situated between Lagrange and Locust streets. At this period the speculative mania was at its height. Many Eastern people with plethorie pocket-books filled with Van Buren's pet bank-notes, looked upon Toledo and vicinity as a modern El Dorado for investments, and en- tered the public lands for many miles around it, believing that in so doing they had secured a gold mine. As money seemed abundant, hotel keeping was a remunerative occu- pation, and Mr. Segur acquired a comfortable compe- tence. Unfortunately for him, however, he was induced to embark in a more extensive and pretentions hotel enterprise, and leaving the Mansion House, he completed a new hotel then being erected, known as the "American," at the corner of Elm and Summit streets, and removed thither. The financial depression consequent upon the specie circular of General Jackson was a severe blow to the prosperity of Toledo. The speculative mimia ended, and through the inability of some to meet their pecuniary engagements, and the dishonesty of others, together with the general business depression, Mr. Segur lost every dollar he had amassed, and again began life as poor in purse as when he left his home in New York State. In 1838 he served his first term as a member of the City Council of Toledo, and from that time to the present has been, with but brief interruptions, connected with municipal affairs, and has also held numerous minor city and county offices. In 1842 he was elected Street Commissioner, and during that year Cherry street was opened under his supervision, through morasses, swamps, and a wilderness of jungles, from the Manhattan Canal to Tremainsville. He was re-elected two years subsequently to the same office, and under his supervision a very exten- sive series of grades were projected and executed, which at that time was regarded as a herculean undertaking. Water street was graded from Monroe street to La Grange ; and Summit street from Perry to Klm, including the grading of the intervening and cross streets from Summit to Water street, as far as La Grange street. The Whig party, of which he had been a prominent member, had now come into power, and he received in 1845 the appointment of Collector of Canal Tolls, a position which he held for six years. During this period his salary was about fifty dollars per month, and scanty as it was he contrived, aside from supporting his mother and younger brothers, to invest small sums in real estate in Toledo and vicinity; and from this humble beginning has now grown a comfortable competence. Unlike many dealers in real estate, he never oppressed the poor nor the laboring classes, nor did he take advantage of their misfortunes when they were unable to meet their pecu- niary engagements ; frequently waiting ten years after mont- gages were due, and after the law gave him power to fore. work, while others believed Smith to be an escaped lunatic or a religious monomamac, who had written it himself. Barker, taking the latter view, threw it towards the fire, with an exclamation of contempt, and as it fell immediately before the grate, Smith grew frantic and screamed out, "Oh! for God's sake, do not burn my precious book; it has been written from tablets of stone, found buried at my farm at Palmyra, and discovered in a miraculous manner through dreams. I was led by the angels of the Lord to the place where the stone tablets were found buried in a quarry. The tablets were written in Greek, and I have mortgaged my farm to obtain money to search for a Greek sekolar to translate and transcribe them." Barker replied to him, " Oh, the same stones will be just as good to write another similar humbug of a book; " and he took up the manu. script before Smith could reach it, and feigning to throw it into the fire again, " The stone tablets dissolved the instant they were copied," shouted Smith, in apparent agony, run- ning towards Barker with outstretched arms -- " and can never be replaced. Oh! gentlemen, give me my precious manuscript, or I shall be ruined, and the world will lose the revelation which will make all sinners saints." Barker was now threateningly holding it over the fire, when Smith ap- pealed to Segur, saying, " Young man, you appear quick and nimble ; give me my precious papers, and I will begone from this company of accursed heathen." A pretended scuffle for its possession ensued between Barker and Segur, which cuded by the former yielding it to the latter, who restored it to Smith, and advised him to retire and avoid further trouble. The next morning Smith left Buffalo, and in the following spring returned with a large bag filled with Mormon Bibles; he had succeeded in having them pub- lished in the East, and was returning home. When he reached Westfield, Ira Bird, who had figured so conspicu- ously in the scene at the Mansion House, just referred to, either removed the books himself, or caused them to be re- moved, and filled the bag with blocks of wood. Smith failed to discover the deception until he reached Erie, when he was forced to retrice his journey as far as Westfield, where he succeeded in finding his missing property. Little did the mischief-loving revellers, who so tormented Joseph Smith at this period, think of the power and influence for evil which the mannscript, they came so near destroying, compassed. They regarded him as a harmless old fanatic, about whose idiosynerasies it was perfectly safe to joke, who would never be heard of save in their own little social sphere. It was afterwards ascertained that Smith had found the manuscript in the garret of a house, in which some of his friends had resided in Conneaught. The honse had been previously inhabited by a clergyman of literary ability, who had beguiled his leisure hours in its production, and subsequently had cast it aside as worthless amid a barrel of old sermons. In 1832 Daniel removed to Cleveland, where,


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close them. To this lenity many a now prosperous citizen of the Fifth ward can bear witness. In the six years during which he held the office of Collector of Canal Tolls he had handled nearly half a million dollars of State funds, and in less than a week after resigning the position to his successor his accounts were settled without a deficit of a single penny. Having always entertained conservative views upon the slavery question, when, in 1855, the Whig party embraced an anti-slavery platform, with Salmon P. Chase as one of its leaders, he united with the Democratic party, to which he has since adhered; although whenever he has been a candidate for any municipal office he has com- mande:l a majority of the suffrages of the Republican, Demo- cratie and Prohibitionist parties, all seeming to forget politi- cal doctrines and sympathies, and to take into account his efficiency and fitness for the position, In 1858 he was ap- pointed Deputy Collector of Customs, a position which he held until the close of the administration of President Buchanan. Since that date he has held no remunerative office, although connected for the past six years with the municipal government. Ile has been engaged in various industrial pursuits; including farming, the dairy business, to- bicco culture, real estate dealer, and merchandise; at present he carries on a retail boot and shoe store, also merchant tailoring, ready-made clothing and furnishing goods. Whenever he returned from his temporary removal beyond the city limits for the purpose of farming, he was unanimously elected to the Council or Aldermanic Board, and is now the presiding officer of the latter. In 1872, when the present system of water works was inau- gurate.1, he, being in favor of the direct supply system, met with most determined opposition from the advocates of the stand-pipe scheme, a portion of the local press became bitterly opposed to him, and accused him of being engaged in a "ring" for personal purposes. He demanded an in- vestigation, and the one who had been his chief accuser acknowledged that he had been mistaken. Though unsuc- cessful in relieving the city from a useless expenditure, as he believed, of half a million of dollars, his constituents re- turned him to the Council by a handsome majority of the votes of all parties. He has been repeatedly urged to be- come a candidate for offices of more distinction, but he has preferred to devote his time and energies to the develop- ment and progress of the city, where he has resided for forty years. Although somewhat enfeebled with the effects of the malaria-which was one of the greatest obstacles the city had to contend with in its infancy-he bears his age remark- ably well, and is very active in the prosecution of both public and private business, and from present indications can still reasonably hope for years of future usefulness. ille was married in 1841 to Incy Keeler, daughter of one of the pioneers of Toledo. She died childless after a brief union of one year. Ten years subsequently he was united in marriage to Rosa 12 Klinge, who had acquired some local reputation as a journalist, which has been subsequently


increased by years of editorial contribution to the Toledo Commercial, the Toledo Blade, and several local monthlies. By this union he has two surviving children, a son and a daughter.


ORIMORE, ANDREW J., M. D., was born, Oc- tober 2411, 1824, in Wooster, Ohio. He is the son of James and Martha Lorimore, both natives of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania. Ilis fa- ther, who was of Irish descent, was born in the last year of the Revolution. His mother, who is of Scotch ancestry, is now living in her eighty-fifth year. llis father and uncle, Samuel Lorimore, were in the war of 1812, and were with General Harrison in all his cam- paigns. Dr. Lorimore was educated at Vermillion, In- diana. Ile began the practice of medicine in Monticello, Indiana, in October of 1853. After residing in Indiana for nine years, he located at Bryan, Williams county, Ohio, where he remained for nine years more, at the end of which time he settled permanently in Toledo. Ile has won suc- cess by deserving it. After twenty-six years of active life, Dr. Lorimore confines himself mostly to office practice, which is sufficiently taxing. Ile has not taken an active part in party politics, but is a close observer of the progress of events, Ile has married three times. Ilis first wife was Sarah, daughter of Ilugh MeKibben, of Ashland, Ohio ; his second, Anna M., daughter of Samuel Stern; and his present wife, a daughter of William Morris, of Stark county, Ohio.


EECHTER, LUCAS S., Lawyer, was born in New Haven county, Connecticut, March 31st, 1798. lle is the son of Lines and Orpha Beecher. With them he went to Madison county at the age of five years, remaining there until 1816, when the family moved to Genesce county. When Lucas was abont fourteen years of age, a hired man, with whom he was working, let an axe fall on his foot, wounding him so se- riously that his left leg had to be amputated. llis early education was a matter of special solicitude with his parents, who gave him all the advantages within reach. In the winter of 1815-16 he taught school, and in the spring of the latter year attended the academy at West Bloomfield, New York, for one year. In 1818 he returned to Madison county and read law with Hopkins & Beecher, of Canaseraga, New York. lle was admitted to the bar in 1826. He began the prac- tice of his profession the same year in Williamsport, Ly- coming county, Pennsylvania, where he remained until October, 1828, during which time he married Jane W. Turk, daughter of John and Mary Turk. In 1828 he moved to Sandusky, Erie county, Ohio, forming a law part- nership with Hon. Eleutheros Cooke, since deceased. Hle


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subsequently joined John F. Campbell, Esq., in the practice ; northeast corner of the same streets, reserving for his own of law, and next associated himself with Pitt Cooke, Esq., use the corner one which he has since occupied. It is fitted up with every necessary appliance and convenience for suc- cessful business operations. He had been accustomed to devote his whole time to his private business, but in 1873 he was induced to accept the nomination for Councilman from his ward, and was elected to that body, where he de- voted himself with such zeal to the best interests of the city, that in 1875 he was elected a member of the Board of Aldermen by an increased majority. His success in life, both public and private, is the legitimate result of the strict- of the late firm of Jay Cooke & Co. In later years he was associated with Cuyler Leonard, Esq. During all these years he has been a prominent man at the Sandusky bar, where he is now practising at the advanced age of seventy- seven years, in connection with his son, John T. Beecher. Mr. Beecher's active life is the more remarkable, since he had the misfortune to lose his eyesight in 1829. Ile has conducted many cases of importance in the course of his long and ineful professional career. Ile assisted, as an attorney, in securing the chatter of the old Mad River & est adherence to true economical principles, and a fearless Lake Erie Railroad Company, the first railroad west of the advocacy of right and justice. Allegheny mountains, and obtained most of the rights of way for that corporation. Ile aided materially in having Sandusky selected as the county-seat of Erie county. Mr. Beecher enjoys the respect of his brother practitioners and the high regard of his fellow-citizens,


ELLS, J. D., Pharmacist, and Member of the Board of Aldermen of Cincinnati, Ohio, was born on a farm near Marion, Ohio, June 22d, 1835. Ilis aversion to agricultural pursuits led him, in 1849, though still a youth, to come to Cincinnati with the purpose of entering the business arena of the Queen City. Shortly after his arrival be secured employment in a drug store, which in common with other pharmaceutical establishments of that day was conducted in accordance with the crude principles then extant. By dint of industry and application, he advanced steadily in his chosen profes. sion, and by close economy for years, saved from his earn- ings a sum sufficient to enable him to enter upon a special course of study at the college at College Hill, Ohio. Here he devoted his energies to the mastery of chemistry, Latin, and bookkeeping, the three great essentials for future suc- cess. He kept pace with the wondrous progress of phar- macy during that period, and at the present day when it has developed into one of the leading and most elegant sciences be is recognized as one of its most thorough and complete devotees. Ilis first business venture on his own account was in 1859, when he opened a drug store at the corner of Fourth street and Central avenue, occupying a part of the present site of the Grand Ilotel. In this location he steadily increased his business by a rigid adherence to and enforce- ment of professional rules and strict business principles. On August 27th, 1800, he was married to E. J. Coon, daughter of the well-known citizen, George Coon, Esq., who has for years past retired from active business. From this union four children have been born-two sons and two daughters, three of whom, two danghters and one son, are living. In 1865 Mr. Wells found it necessary to seek more ample accommodations for his enlarged trade. Accordingly he erected the elegant four-storied block of buildings on the


ICKS, DAVID, Coal Merchant, was born, May 5th, 1819, near the town of Morrow, Warren county, Ohio, and is the oldest son of Samuel and Elizabeth ( Ireland) licks. llis father was a native of Kentucky, who removed to Ohio about the year 1812, and settled near Hopkinsville, on a farm. Ile had originally been a carpenter by trade, but in the main he followed agricultural pursuits through life ; he died on his fann near Morrow, December 16th, 1839. David's mother was a Virginian, the daughter of Thomas Ireland, also one of the pioneer settlers of Warren county, where he located about 1812. lle was a man of sterling integrity of character, and a public-spirited citizen. He participated in the second war with England. Thus it will be seen that the ancestors of David Hicks were early settlers in the Miami valley, and shared the dangers and vicissitudes that the pioneers of those days had to encounter. llis early education was limited, being only that taught in the primi- tive log school house, but he has been a close reader and a keen observer, and may be termed a self-educated man. When not attending school he was employed on his father's farm, and when he attained his majority he commenced farming on his own account, being engaged in the same some two years. In 1844 he became interested in several patent rights and was occupied about one year in that busi- ness. lle then located at Rochester, Warren county, where he followed the butchering business for four years, and thence removed to Morrow, where he carried on a livery stable from 1849 to 1852. During the last-named year, he was a contractor engaged in building a portion of the Zanes- ville Railroad. In 1853 he purchased a farm on the line of that great improvement, and the place was named in his honor llicks' Station. Ile remained on the farm, constantly engaged in agrienltural pursuits, until 1856, when he returned to Morrow, and resumed the livery business. In 1857 he purchased the Virginia Hotel in that town, and in 1859 en- gaged in other pursuits of a laborious nature. At the ont- break of the civil war in 1861 he accompanied the 4th Regiment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry to the field as Master


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of Transportation ; and in 1863 filled the same position for | years of active service an exhausting disease compelled Dr. the staff train of General Burnside's division. During the remainder of the war he was stationed at Camp Nelson, Kentucky, as Superintendent of the general designs of the camp. Ile returned to Ohio in 1865, and purchased the Tremont House, Cincinnati, of which he continued the pro- prietor for four years, meanwhile carrying on for a short period the real estate business. In 1869 he purchased a coal yard in the Twenty-fifth ward of Cincinnati, which he has successfully managed in connection with other pursuits to the present time. Ilis political faith is that of the Demo- cratie party, having given his first vote in 1840 in favor of Martin Van Buren for the Presidency. From the above brief statement of particulars, it will be seen that his life has been an unusually varied and at the same time an active one. lle has been twice married. llis first wife was Re- becca J. Worley, a native of Warren county, Ohio, to whom he was united August 14th, 1860; she died November 28th, 1862. After a widowerhood of nearly three years, he was married, November 10th, 1865, to Harriet McGaughey, of Dayton, Ohio.


ORBES, SAMUEL FRANKLIN, Physician and Surgeon, was born at Canton, Hartford county, Connecticut, June 8th, 1829. Ile is the son of Guy Forbes and llarriet (Sage) Forbes. For more than a hundred years his ancestors have lived in Connecticut. Squire Forbes, of Litch- field, his great-grandfather, cast cannon for Washington's army during the war of independence, and was among the first to develop the coal and iron mines of Pennsylvania, in which State he had large interests. The subject of this sketch laid the foundation of his literary education in the common schools of Connecticut and New York, and from ODDSWORTH, THOMAS, Coal Merchant, was born, February 24th, 1822, in England, and is a son of the late Marmaduke Doddsworth. The latter came to the United States in 1832, and located in Cincinnati, his family following him one year thereafter. Ile engaged in the coal business, and was assisted therein by his sons. Thomas had the a lvantages of such schools as the city then afforded, but like most business men of his age, acquired the greater part of his education in the actual business of life. Ile was early put to work, driving teams and doing such other tasks as could be performed by a boy twelve years old. Ile continued with his father until 1847, when in connection with his brother, Marmaduke, Jr., he purchased his father's establishment, and the old house of T. & M. Doddsworth was formed, and their main office became one of the land- marks of Cincinnati, having been placed at the corner of Lawrence and Front streets in 1831, where it yet remains after a lapse of forty-five years. After the death of Marma- duke, the younger, the business passed entirely into his own private tutors. His father and mother dying when he was about fourteen years of age, he went to live with his brother. in law, Dr. S. L. Heath, of Ulster county, New York, with whom he began to read medicine at the age of sixteen years. lle attended two full courses of lectures at the University of New York, graduating from that institution in March, IS50. Shortly after graduating he attached himself to the Emigrants' Hospital on Ward's Island, New York, spend- ing most of the years 1850 and 1851 in that institution, where he hid ample opportunity to add practical skill to technical education. Leaving New York he settled perma- nently at Toledo, Ohio, and entered upon the practice of his profession in that city in January of 1852. In 1853 he was appointed Deputy Collector and United States Marine Ilospital Physician for Toledo. The former office he re- tained for but one year, as it interfered with the practice of lus profession. In 1855 he was appointed County Physician, which office he held until he entered the army in 1861, as Surgeon of the 67th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Ile arose to be brigade, division, and acting corps surgeon. After two | hands, and the name of Thomas Doddsworth is one of the




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