USA > Ohio > The Biographical encyclopedia of Ohio of the nineteenth century. Pt. 2 > Part 38
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CBRIDE, JAMES, Author and Scientist, was born near Greeneastle, Franklin county, Pennsylvania, November 20, 1788. Ilis grandparents on both sides were Scotch. His father was killed by the Indians while he was an infant. The son emi- grated to Hamilton, Butler county, Ohio, in 1806, and at once took prominence among the pioneers of those days. For many years he devoted his attention to the sur- vey and investigation of supposed ancient fortifications in southern Ohio and Indiana, and he contributed abundant material to the work issued by the Smithsonian Institute, entitled "Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley." From its fist organization he was a foremost patron of the Miami University at Oxford. At his death he left behind an immense quantity of valuable mannseripts relating to the early settlement of Ohio, and the books published from them have been of incalculable benefit to the historian and biog. rapher. During life he was a large contributor to various journals, but he was not a journalist in the strict meaning of the term, for all he wrote took the shape of communica- tions. Ile was married early in life to Hannah, daughter of Judge Lytle, of Butler county. He died October 3d, 1859, the decease of his wife occurring but ten days previ- ous, and his own end being hastened by inconsolable grief.
OOPER, WILLIAM C., Lawyer, was born, De- cember 18th, 1832, at Mount Vernon, Knox county, Ohio, of American parentage, and of Scotch-Irish lineage. Ilis father, and also his mother, were from Washington county, Pennsyl- vania; the former followed agricultural pursuits through life, and was a man of influence in the county, and filled the office of Mayor of the town. William attended the Mount Vernon Academy and other private schools until he was nineteen years of age, working on the farm during vacation. He then commenced the study of law with Col- onel J. W. Vance and J. Smith, Jr., and was admitted to the bar when twenty-two years old. He afterwards passed some eighteen months in travelling, and on his return home became associated with one of his preceptors, Colonel Vance, and practised his profession in that connection until 1864, when the firm was dissolved by the death of Colonel Vance on the battle-field. During the continuance of this co- partnership they had the largest practice in Mount Vernon. At the outbreak of the war the junior partner had enlisted in the 4th Ohio Volunteer Infantry and was elected First Lieutenant of Company B. Ile served with that command until January, 1862, when he resigned and returned home to take charge of his business. In 1864 he was appointed Colonel of the 142d Regiment Ohio Volunteers, and served at Petersburg during the period of the one hundred days service; this was immediately after the death of Colonel Vance, Ile then returned to Mount Vernon, where he
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passed a year in real estate operations, and then resumed the practice of law for another year, alone. Ile afterwards associated bimself with 11. D. Porter, with whom he prac. tised for two years, when 1 .. H. Mitchell was added to the firm, the name and style of which became Cooper, Porter & Mitchell. This copartnership was dissolved in June, 1875, since which time he has practised alone, and enjoys an ex- tensive and lucrative patronage. He has filled several offices, having been elected Prosecuting Attorney in 1858, and re-elected in 1860, his term expiring in 1862. In 1860 he was also elected Mayor of Mount Vernon, and re-elected in 1862, his official term expiring in 1864. In 1871 he was elected a member of the Ohio Legislature, where he served two years, but declined a re election. In political views he is a Republican, and has been a member of the State Cen- tral Committee for several years. Ile was aiso a delegate to the National Republiean Convention, in IS72, wherein he was a member of the Committee on Resolutions. Per- sonally he is of a social and pleasant disposition, and en- joys the respect and esteem of the community wherein he resides. Ile was married, January 8th, 1864, to Eliza, only daughter of Dr. Russell, of Mount Vernon,
AND, SYLVESTER, Manufacturer of Marbleized Iron and Slate, Dealer in Slate, Contraetor and Builder, was born, October 15th, 1818, in Butler county, Ohio, and is a son of Gideon Hand, who removed from New Jersey in 1812 to Ohio, where he married, resided and died on his form, in Butler county. After a short time passed at school young Hand went to Cincinnati, in 1835, and at onee began to learn the trade of a carpenter, at which he worked for three and a half years as an apprentice, never receiving during this period over fifty dollars a year. When he reached the age of twenty-one years he had suc- eceded, by means of working at night, in carning cnough to purchase a chest of tools; and, being a thorough master of his business, commenced to work on his own account, taking contracts for building. For the period of sixteen years he continued as a master contractor and builder, and with the most gratifying success, having by this time amassed a very considerable fortune; indeed, as a car. penter and builder, his successes were surprising and un- paralleled. Dealing principally with men of considerable means, who preferred to be relieved of the division and superintendence of their work, he took contracts for the masomy, plumbing, and in fact of the entire construction of the buildings, superintending the whole himself, thus becoming thoroughly master of all mechanical branches connected in any way with building operations; thus emi- nently qualifying himself for giving his attention to the business in which he has been engaged for the past twenty years with still greater success. Desirous of pursuing a less
arduous mechanical vocation than that which during his early manhood occupied his time, he purchased, in 1856, the marbleizing works of Edward Taylor, then in an un- favorable and imperfect condition. His friends considered this the wild, ruinous step of his life, one which would soon surely absorb the accumulations of many years of hard effort; but the result showed his better judgment. The marbleizing of iron was not yet successful, and public con- fidence had not been given to it. The original marbleizer, Williams, had just failed to produce perfect work at his establishment in New York city. Not only had he this to contend against, at the time of his taking hold of the enter- prise in Cincinnati, but the bitter opposition of marble and slate dealers was levelled against him. Notwithstanding these drawbacks, he saw in it a valuable and beautiful art, and believed it could be rendered perfeet and durable by a little determined chemical and mechanical skill; and this being accomplished, all opposition would spontaneously cease. Accordingly in a short time, in the process of ex- perimenting, with the so-called skilled workmen employed by his predecessor, he succeeded in producing perfect work, and the whole process of marbleizing iron was made abso- lutely perfect in his hands. He was thus the first in the whole world to bring the process to a perfect and satisfac- tory working condition. To him the country is largely, if not wholly, indebted for the beautiful marbleized iron mantels of cvery possible variety of color and finish; and no real marble work can be so beautiful, or in any degree so durable, as the marbleized iron. With great profit to himself, he has succeeded in introducing this work over the entire country, and not only breaking down all opposition from marble and slate dealers and the people, but, after twenty years of persistent labor and success, has seen a vast interest in the same line spring up in the hands of others throughout the Union. There are in Cincinnati alone no less than six houses engaged in the same business. Ile thus created a vast industry from the small beginnings of . twenty years ago, and at the same time a great business competition throughout the land. But no one has been so long and so persistently connected with this beautiful work as himself, and it may be doubted if any have been so suc- cessful as he in every point of view. He has established a branch house in St. Louis, in charge of a partner and one of his own sons; the firm-name is Sylvester Hand & Co. This house controls the entire trade of that portion of the West. The establishment in Cincinnati is under his sole control and management, and the greater part of the marbleizing is there done under his direct supervision, and there also all the grates, mantels and other iron fixtures are east from models of his own design and make. In Chicago he has organized a vast business connection, which controls the trade of the Northwest. This company, or house, is composed of the following parties : Sylvester Hand, J. 1 .. Schureman, S. B. Vowell and W. H. De Camp. The busi. ness of this corporation also includes the importing and
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manufacturing of marble and granite, and they carry on the | In 1857 he was elected to the State Senate, remaining there largest monumental and other marble work in the West, one term. In 1863 he was elected to the lower House of the Legislature. In February, 1864, he was appointed Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, to take the place of Judge White, appointed to the Supreme bench. In the following fall he was elected to fill the unexpired term, and in 1866 he was elected for the full term of five years. In August of 1868 Judge Winans was nominated for Congress by the Republican party. He resigned from the bench, and was elected, serving with credit until the expiration of his term, in 1871, when he resumed his practice in Xenia. In 1872 he was nominated for Congress by the Liberals and Democrats, but was defeated by Mr. Gunckel, of Day- ton, the Republican nominee. In 1840 Judge Winans voted for General Harrison, for Henry Clay in '44, for Martin Van Buren in '48, for John P. Hale in '52, for John C. Fremont in '56, for Lincoln in '60 and '64, for Grant in '68 and for Greeley in '72. Judge Winans was one of the founders of the Xenia Gas Company, and has been active in the promotion of all local enterprises. September, 1843, he married Caroline E. Morris, of Xenia, niece of William Ellsberry, Esq., one of the pioneer lawyers of southern Ohio; also a niece of Ilon. Thomas Morris, formerly United States Senator from Ohio. importing their foreign marble from Italy and their do- mestie marble, etc., direct from the quarries of the United States. This company, of which he is the President, is thus composed of some of the most thorough and energetic business men of the country. In the Illinois State Peni- temiary they own a vast steam marble works, operated by the convicts, by contract with the State government for a series of years. In each of these establishments hundreds of hands are employed, and the amount of work annually produced can be better imagined than named. Although Sylvester Hand may be ranked as one of the wealthy men of Cincinnati, and one who has done a vast amount of suc- cessful business, yet the greater portion of his wealth is owing to the increase in the value of real estate acquired and disposed of from time to time. He has devoted his time and attention chiefly to his business, consequently he has had little to do with politics or social organizations. lle is yet a vigorous and enthusiastic business man, using his means to advance his better interests and those of society, being a liberal patron of many of the city charities and benevolent enterprises, as he deems this but a reason- able service and duty of an able citizen. He began his career without means, friends, and with but little education. Throughout his busy life he has taken occasion to add, in every possible way, to his stock of knowledge. lle cer- tainly ranks as one of the most remarkably successful seif- made men of his day, if business, wealth and honorable standing constitute a successful life. Ile was married in 1845 to Margaret Innis, formerly of Scotland. Ile has three children, two sons and one daughter. One son is in his St. Louis house, and the other with him in Cincinnati ; while his daughter is the wife of Hannaford, the Cincinnati architect.
INANS, JAMES J., Lawyer, was born, June 7th, ISES, at Maysville, Kentucky. His father, born in 1791, was a commission merchant at Mays ville, and moved to Greene county, Ohio, in IS19. Here he first embarked in merchandising. Ile afterwards practised medicine, in which he was engaged for twenty-five years in Greene county. Dr. Winans died July 7th, 1849. The early education of our subject was received in the common schools. In 1840 he began to read law with John B. Houston, then of Win- chester, now of Lexington, Kentucky. Ile completed his professional course under Judge Simpson, and was ad- mitted to the bar in 1841. In the spring of the following year he commenced practice in Indiana. In February of 1843 Mr. Winans returned to Ohio, was admitted to the baur of this State, and settled in Xenia, where he has since remained. In June, 1845, he was appointed Clerk of the Greene county counts, serving until he resigned, in 1851.
MITII, JOSEPII B., Lawyer, was born, March 29th, 1829, in Columbia county, Ohio. Ilis father was a native of Ireland, who came to this country when a child and passed his life as a farmer. llis mother was a native of Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Joseph attended the district school in winter and worked on the farm in summer until he was twenty years of age. The year following he spent at the Manual College of Pennsylvania, defraying his expenses by the work of his hands. When at college he ent his leg while lumbering, and has since been lame. At the age of twenty one years be accepted a position as teacher of a school in Kentucky, where he remained for one year. The next three years he passed chiefly in teach- ing school, in the meantime reading law with Judge Clark, at New Lisbon, Illinois. Mr. Smith was admitted to the Cincinnati bar in the spring of 1851. He began the prac- tice of his profession in Columbia county, Ohio, remaining there until the spring of 1857, when he went to Kansas. llere he made many friends, attracted public attention, and in the fall following his arrival was elected to the State Senate. He served his constituents well until the spring of 1858, when he returned to Ohio, locating in Bellaire, Belmont county. Ile has since made his home in Bellaire, and is the oklest resident lawyer in the town. By close attention to business, and fidelity to the interests of his clients, Mr. Smith has acquired an extensive and lucrative practice. In the fall of 1865 he was appointed, by the
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Governor of Ohio, a Commissioner to the army in Texas. Ile has been for many years attorney for the Cleveland & Pittsburgh Railroad Company. In the course of his long professional career A. Smith has had many important cases intrusted to him, all of which he conducted to the satisfac- tion of his clients. October 10th, 1865, he married Eliza R. Preston, of Columbia county, Ohio.
ARCHET, MOSES, was born, April 171h, 1803, on the island of Guernsey, British Channel. Ilis parents came to this country in 1806 and settled in Cambridge, Ohio. His father was a farmer. Moses attended a country school kept by Thomas Campbell, under whom he made good progress and laid the foundation of a serviceable education. Ile was obliged to leave school at the age of fourteen years, in consequence of delicate health. He entered the office of the County Clerk, and remained there until he reached his majority. He then farmed for three years, at the end of which time he was appointed Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas, filling this position as well as that of Clerk of the Su- preme Court for seven years. For this latter position he was examined at Lancaster by Judge Sherman, father of the gen- eral of the army. In 1834 he was reappointed Clerk, hokl- ing that office until 1841. Since 1859 he has been Master Commissioner of the Court of Common Pleas, being succes- sively reappointed for terms of three years each. Mr. Tar- chet has been a Justice of the l'eace since 1864, with the exception of an interval from August, 1370, 10 1873. He and his family have been identified with the growth of Guernsey county, which, upon its organization, in 1810, took its name from the native place of several pioneer families. Mr. Tarchet was married, March, 1825, to Martha Bichard, also of Guernsey, who still lives.
COTT, WILLIAM, Banker, was born, Septemher 25th, ISO1, in Jessamine county, Kentucky. Ile is of Scotch Irish extraction. His father was a native of North Carolina and his mother a Vir- ginian, who settled in Ohio in November of ISO8, being among its earliest pioneers. William at- tended such schools as were within the reach of the youth of that day. In 1823 he engaged in merchandising in Piqua, Ohio, with a capital of only a little more than one hundred dollars. Without friends or credit, but with econ- omy, application and industry, he was soon able to extend his business, including within his scope all that pertains to a complete frontier trading store. For twelve years he bought and sold all the pork raised in his county, making large shipments to the best markets. In 1847 he engaged in banking, and became President of the Pigna branch of
the State Bank. Ile held this position until 1864, when his bank became the Piqua National Bank. Of the old insti- tution under a new name he was also elected President. In addition to his regular business Mr. Scott has also been engaged in large real estate ventures. He is one of the leading men in his county. October 4th, 1827, Mr. Scott married Jane Morrow, of Piqua, by whom he has had four children, two sons and two daughters. His sons are enter- prising business men of Piqua.
IIIDLAW, REV. BENJAMIN W., Clergyman, was born, July 14th, 1811, in the town of Bala, county of Merioneth, North Wales, and is of French Huguenot lineage on his father's side, and on his mother's of Welsh descent. Hle re- ceived his primary education in a log school house in Delaware county, Ohio, where he was taught the English language; he subsequently entered Miami Uni- versity, at Oxford, Ohio, from which institution he gradu- ated in 1833. After leaving college he commenced study- ing for the ministry, in which he was engaged three years, revisiting his native country in 1835. Shortly after his return to the United States he was ordained a pastor by the Presbytery of Oxford, and was settled over a Welsh Con- gregational Church in Butler county, Ohio, where he preached and taught in Welsh and English for five years ; beginning with the children in other outlying districts, and organizing Sunday-schools, he succeeded in building up congregations as time rolled on. The pecuniary support he received, however, was inadequate to his wants, and he was about to accept the kin offer of an aged farmer, who offered him, rent free, several acres of his rich alluvial soil for cultivation, when he providentially formed the ac- quaintance of B. J. Seward, agent of the American Sun- day-school Union in Cincinnati, by whom he was intro- duced to the secretary of that society, and in the course of a few months entered into its employment. During his long continuance with that organization he was enabled, directly and indirectly, to establish hundreds of Sunday- schools and to preach the gospel in numerous localities, where it had been seldom or never heard. In many in- stances these labors, in organizing the union Sunday- schools, combined the feeble religions elements in the village and settlement, followed by a meeting for prayer, praise and Christian conference, then the gospel ministry and the organization of a Christian congregation. Among the first schools he established was the Pike Run Union Sunday-school, in Allen county, then a new and sparsely settled neighborhood, enjoying no religious privileges. This school prospered, and during the following year a prayer-meeting followed the Sunday-school held in the morning ; and before its close a church was constituted and a log meeting house built. He paid a visit in 1869 to this
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locality, and was cordially welcomed by the old people, who well remembered his advent among them over thirty years before, and his efforts to advance the cause of religion among them. He found a church with a membership of over three hundred, and four large and flourishing Sunday- schools; and in this, and other localities which he visited at that time, he discovered many of the scholars of former years had become teachers in the Sunday-school, superin- tendents and ministers of the gospel. During the laute civil war he was Chaplain of the 39th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and was also engaged in the work of the United States Christian Commission. He was appointed, in 1866, a Commissioner of the Ohio Reform Farm School, contain - ing 500 boys. He held this position for nine years. Ile received his commission as a Missionary of the American Sunday-School Union, February 12th, 1836, which he still retains, thus having been connected with that society over forty years. Ile was married in May, 1843, to Rebecca Ilughes, and has a family of six children living.
ULLIVAN, JOHN T., Tobacco Planter, was born August 25th, 1822, on a firm, near the village of Dover, Mason county, Kentucky, and is a son of Randolph Sullivan, formerly of Virginia. Ile is of Irish lineage, his paternal ancestors having emigrated at a very early day to America, and settled in Virginia. One of the Sullivans intermarried with the celebrated Randolph family of that colony, from whom his father acquired his patronymic. The latter removed to Kentucky, which he made his future home, and where his children were born. John T. acquired all the education it was possible to obtain in the schools of the neighborhood, and then entered college with a view of preparing himself for becoming a physician ; but the confinement and require- ments of study proved irksome to one possessed of his active hal its, and having abandoned the idea, returned in poor health to his father's farm, where he employed him- self in the culture of tobacco until he attained his majority. Soon after this he married and removed to the adjoining county of Bracken, where extra inducements were offered to tobacco growers by new and cheap lands. Here he en- gaged extensively in business as farmer, storekeeper, and tobacco dealer, and by his activity, enterprise, and constant business intercourse with the people, soon acquired great influence with them; and by personal effort, as well as by furnishing the latest and most reliable information as to the growth, packing, and handling of tobacco, beside a market at their very doors, at the highest price for all they grew, he succeeded in the development of that interest in Bracken county until it became the banner county of the district for fine tobacco. He remained there for many years, all the time being engaged-in addition to his farming and store- keeping-as the head of a large tobacco firm, composed of
bankers and merchants, at Ripley, Ohio, and packed and shipped a thousand hogsheads of tobacco yearly to all the markets of the United States. Although residing in a com- paratively obscure mural district, he was as widely and favorably known to the shipping markets of New Orleans, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York, and the cutting men of Rochester, Buffalo, Cleveland, Toledo, Detroit, Milwaukee, and Chicago, as to the most prominent city dealers. The appetite for business " growing by that upon which it fed," and the war between the South and the gen- cral government having closed one of the prominent sea- ports - New Orleans-to shipments from the North, he sought a new field for his enterprise, and about that time removed to Cincinnati and engaged in the leaf tobacco job- bing and commission business. To this point his old neigh- bors and acquaintances from the Mason county district followed him with their fine tobacco, and he was soon in the front rank of commission men and dealers. Quick to discover the demands of the cutting trade for sweet tobacco, he established a system of re-handling and re-drying all his tobaccos, which insured their sweetness beyond all contin- gency, and soon made them a necessity to cutters; which fact gave him the control of the cutting trade, and was the source of a considerable addition to his fortunes. Country dealers, stimulated by his success in sales and profits, took greater pains in the preparation of their tobaccos, which were all shipped to Cincinnati. This contributed largely to the tobacco trade of the city, and, in turn-on the principle that, " where the carcass is, there will the eagles be gath- ered"-cutters from all parts of the United States and Canada were brought together, and thus by his efforts a new era was inaugurated in the tobacco trade of Cincinnati, and that city was made, as she is to day, the principal market for the cutting stock of the United States, not to say the world. Having now accumulated a handsome capital, in connection with his brothers and brothers-in-law, he erected a mammoth warehouse in Covington, Kentucky, and began a warehouse business. For these purposes the building was a mistake as to location (though admirably adapted to the business in other respects) ; yet by indomitable energy and perseverance it was made a success pecuniarily, and added, in the effort to get business for this house, largely to the receipts of tobacco from fields that, up to this time, were comparatively unknown to Cincinnati. His hands being now full of outside business-operating a large farm in Illinois, a gold mine in North Carolina, and divers and sundry individual enterprises in and around his home-he relinquished the warehouse and allowed it to pass into other hands, and contented himself with a smaller business requiring less of his individual efforts. Ile remained, how- ever, as much interested as ever in the tobacco interest, and took an honest pride in the continuance of the success of the market with which he had effected so much in enlarg- ing its sphere of operations, and he omitted no opportunity to extend the area of its influence by the distribution of
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