USA > Ohio > The Biographical encyclopedia of Ohio of the nineteenth century. Pt. 2 > Part 43
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Pulaski, Somerset, the landing at Morris Island, the de- molition of Somier-WAGNER. "The greatest is behind !" Whatever may be thought of the many deeds which may illuminate the sad story of the Great Rebellion, the capture of Wagner by General Gillmore will be regarded as the greatest triumph of engineering that history has yet recorded.
But after all these successes the fall of Charleston did not take place until eighteen months afterward. General Gill- more now organized a movement to invade Florida, and despatched General Seymour there. The latter was met by the rebels and disastrously defeated. Operations around Charleston being at a standstill, he asked to be relieved there and sent to another field, He was ordered to report,
In appearance General Gillmore is one of the handsomest officers in the army. Ile is above the medium height and compactly built. In society he is found to be refined and accomplished. In common with most of the army officers, he is a conservative in politics. Since the close of the war he has been constantly employed in the engineer service, and his head-quarters at present are in New York, where he has charge of a large amount of important work, includ- ing the construction of forts and batteries, and the testing of metals submitted to a board of examiners of which he is a member.
ALM, JEFFERSON, Lawyer, was born, Novem- ber 220, 1821, in Cumberland county, Pennsyl- vania, and is a son of Adam and Nancy (Askew) Palm. The founder of the family in America was John Palm, who emigrated from Germany in 1760, and settled in New Jersey. While Jefferson was but an infant his father removed to Ohio m 1822, and settled in Trumbull county. He there attended the common
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school until he was nineteen years of age, when he com- menced the study of law with William L. MeKnight, of Waren, and finished his readings with John M. Edwards, Ile was elected Justice of the Peace for Warren in 1851, and held the office for nine successive years, terminating in 1860. In 1863 he was again elected to that position for a term of three years. In 1862 he commenced the public .. tion of the Warren Constitution, which he edited for five years, and then disposed of it to Judge Birchard. He was commissioned Postmaster of Warren by President Johnson, and served in that position during his administration. Ile is now in the enjoyment of a good legal practice.
ECK, JOHN CRAFTON, M. D., Physician, was born in Vienna, Scott county, Indiana, January 19th, 1822. His father, Samuel Beck, was third in descent from the emigrant, James Beck, first surveyor of Prince George county, Maryland. James Beck was cousin to John Beck, once gov- ernor of Luxemburg. This family is traceable down to the mailed horseman of the same name who joined the fortunes of Cœur-de-Lion in the Crusades. Dr. Beck began the study of medicine at the age of eighteen, having until this time worked on the farm and in the carpenter's trade. Hle commenced practice before reaching his majority in Azalia, Bartholomew county, Indiana; entered the Medi cal College of Ohio, at Cincinnati, in 1848, and graduated in the spring of 1849, his previous four years' practice en. abling him to dispense with one course of lectures. In 1847, before entering the medical college, he was married to Vashti Davis, daughter of Ransom Davis, of Newburn, In- diana. After graduating, Dr. Beck located in Cadiz, Henry county, of the same State, where he soon made a large and profitable practice. In 1858 he accepted the Professorship RIGHT, THOMAS, M. D., was born in March, 1797, in county Tyrone, province of Ulster, north of Ireland. He was the youngest of seven chil- dren, named as follows : Jane, who died of dropsy ; Robert, who was killed on the plains of Albuora, in Spain; John, who died in Vermont; Quintin, who died on the old homestead; George, who died in Craftsbury, Vermont; Alexander, who died in Barton, Vermont ; Nancy, who died in Rochester, New York; and Thomas, the only living representative of the family. Both his parents were natives of Ireland. His father, John Wright, being of English, and his mother (maiden name, Elizabeth Lee) of Scotch extraction. His father followed through life the occupation of a farmer and lived in com- fortable circumstances, so that he was enabled to give his son a very complete and liberal education. In the fall of 1812 Thomas went to the Apothecary's Hall, in Dublin, and passed an examination in Greek and Latin previous to his entering college. November, 1813, he entered the cele. of Medical Jurisprudence in the Cincinnati College of Med- icine and Surgery, and was afterwards elected by the Board of Trustees to fill the Chair of Anatomy and Physiology in the same institution. This position he resigned about the beginning of the rebellion to accept the appointment of Surgeon in the army. In 1862 he had the pleasure, though a noncombatant, of encountering and capturing, near Mur- freesboro', Tennessee, the rebel Captain Charles M. Beck- with. He served in various regiments, as Surgeon in the field, until the close of the war. After the war he opened his office in Newport, Kentucky. At this time he served two years as President of the Newport Board of Education. During his residence in Newport, Dr. Beck made three unsuccessful races, as the candidate of his party, for the Legislature. In 1870 he again returned to Cincinnati, where he has since devoted himself solely to his profession. Ile is in the prime of life and possessed of a vigorous con- stitution, and, unlike too many in his noble profession, is a close student, keeping fully up with the medical literature | brated University of Glasgow, Scotland, filling the following
of the day, to which he is frequently a contributor. For several years he edited, with recognized ability, the Cincin- nati Medical and Surgical Netos, and has just published bis " Notes on the Early Settlement and History of Bartholo- mew County, Indiana." He is a Royal Arch Mason ; also a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and was originally a member of the Christian or Disciples' Church, preaching as an evangelist in that church, until in the early days of his settlement in Cincinnati, when he be- came a convert to the Roman Catholic faith, and entered that church.
ICKINSON, HON. EDWARD F., Lawyer, son of Ilon. Rudolphus Dickinson, was born at Fre- mont, Ohio, January 21st, 1829, graduated at St. Xavier College, Cincinnati, and read law with Ilon. L. B. Otis. He was admitted to the bar in 1850. Ile was for two terms Prosecuting Attor- ney for Sandusky county. He was a Delegate to the Na- tional Democratic Convention, which met first at Charleston and then at Baltimore, in 1860. He served for three years as First Lieutenant and Regimental Quartermaster of the Sth Ohio Infantry in the late war. In 1866 he was elected Judge of the Probate Court of Sandusky county. He was elected to the Forty first Congress, in 1868, from the Ninth Ohio district, composed of Erie, IInron, Ottawa, Sandusky, Seneca, and Crawford counties. In 1871 he was elected Mayor of the city of Fremont, being re-elected in 1873 and 1875. On the 12th of September, 1852, Mr. Dickinson married Henrietta R. Mitchener, daughter of Rhyner Mitchener, late of Philadelphia.
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during his residence in Craftsbury, Vermont, to Sophie Huntington, daughter of Dr. Samuel Huntington, of that place. She died in the year 1869, leaving six chil- den. Of these, Noah D. Wright, the eldest, is an en- gincer. Thomas, the second son, is now practising medi- cine in Bellefontaine. Elizabeth, the third child, is married to a citizen of Chicago. Sophie Wright Williams ( deceased) was the fourth child. Samuel, the fifth child, is a lawyer in Nevada. The sixth child is named Mary. John, the seventh, is a banker in Cincinnati. Thomas Wright has a degree from the Miami Medical College of Cincinnati, and is a member of the Eighteenth Medical District, of Warren, Trumbull county, Ohio.
classes : anatomy, under Dr. Jeffries ; surgery, also obstetrics, under Dr. Towers; chemistry, umler Dr. Cleghorm ; also the dissecting-room. In April be returned home, and through his father's influence, the Earl of Caledon bad him appointed assistant to Dr. John Crozier, who was then phy- sician to three dispensaries, one in the county of Tyrone, one in county Armagh, and the third in the county of Monahan. The counties cordered, and were three miles apart; each was open two days in the week, and so the whole week 'was occupied. He continued in this position until the fall of 1817, when he returned to the University of Glasgow, filling the following classes : theory and practice, under Dr. Fruier; chemistry, under Dr. Thompson ; materia medica, under Dr. Miller ; anatomy, under Dr. Jeffries; surgery, under Dr. John Barns (brother of the famous Allen Burns, who has written on obstetrics). This session he attended LLISON, RICHARD, M. D., the first Physician to practise in Cincinnati, was born near Goshen, New York, in 1757. Ile was not a graduate in medicine, but was a Surgeon's Mate in the army of the Revolution. Ile must have acquired con- siderable knowledge of medicine, and especially of surgery, however, for he was afterwards Surgeon-General in the Indian campaigns of Harmer, St. Clair, and Wayne, and in this important position acquitted himself with marked acceptability. At St. Clair's defeat he narrowly escaped death. Ile eventually resigned, and commenced private practice in Cincinnati, and, considering the comparatively insignificant proportions and population of the city at that period, secured a considerable practice, increasing it steadily year by year. He lived in Cincinnati and vicinity more than a quarter of a century, and died there, March 22d, IS16. There was nothing remarkable about him, except that he was the first physician to practise in Cincinnati, and the first to die within its limits. At death he be- queathed no records to his brethren, but one of them, an eminent writer, describes him as " the father of the pro- fession in Cincinnati." the Hospital and Lying in Infirmary, consequently he pos- sessed all the tickets entitling him to a diploma of Bachelor of Surgery. Dr. Crozier was dismissed by favorites of the managers, consequently Dr. Wright lost his place. In 1815 -16 the army was reduced, and the army surgeons sent home on half pay ; no young man could compete with them. Hle then resolved to visit America, and engaged with the ship " Prince," of Waterloo, in the spring of 1820, as Surgeon, going out to Quebec from Belfast, with three hundred pas- sengers (at that time no vessel with passengers could sail for Americi without an approved surgeon). From Quebec he proceeded up the St. Lawrence river to Montreal, and from there to Burlington, Vermont, whence he went to the town of Craftsbury, Orleans county, where he had three brothers living. He resided in Vermont until, in conse- quence of the severe winters, he resolved to remove West. Accordingly, in 1823, he moved to Ohio, seitling in Read- ing, Hamilton county, of that State, He remained there until he contracted an intermittem fever, caused by the ma- laria arising from the creeks, and in order to regain his health he resolved to visit his father-in-law's place in Ver- mont. Ile stayed in Vermont until his health was restored, and then started for the West. During his journey he pur- C chased a place in the Western Reserve, and stayed there 'HOMMEDIEU, STEPHIEN S., Iate Editor, Pub- lisher, and Railroad President, was born, January 5th, 1806, at Sag Harbor, Long Island, New York, and was a son of Captain Charles I'llom- medieu, formerly of that place. Ile was of Huguenot descent, his ancestors having fled from France after the siege of La Rochelle and settled in America. When he was four years of age he acccompanied his father, who removed to Cincinnati, at that time (1810) but a small village of a few hundred inhabitants. Ilis father engaged in the mercantile business and also in manu- facturing, which he carried on for three years, and died in 1813, leaving five children. Previous to his death he had purchased the land now bounded by Central avenue, Mound, George and Seventh streets, for pasturage and other purposes .. three years, in which time he established a large practice. But receiving many written invitations to return to Cincin- nati, he concluded to do so, and accordingly started for that place in 1832. During this last journey he lost all his valuable papers and books, which he had brought with him from Europe. Politically he is a staunch Jackson Demo- crat, and entered the Legislature as such, but finding the Democracy there, with the exception of about thirty, were Calhoun men, and thinking that Abraham Lincoln and Stonewall Jackson were both Democrats, he voted for Lin- coln, and is now a staunch Union man. He asserts that the Democrats now are all Calhoun men, who believe that each individual State has a right to secede, and he utterly abhors such a theory. As to religion, he is a Protestant, and a member of the Church of Disciples. He was married It was then somewhat remote from the village, but is now
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the centre of a great city. This property was kept intact, and divided between the five children. In 1818 Stephen S. L'Hommedieu, being now twelve years old, was placed in a store with his nudle, John C. Avery, and three years after be changed to the Liberty Hall, where the Cincinnati Gia elle was published. At that period the paper was a semi-weekly, and dependent upon the government patronage for the post- office and other official advertising ; moreover, the paper was " Federal" in its political leanings. In the course of years it so continued under the able management of Charles Ilam- mond, its editor, who had conducted the Gazette for some years previous. In 1828 General Andrew Jackson was elected by the popular vote President of the United States, and the publishers of the paper having consulted with the editor, it was determined to make the Gazette in every re- spect an independent paper-not, however, what is now un- derstood as neutral in politics-believing that that course would bring a better reward than all the patronage the gov- ernment had to bestow. The result showed the wisdom of taking such an independent position. In 1829 the firm of L'Hommedien, Morgan & Fisher issued the Gazette as a daily paper, commencing with only one hundred and twenty- five subscribers, but few of whom are now living. It was the first daily paper published west of the Allegheny moun- tains or the great valley of the Ohio and Mississippi-with the exception of a small sheet that had been issued by S. S. Brooks the year previous and had only survived but a few weeks. The reputation of the Gazette from 1827 to 1840, under the principal editorial management of Charles Ham- mond, is well known to the public. In 1848 Stephen S. L'Hommedieu closed his connection with the Gasette, after having been in its service for twenty-seven years, and was soon after elected President of the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railroad Company. This corporation had been chartered in 1846, with a capital of only $500,000. Ile re- mained as the executive head of this company for a period of twenty-two years, when he resigned his position, July 4th, 1871. A few days thereafter, accompanied by his wife, he sailed for Europe, and made an extended tour through the various countries, and also visited the Holy Land. Ilis politieal faith was of the old-line Whig of the Henry Clay school. After his retirement from the editorial manage. ment and the publication department of the Cincinnati Gazette he held aloof from politics; in fact, he never sought an office of any description. His last appearance as an actor in any political body was at the National Convention of 1848, at Philadelphia, when General Zachary Taylor was nominated for the Presidency, and his favorite- Henry Clay -defeated. After the dissolution of that great party he aeted with the Republicans, and was ever zealons in main- taining the honor and integrity of the Union. His life was one of usefulness and ceaseless activity. The period during which he achieved his greatest success was marked with un- paralleled progress. The changes that took place during his recollection were wonderful to contemplate ; and he con
tributed largely to the building up and the extension of Cincinnati from the little village of a few hundred inhabi- tants to the great city of over three hundred thousand souls. He mited great physical shength with mental activity, laboring industriously in the enterprises of a useful and honorable life. He married in 1830 a daughter of Charles Hammond, one of the earliest and most famous of Cincin- nati journalists. With her he lived forty-five years, and twelve children blessed this union. Ile died, May 25th, 1875, at West Point, New York, sincerely mourned by his townsmen and numerous circle of friends and acquaintances.
NGAILS, HON. MELVILLE EZRA, President of the Indianapolis, Cincinnati & Lafayette Rail- road Company, was born in Harrison, Maine, September 6th, 1842. Like the majority of the boys of New England, and especially of Maine, his education was commenced in the common schools, which he attended during the long cold winters, while in the summer time he learned to work on a farm. This most excellent training for boys gave him in early life a remarkably vigorous constitution both physically and men. tally. When a mere youth he presented himself to the superintending School Committee of his town, and on an examination received a certificate as teacher. He at once assumed the arduous and important, though rarely appre- ciated, duties of the schoolmaster, which he continued to discharge faithfully each winter for about six years. In the meantime he fitted for college by graduating from Bridgeton Academy. Ile entered Bowdoin College, but, preferring to commence his professional studies, did not retain to graduate, but became a student in the Harvard Law School, from which he graduated in 1863. Early in 1864 he re- turned to the State of Maine and opened his law office in the town of Gray, having been admitted to practise at the bar of Cumberland county. At a later period of the same year he removed to Boston, Massachusetts, and resumed the practice of his profession in that city. In 1867 he was elected a Senator of the Sixth Massachusetts Senatorial District, and served one year, declining a re election which was urged upon him. With his popularity in the Senate his professional work increased so rapidly that he enjoyed a very large and profitable business until 1871, when he left the law and politics and removed to Cincinnati, Ohio, to accept the receivership, and subsequent presidency, of the Indianapolis, Cincinnati & Lafayette Railroad. It was an empty honor, however, as the company had failed and was soon forced into bankruptcy. Mr. Ingalls obtained money of the stockholders by voluntary subscriptions and paid off the debts, and procured the release of the railroad from litigation and the hands of the court in July, 1873, and immediately upon the reorganization of the company was elected President, which office he continues to hold to the
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entire satisfaction of the stockholders. He has devoted | Assistant Clerkship of the Senate of Ohio. During his in- his undivided time to acquiring a thorough knowledge of railroading in all its details; and the Indianapolis, Cin- cinnati & Lafayette Railroad under his management has been entirely reorganized and its works placed in first-class condition. He has shown remarkable executive capacity and foresight. He is characterized by quick perception, acute, penetrative and great intellectual powers. With a sanguine and enthusiastic temperament and a willingness to take his full share of labor, he has infused his own spirit into the entire working force of the road until it has become one of the best managed railroads in the West. Ile is al- ways accessible to the humblest employe of the road, and promptly investigates every grievance presented to him, Ilis remarkable energy, power of organization and ceaseless activity, have been of invaluable service to the Indianapolis, Cinemnati & Lafayette Railroad, and have placed him in the first rank of the leading railroad men of this country. Ile was married to Abbie MI. Stimson, of Gray, Maine, on January 19th, 1867.
AXWELL, SIDNEY DENISE, Superintendent of the Merchants' Exchange, Cincinnati, was born, December 23d, 1831, in Centreville, Mont- gomery county, Ohio, and is the son of Nathaniel Van and Eleanor ( Denise) Maxwell, who were born in the same county and State. Sidney first attended the public schools of his native village, and sub- sequently the select schools and academy, for which that place was at one time noted. Ili, father commenced mer- cantile life in 1842, and his son's educational course was interspersed with a practical business training in his father's store, which doubtless did much to mould his future course and prepare him for the wider field to which he was to be subsequently called. Prior to the war of the rebellion he determined to study law, and accordingly placed himself under the instruction of Hon. Lewis B. Gunckel and Colonel Hiram Strong, of Dayton, Ohio, and spent a por- tion of his time in their office to obtain a knowledge of the practical duties of the profession. Through a recom- mendation of Mr. Gunckel, Colonel Maxwell was offered by M. D. Potter, the proprietor of the Cincinnati Com- mercial, the position of correspondent of that paper in the Army of Central Virginia, then commanded by General Fremont. In May, 1861, he joined the forces of Fremont, lying at Franklin, Virginia, and followed the fortunes of that army through its various vicissitudes. Early the fol- lowing spring he was sent by the same paper to Kentucky, and remained with the command of General S. P. Carter in their advance upon Tennessee. Later in the summer he attached himself to the Army of the Cumberland, returning after the battle of Chickamanga. His return to Ohio at this time led to his election, in January, 1864, to the Second
tervals at home he used his personal influence largely in Montgomery county for the organization of the National Guards. The call came in May, 1864, finding him a pri- vate in the 12th Regiment, and subsequently, by consolida- tion, in the 131st Regiment, under Colonel John G. Lowe. He was detailed as Sergeant- Major at Federal Hill, Balti- more, in 1864, and was at a later period detailed for more responsible duties in connection with Camp Distribution at Baltimore, by General Wallace, then in command of that department, from which he requested to be relieved, pre- ferring to remain with the men whose enlistment he had been instrumental in securing. In August, 1864, he was appointed the Aide-de- Camp, etc., with the rank of Colonel, to John Brough, Governor of Ohio, at once entering upon the duties of that office, and remaining with the Governor - until his death, which occurred before the expiration of his term of office. Ile continued the same relation with Gov- ernor Charles Anderson, who filled the unexpired term of Governor Brough. After the conclusion of the war Colonel Maxwell again turned his attention to the law, and while engaged in arranging for his admission and practice at Dayton he received a letter from Richard Smith, of the Cincinnati Gazette, asking him to come to Cincinnati for an interview, which proved to be for the purpose of offering him a place on that paper. This was accepted, and he became the Assistant City Editor in March, 1868. In February, 1870, he also became the Cincinnati agent for the Western Associated Press, discharging the duties of this as well as those upon the paper. Later, without his knowledge, he was elected to the agency of the Western Associated Press, at New York city. This offered him a wider newspaper field and much larger pecuniary induce- ments; but having decided to make Cincinnati his home he declined the proposition. On the 28th day of October, 1871, he was elected by the Board of Officers in the Cin- cinnati Chamber of Commerce to the position of Superin- tendent of the Merchants' Exchange, and on the, ist day of November following assumed the duties of that office, becoming the successor of William Smith, Esq., who, after a long and honorable service, had resigned that office. Colonel Maxwell retired from the Gazette, but continued his connection with the Western Associated Press until January, 1874, when he resigned that position, and has since devoted his attention solely to the duties of his office. Ile has charge, under the direction of the Board of Officers, of the affairs of the Merchants' Exchange, and is the Statistical Officer of the Chamber of Commerce. Ilis reports of the trade and commerce of Cincinnati and of the pork-packing of the country are well and favorably known throughout this and other countries. In politics Colonel Maxwell has been a Republican from the organization of that party. Ile united with the Presbyterian Church while he was reading law, and still retains his membership. On Wednesday, June 30th, 1875, Colonel Maxwell was married to Isabella Neff,
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