The Biographical encyclopedia of Ohio of the nineteenth century. Pt. 2, Part 46

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 46


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76



531


BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPÆDIA.


land purchases were made so that a debt could not stand, at | 1824 he accompanied his parents from Pennsylvania to the furthest, more than two years, and was so managed as Butler county, Ohio. At the age of seventeen years he was apprenticed to the trade of wagon and plow making, at Reading, Ohio, where he bas since made his home. After a four years' apprenticeship he took a course of advanced studies at Dayton, and for the next seven years carried on business for himself. The following five years he devoted to farming and brickmaking. This latter business he con- ducted in connection with contracting for the construction of churches and other buildings, for twenty-one years. During this time he served a term of five years as Mayor of Reading. For six years he has been Magistrate and Notary Public for Sycamore township. Since 1856 he has been President of the Cincinnati & Xenia Tmnpike Com- pany, which owns the finest turnpike road in the State. For the last ten years Mr. Burkhalter has given his attention exclusively to educational, social, and political affairs. In politics he is a Republican ; in religion an Universalist. Hle is a man of large experience, forcible character, generous impulse and kindly disposition. He is one of the foremost citizens of Reading, taking a deep and active interest in whatever promises to promote the city's welfare and pros- perity. to be pud without the sale of property. Generous and just in all of his dealings, he was never guilty of an act of un- kindness or oppression. He died in the seventy winth year of his age. He had two sous, William and Leonard. The former was born in Cleveland in 1818, and died in the same city on April 19th, 1862, and will long be remembered for the goodness and usefulness of his pure life. When quite young he was elected to represent the Second ward in the City Council. He was so useful that he was re-elected and continued a member until iS50, when by a large majority he was elected Mayor, and in the following year was re-elected by a still Inger majority. In 1852 he was nominated for Congress by the Whigs, but was defeated by a small majority ; the anti-slavery element was successful in elect- ing the Free.Soil candidate. After that event he took no active part in politics. In 1853 he was elected President of the Cleveland, Painesville & Ashtabula Railroad Com- piny, and contined to preside over the affairs of the road until 1858. During these years the road proved to be most profitable and prosperous, and was considered one of the best managed road, in the country. He advocated and aided in the construction of the water-works in Cleveland. When the Sinking Fund Commission was established by legislative enactment, he was appointed one of the Com- missioners, and retained that position until his death. The Case Block at the time it was built was by far the largest and finest in the city; he projected it and nearly completed it before his death. He was a man of a fine literary educa. tion, warm-hearted, and beloved by all within the circle of bis acquaintance. Leonard, the second and only surviving son, was born in Cleveland in 1820, and graduated from Vale College in 1842. On the death of his brother William he was chosen to fill the vacancy thus created in the Sinking Fund Commission, which position he still retains. The construction of the Case Block, unfinished at the death of his brother, was completed under his management, and at a subsequent date the larger Case building was erected by him. At the death of his father he became sole proprietor of the estates in the city and suburbs of Cleveland, and their management requires his close attention. He has ever avoided publicity.


URKIIALTER, SOLOMON, Retired Merchant, . was born, March 15th, 1811, in Lchigh county, Pennsylvania. He was the fourth of eleven chil. dren, the issue of Peter Burkhalter and Catharine Berry, both natives of l'ennsylvania, their ances- tors being among the original settlers of that State. Peter Burkhalter was a farmer, and died in Tippe- canoe county, Indiana, where his wife also passed away. Solomon's early education was of the limited character received at the country school, during his boyhood. In


HEIS, CHIARLES, Ilardware Merchant, was born, July 15th, 1834, in the kingdom of Bavaria, Ger- many, and is a son of Jacob and Charlotta (Jacki) Theis. His father was a farmer, and also fol- lowed the grocery business. Ile emigrated to the United States with his family in 1847, first locat- ing at Hillsborough, Highland county, but the following year removed to Iligginsport, and now resides with his son Charles at Georgetown. Charles received a good education in his native country, and worked on a farm until his four- teenth year, both at Hillsborough and Higginsport, and then assisted his father as a clerk in his grocery store in the latter town, remaining with him about two years. In 1851 he went to Cincinnati, where he was employed in the same capacity in a bat store for one year, returning to Hillsbor- ongh, where he started on his own account in that business. He remained there a year and then removed again to Cin- cinnati, where he embarked in a similar business on Central avenue. Ile pursned his calling with assiduity for some eight months, when he disposed of his stock, and became an assistant in the American Restaurant of Cincinnati, where he continued for three years. In 1858 he removed to Georgetown, Brown county, where he embarked in the grocery business, and conducted the same exclusively for two years, and then added hardware to his stock, which latter has expanded, together with the further addition of agricultural implements, until he may le properly termed a hardware merchant, although he still continues keeping a line of select groceries, and has greatly prospered in his career. In religious faith he is a Protestant. Ilis political


-


532


BIOGRAPHICAL. ENCYCLOPAEDIA.


creed is that of the Democratic party, although he has neither sought nor held any office of a political character. Socially he is pleasant, affable and courteous, possesses a firm and determined demeanor, and is remarkably untiring, general as well as his professional attainments are of an enviable extent and variety. Although a supporter of the Democratic party, he has uniformly refrained from taking any active part in the partisan movements of the day, and energetic and industrious. Ilis reputation and standing as | has neither sought nor accepted any office of a political nature. Ilis religious views are not circumscribed by the doctrines of any particular church. Ile was married, March 26th, 1863, to Mary F. Ilarding, of Ripley, Ohio.


a business man and public-spirited citizen is unquestionable. Ile takes great interest in the order of Odd Fellows, of which fraternity he is a prominent member. Ile was mar- ried in 1858 to Fanny, daughter of F. J. Kratzer, formerly of Bavaria, and is the father of eight children.


IIEPIIERD, WILLIAM WALLACE, M. D., was born in Highland county, about eight miles south of Hillsborough, Ohio, December 16th, 1837. Ile was the second child in a family of six children whose parents were William A. Shepherd and Frances A. (Rogers) Shepherd. Ilis father, a native of Philadelphia, followed through life the profession of medicine. At an early day he moved to Ohio with his father's family, and settled in Highland county. There, and in the adjoining county of Clinton, he was engaged in pro- fessional labors until his demise in May, 1871. His mother, a native of Frederie county, Virginia, was the daughter of William Rogers, an carly pioneer and settler of Highland county, Ohio. Ilis preliminary education was liberal, and received in the common and high schools of his native county. In 1852 he began the reading of medicine in Highland county, under the tuition of his father, and remained with him as a student, engaged in zealous study, until the year 1855, when he removed to Cincinnati and completed his medical education under the supervision of Dr. E. 11. Johnson, now deceased, at that time a prominent physician practising at 139 West Sixth street, Ile then attended medical lectures, and in 1857 graduated with honor from the Medical College of Ohio. Hle then, during several months, practised his profession in conjunction with his father, and subsequently 'for one year, at Centrefield, Highland county. On his return to Samantha, in the same county, he practised in association with his parent until the fall of 1361, the date of the latter's removal to New Vienna, Clinton county, Ohio. In the fall of 1863, having been occupied up to this period in Samantha, he established his office in Hillsborough, Highland county, where he has since resided. Ile devotes a great deal of attention to sur- gery, and has repeatedly and successfully performed the most important capital operations. He is incessantly occu- pied in attending to the calls and duties connected with an extensive business, and is to-day one of the leading practi- tioners of the place. Ile is a member of the Ohio State Medical Society, and for a number of years has officiated as Secretary of the Highland County Medical Society. Ilis various contributions to the current medical literature are characterized by ability and studious research, while his


NDERWOOD, REV. JOHNSON P., Clergyman, was born, September 28th, 1824, at Mount Pleas- ant, Jefferson county, Ohio, of American parent- age, his father being a native of Virginia, while his mother was a Pennsylvanian by birth. Ile received but a limited education in his native place, and after leaving school commenced to earn his live- lihood on a farm, devoting his evening and other leisure hours to study. Ile is indebted to the Friends for his early training, and for the assistance they rendered him in quali- fying himself to become a minister of the gospel. Ile is now a clergyman of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and also Secretary of the conference, to which he was elected, in Detroit, August 28th, 1858. Ile had charge of the Wylie Street African Methodist Episcopal Church of Pittsburgh in 1865, in which year also he held a great revival meeting, during which the membership was greatly increased. Ile was subsequently assigned to the pastorship of the church in Xenia, where he met with the same success in building up the congregation over which he was appointed to minister, not only spiritually, but literally, as the new edifice erected during his incumbency was far superior to the original structure, and its worth is estimated at twelve thousand dollars. He also was pastor at one time of the congregation in Columbus, and the church building there was planned and designed by him. At present he is pastor of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Cleveland. In political belief he is a sterling Republican, lending all his influence to the success of that party. Ile was married, 1850, to Ilenrietta M. Clanton, of Virginia.


EWIS, BUSIIROD HAMILTON, Lawyer, was born, August Ist, 1839, in the town of Jefferson, Madison county, Ohio, and is a son of George W. Lewis, a farmer, and grandson of Philip Lewis, one of the carly settlers of the county, who assisted to lay out the town, and who represented the district in both houses of the General Assembly of the State. He first attended school in West Jefferson, and sub- sequently became a student in the London High School, I where he remained until he attained the age of eighteen years. He then passed a year as clerk in a warehouse in


533


BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.


much of the profession that had been chosen for him, but he familiarized himself with the forms and methods of busi. Dess, and acquired habits of self rchance and industry which have been invaluable to him in his subsequent . career. In 1838 the Democratic party came into power, Colonel Curtis was removed from his position, and John Sherman was without employment. Ilis brother, Charles T. Sherman, since United States District Judge in Ohio, was then a practising lawyer in Mansfield, and with this brother the displaced youth commenced the study of law. Hle studied assiduously in this new direction, and made rapid progress, and by the time his majority was attained he was qualified to enter upon the legal profession. The day after he was twenty-one years old he obtained a license to prac- tise, and immediately entered into partnership with his bro- ther. Ile entered at once upon an extensive practice, and rapidly achieved a reputation as an honest, laborious, thor- oughly able and remarkably successful lawyer. His part-


London, and afterwards taught school for three terms of | two years were very valuable to him, for he not only learned four months each. During the late civil war he enlisted in the 95th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, August s4th, 1862, and was an Orderly Sergeant, and afterwards Sergeant- Major of the regiment. He served in that command for the lall term of three years, being honorably mustered out in Au- gust, 1865. In the autumn of the same year he was elected Sheriff of Madison county, and re-elected in October, 1867, serving four years in that office. During this time he was also Deputy United States Marshal, for Madison county, under A. Heickenlooker, Marshal of the Southern District of Ohio. After his term of service in the sheriffalty bad terminated, he commenced the study of law, and was ad- mitted to the bar, May 12th, 1872. Ile opened an office in London, and practises his profession in Madison and ad- joining counties. Ile was elected in April, 1875, the City Solicitor of London for a term of two years. Ilis progress so far in life is entirely due to his own energy and perse- verance, combined with unremitting patience and industry, never having received assistance from any quarter whatever. | nership with his brother continued eleven years, and was a Hle was married, October 14th, 1875, to Nannie, daughter of A. Dunkin, of London, and granddaughter of Simon Kent, of Madison county, Ohio. most prosperous one. Ilis activity in his profession did not prevent his being equally active in the field of politics, in which he took an earnest and profound interest. He was an ardent Whig, and the district in which he lived was strongly Democratic, so he had no hope of obtaining office, HIERMAN, JOIIN, United States Senator, like so many other of the representative men of Ohio, comes of sterling old New England stock. He is descended from one of the three Shermans who, in 1634, emigrated from Essex, England, and settled in the new colony of Massachusetts Bay. One of these three founded the Connecticut branch of the family, and one of his great-grandsons, who had become a judge in one of the Connecticut courts, died in r$15, leav- ing a son, Charles Robert Sherman. This son was himself a thoroughly accomplished lawyer, and thinking that the West offered better opportunities than the East for success in his profession, he emigrated to Ohio, and there rapidly acquired an extensive practice, and in 1823 became one of the judges of the Supreme Court. In 1829 he died very suddenly of cholera, leaving his family in destitute circum- stances. He had married young, and at the time of his death his family consisted of eleven children. One of these children was John Sherman, now a member of the United States Senate, and another was William Tecumseh Sherman, General of the United States Army. John, the eighth child of the family, was born in Lancaster, Ohio, on May 10th, 1823. The poverty in which his father's death left the family did not prevent his being sent steadily to school at Lancaster and Mount Vernon, up to the time when he was fourteen years of age. Then he left school and was sent to the Muskingum Improvement to become a civil engineer and earn his own livelihood. There he was placed under the care of Colonel Samuel R. Curtis, the resident engineer of the work, and with him he remained two years. These but without that incentive to move him, he worked indus- triously and effectively in behalf of his party. In 1848 and again in 1852 he was sent as a delegate to the Whig Na- tional Convention, and in the latter year was chosen a Presidential Elector. In 1854, when the Nebraska issne came up, he labored earnestly in opposition to the further extension of slavery, and to build up the political organiza- tion which soon developed into the Republican party. Ile accepted a nomination for Representative in Congress from the Thirteenth Ohio District, and was surprised to find himself elected. Ile entered the House of Representatives of the Thirty-fourth Congress, and there commenced the career which is so widely and familiarly known throughout the country as to hardly need recapitulation. Ile proved himself to be specially fitted for the duties of the position in which he had been placed. He was laborions in investiga- tion, patient in dealing with details, cautious and accurate in drawing conclusions, conciliatory in disposition, yet full of the " courage of his opinions," and fluent and able in de- bate. In the first session of the Thirty-fourth Congress he was a member of the Kansas Investigating Committee, and it was he who prepared the memorable report presented by the committee to the House and to the country. At the close of the session the Republican members of the House, through his influence, adopted the amendment to the army bill, denying the validity of the slavery-extending laws of Congress, and he wrote an address to the people of the country, elaborating the principle contained in that declara- tion. Mr. Seward and other senators dissented from it, and the doctrine was not promulgated. Hle took an active


1


534


BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.


part in the contest over the Lecompton Constitution and the One of the most important of these, preparing for the re- snmption of specie payments in 1579, has been a prominent topic of discussion during the present (1876) session of Congress,


English Bill in the Thirty fifth Congress, and made many speeches full of power and force, He served as Chairman of the Naval Investigating Committee, which exposed the complicity of Buchman and Toucey in the actions of the propagandists of slavery; and he made a speech upon the public expenditure, which was widely circulated as a cam- paign document. The contest for Speaker which marked the opening of the Thirty-sixth Congress was a most mem- orable one. He was the candidate of the Republicans, and his election was violently opposed by the Southern members because he had signed a recommendation of Ilinton Rowan Helper's book, " The Impending Crisis." Through a long series of ballots he lacked but one or two votes of election ; but at last, in order to end the " dead-lock " and secure an organization, his name was withdrawn. le was at once made Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, and so became the leader of the House. As chairman of this committee he distinguished himself by putting through the House the Morrill Tariff. In February, 1861, in reply to Mr. Pendleton, he made an important speech, displaying a clear and statesmanlike perception as to the result of the con- flict that was then being precipitated upon the country, and predicting the destruction of slavery as one of the results of that conflict. He was elected to the House again for the Thirty-seventh Congress, but when Mr. Chase resigned his position as United States Senator, he was elected by the Legislature of Ohio to fill the vacancy thus caused in the Senate, and he has ever since continued to occupy a seat in that body. He was placed upon the Committee of Finance, the most important of all the Senate committees, and intro- duced the National Bank Bill, of which measure, as well as of the Legal Tender Acts, he had charge on the floor and in the debates. Ilis labors were principally confined to finance and taxation, maintaining credit and providing money to carry on the war. In January, 1863, he made a speech against the continuance of the State banking system, and one in favor of the national banks, both of which were greatly effective. In the Thirty-ninth Congress he intro- dneed a bill for funding the public indebtedness, but the bill was mutilated in the Senate and defeated in the House. In the second session of the same Congress he proposed a substitute for the Reconstruction Bill, which finally became a law. In the Fortieth Congress he was again Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and in the second session he reported a new bill for funding the national debt and con- verting the notes of the United States, and supported the bill in a speech of remarkable power. Eventually the re- funding act-known as the law of 1870-under which the six per cent. bonds are being retired, was passed. Since 1855 he has devoted his attention principally to the solution of the financial problems presented by the condition of the nation, and the series of measures he has introduced have all been designed to strengthen the public credit and to place the national finances on a permanently sound basis.


ANSFIELD, HION. JARED, Surveyor and Teacher, was born in New Haven, Connecticut, about the year 1759. Ile was graduated at Yale in 1777, and afterwards taught school in his na- tive city and Philadelphia. His scholarly attain- ments becoming known to Thomas Jefferson, he was appointed Professor of Natural Philosophy at West Point. About this time the publication of his " Mathe- matical and Physical Essays " brought him considerable reputation, and he took a prominent place among the scien- tific men of the nation. About the time the State of Ohio was created, President Jefferson appointed him Surveyor- General of the Northwestern Territories, to succeed General Rufus Putnam. He introduced many improvements in the mode of effecting surveys by rectangular co-ordinates, which subsequently received the sanction of law. He afterwards resumed his position at West Point, where he remained until a few years previous to his death, when he retired to Cincinnati. Ile died while on a visit to his native city, February 3d, 1830. He was a man of extraordinary mathe- matical genius and varied abilities. His character was pure and his disposition generous and sincere. Dr. Daniel Drake, of Cincinnati, was his son-in-law. Mans- field, the county-seat of Richland, laid out in 1808, was named in honor of him.


INSLEY, THOMAS RICHARD, Architect, was born, August 234, 1849, in Clonmel, county of Tipperary, Ireland, and is the sixth son of Wil- liam Tinsley, architect (whose biographical sketch appears elsewhere in this volume). He was two years old when his parents removed to the United States. Owing to a peculiar impediment he could not speak until he was ten years old, and consequently at that time had not mastered the alphabet. The impediment, however, totally disappeared. His early education was ob- tained in the common schools of Indianapolis and Cincin- nati, and in 1862 he went to the Ohio Wesleyan University, at Delaware, where he passed but a single year, as his health had become impaired. His educational attainments are self-acquired, he being a home student. Ile subse- quently passed some years in his father's office, qualifying himself for his future professional career. In the spring of 1870 he was appointed Superintendent of Construction of the Ohio State Blind Asylum, at Columbus. While still holding that position, he was, early in 1871, appointed Su- perintendent of the great Public Fountain, Cincinnati, In


535


BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.


1872 he was taken mto partnership with his father; this was shortly afterwards dissolved, and, resigning his position at the Blind Asylum, he went to Chicago in August of that year, and was immediately appointed General Superintendent of the MeCormick Reaper Works, the largest of its kind in existence. This building was finished in December, 1872. ILwing contracted a severe cold, he entertained ideas of relinquishing his profession and entering some other; but upon the urgent request of the authorities connected with the Blind Asylum, he returned to Columbus in June, 1873, and was appointed Assistant Architect and Superintendent, being given full charge of the building and its finances. During this year, he also had charge of the Ohio State Library enlargements, etc. Ile was appointed, April 13th, 1874, Chief Architect of the Central Ohio Lunatic Asylum. This appointment was indeed a success; for he was not yet twenty-five years oldl, and withal a Republican, yet he was chosen over more than twenty competitors, by a Demo- cratie commission, and was confirmed by Governor Allen. Moreover, this building was made a point of issue in the campaign between the Republicans and Democrats. At one of the subsequent great ratification meetings at the State House, several of the Democratic speakers-one being General S. F. Cary-paid him the compliment by saying that " his appointment was owing strictly to the ability, economy, and enterprise, exhibited by him at the Blind Asylum." The Lunatic Asylum is an immense structure, having a frontage of nearly 1200 feet, and in its construction requiring well nigh 45,000,000 bricks, is fire-proof, and will cost, completed, about $2,250,000. At the time of Mullett's removal as United States Architect, Thomas' name was favorably mentioned by the Ohio press in connection with the office. He now has full control of his father's business, the latter having retired from active pursuits, Beside his State office, he carries on his business in both Columbus and Cincinnati. Ile now has charge of the new buildings of the Institution for the Blind, the State House improve- ments, besides other buildings. Ile was the designer and anthor of the steam heating and ventilation plans of the Lunatic Asylum, the cost of the apparatus being $100,000. Ile is one of the incorporators and stockholders of the Ohio Silver Mining and Smelting Company of Utah. He is yet unmarried.




Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.