The Biographical encyclopedia of Ohio of the nineteenth century. Pt. 2, Part 47

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 47


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country. Ile was one of the oldest physicians in the profes- sion, and few persons had lived longer, uninterruptedly, in the city. As a physician and surgeon his standing and reputation were exceptionally high. Few men in his pro. fession, probably, possessed a clearer and more comprehen- sive view of diseases, and arrived so readily at a conclusion with a prompt and simple treatment. He continued his professional readings to within a few months of his death, and, unlike most old physicians who entered the profession early in the century, he was able to advance with the tide of scientific and mecheal progress. Ile was in his last years a young old man, keeping fully abreast of his age. As early as IS22 he performed some remarkable surgical operations, accounts of which were published in the journals of the day. On account of these he received the degree of M. D. from Transylvania Medical College, at Lexington, Kentucky. As medical journals sprang up over the West during his long professional career, he became a frequent contributor to their columns, and in every way tried to advance the cause in which he spent nearly his whole life. He was a member of the Cincinnati Academy of Medicine. He was by birth a member of the Society of Friends, and remained during his life in that connection, conforming to its customs in dress and language, Ilis manners were gentle, cour- teous and pleasing, although his early education was defi- cient. This deficiency he largely corrected during a long life of careful reading and study, and came to stand de- servedly high in his profession, and lived and died a Chris- tian, universally esteemed. He left five children, two daughters and three sons. His sons, David, Charles Palmer and William, are all practising physicians of Cincinnati.


EVEREUX, JOHN HENRY, Civil Engineer and Railroad President, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, April 5th, 1832, and is the son of Captain John Devereux, of the merchant marine, whose family was one of the first settlers of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, in New England. His ancestors were of the aristocracy of England, he being of the twenty-sixth generation in England and of the seventh in this country, in a direct line, from Robert de Ebroicis or Robert D'Evrenx, known in history as one of the Norman conquerors of England of 1066. The subject of this sketch was educated in Portsmouth Academy, New Hampshire, and removed to Ohio early in 1848, when but sixteen years of age, and as a civil engineer found employment on the Cleveland, Cincinnati & Columbus Railroad. After that road was completed he was engaged on the Cleveland, Painesville & Ashtabula Railroad as Constructing Engineer. From 1852 to 1861 he was engaged in Tennessee as civil engineer, in constructing railroads. He intended to make


UDKINS, WILLIAM, M. D., was born in Guilford county, North Carolina, September tst, 1788, and was consequently in his seventy-third year at the time of his decease, on June 224, 1861. In 1806 he emigrated to Ohio, and at the age of twenty- two, in 1811, commenced the practice of medi- cine in Jefferson county, in that State. After twenty-one years of successful practice in that county, he removed to Cincinnati in 1832, where he ever after resided and prae. tived, with the exception of a few months' residence in the the South his permanent home, but the war drove him to


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the North, as he could not be a rebel. In the spring of dent of the Atlantic & Great Western Railroad Company, 1862 he was appointed Superintendent of Military Railroads and is actively engaged in the duties of his official positions. Ile has never been a politician, but before the war made speeches in Tennessee for the Union. Twice he has been tendered a nomination to Congress, but declined. He is an active member of the Episcopal Church. In 1860 he was elected Thrice Illustrious Grand Master of the Grand Ma- sonic Council of Tennessee, which shows how high he ranks in the Masonic order. In 1853 he married Antoinette C. Kelsey, daughter of Hon. Lorenzo A. Kelsey, former Mayor of Cleveland, and has four children. in Virginia. This was the hardest office to fill in the entire war department. There were no shops, no tools, cars out of repair, and enemies constantly destroying the roadbeds, officers of the army ever ready to find fault, spies and ped- dlers filling all the trains, and other obstacles too numerous to mention. Mr. Devereux at once drove every peddler, spy and thief from his lines. His army. of trained cm- ployes had the fullest confidence in his management, and / would at any time and at the greatest peril take a train through on time. Major-General Meade said he had never been " so magnificently " served in rations and forage. Very soon his herculean labors were appreciated by Abra- ham Lincoln and Edwin M. Stanton, and no power of " shoulder-straps " could effect his removal. Stanton's first despatch to him at Alexandria, one spring night, not far from midnight, was: " How soon could transportation be upon Maryland avenue, sent from Alexandria, for ten thou- sand men ? " Before the message was completed ou paper, he gave the reply in three words, " Within sixty minutes." Mr. Stanton was surprised, and expressed his incredulity, but again telegraphed, " Send them on," In an instant the Secretary was surprised by another despatch, " They are al- ready on the way." The headlight of the first engine was then shining towards Long Bridge, and the entire convoy was upon Maryland avenue within the designated " sixty min- utes." In the spring of 1864 he resigned his position as Superintendent of Military Railroads, and received the ap- probation of all with whom he had had business relations. On his return to Ohio he accepted the management of the Cleveland & Pittsburgh Railroad, and was its Vice-President and General Superintendent for five years. In 1866 he was made Vice-President of the Lake Shore Railroad Company, and soon after was made its President. When all the lines were consolidated between Buffalo and Chicago, under the name of Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad Com- pany, he was appointed General Manager, and had execu- tive control of this great line, with its important branches and leased connections. In June, 1873, he accepted the position of President of the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincin- nati & Indianapolis Railroad Company, and in the same year was elected President of the Atlantic & Great Western Railroad Company, holding both positions ; and at the same time was President of other railroad companies whose lines formed part of the system of the larger companies under his direction. When he accepted the presidency of the Atlantic & Great Western Railroad, it was nearly bankrupt though mismanagement. Ile endeavored to regain that which had been lost, but was unable under its financial management, and in the first of the year 1875 he resigned the positions of President and Director and was appointed its Receiver. All parties were entirely satisfied with this appointment, for they knew his were safe and honorable hands. In the spring of 1875 he was again elected Presi-


UCKLAND, HON. RALPH POMEROY, Law- yer, was born in Leydon, Massachusetts, January 12th, 1812. Ile is the son of Ralph P. Buckland, born at East Hartford, Connecticut, and Ann Kent, born at Middletown, in that State. Ilis father went to Portage county, Ohio, in r810, as a surveyor. The senior Buckland was a soldier in the war of 1812, and surrendered at Detroit with Hull's army. The family moved to Portage county in the spring of 1813, where the father soon died. The subject of this sketch at- tended common and academic schools, and passed the scholastic year of 1834-35 at Kenyon College, Ohio. Before he had completed his education he went down the Missis- sippi to Natchez, and from there to New Orleans, in charge of a flatboat loaded with flour. Ile was for some time em- ployed as a clerk in the cotton house of Harris, Wright & Co. After leaving Kenyon College he began to read law with Gregory Powers, Esq., at Middlebury, Ohio, finish- ing his course in the office of Whittlesey & Newton, at Canfield. In the spring of 1837 he was admitted to the bar. On the Ist of June, 1837, he opened a law office at Lower Sandusky (now Fremont), where he soon acquired a large practice. In January, 1838, he was married to Char- lotte Boughton, of Canfield. Mr. Buckland took a deep interest in political affairs, being a Delegate to the Whig National Convention of 1848. In 1855, and again in IS57, he was elected to the Senate of Ohio, in which position he performed faithful service for his constituents and his State. Hle entered the army in January of 1862 as Colonel of the 72d Regiment of the Ohio Volunteer Infantry. HIe was commandant of Camp Chase in February, 1862. Ile com- manded a brigade in Sherman's army at the battle of Shiloh, in April of 1862, and in Grant's Mississippi campaign, in December of the same year, he led an expedition against Forrest in West Tennessee, and commanded a brigade in the campaign and siege of Vicksburg. For valiant service in the field he was commissioned a Brigadier, and at the close of the war was commissioned a Major-General. ITis gallant bearing at the head of his brigade in the siege of Vicks- burg attracted special attention. He commanded the dis- tict of Memphis in 1864, and repulsed Forrest's attack on the city of Memphis. In this year he was elected to Con-


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gress, being re-elected in 1866. While in Congress he was a member of the Committee on Banking and Currency. In 1869 he was appointed by Governor Hayes a member of the Board of Managers of the Ohio Soldier,' and Sailors' Chphans' Home. He served as President of the Board for four years. Since the war General Buckland has resided at his ald home, Fremont, Sandusky county. In the winter of 1875 he made the tour of the West Indies in the sailing yacht " Tarolinto," as the guest of the owner, Henry A. Kent, of New York, in company with Judge Ranney and Dr. Streeter, of Cleveland, sailing over 7000 miles and touching at the islands of Barbadoes, Trinidad, Grenada, Martinique, Santa Cruz, St. Thomas, Porto Rico, St. Domingo, Jamaica and Cuba.


ARUS, CARL, Professor of Music, was born, Oc- tober 12th, 1823, in Schurgart, Silesia. Ile was sent to school in Oppeln at the age of six years. In 1833 he entered the Gymnasium and began the study of music. In 1838 he went to Bireg, to receive instructions on the organ under Pro- fessor Forster, and in vocal music under Professor Fisher. From 1841 to 1844 he studied thorough bass under Professor Hesse, and received instructions on the piano-forte under Professor Richter, at the Royal Seminary in Breslan. In 1844 he entered the Royal School of Architecture. Ile was about to stand his examination for Royal Architect when the revolution of 1848 disturbed the country and obliged him to come to America, where he landed in May, 1849. Ile purchased a farm near Saginaw City, Michigan, and devoted his leisure hours to training a singing society of forty-five male voices, In 1851 Professor Barus con- ceived the idea of organizing a concert troupe, in connec- tion with a friend, Mr. Dickmann. Professor Barus went to Cincinnati and Mr. Dickmann to New York to secure talent. The former found an engagement to keep him in Cincinnati and the latter met with equal good fortune in New York, and that put an end to the concert troupe project. Professor Barns' first engagement in Cincinnati was as Leader in the German Theatre. In 1852 he was employed as Leader of the Germania Liedertafel and Di- rector of the Turner Singing Society. In 1856 he took the Leadership of the Philharmonic Society, composed of forty- five skilled musicians who performed the symphonies of the best composers. In 1858 be accepted the Leadership of the Cincinnati Mannerchor, and played in concert and opera besides. In the following year he became Director of the new Orpheus Society, which at first performed in opera and then devoted itself to classical concerts. Ile organized the "Harmonic Society, composed of Americans, in 1860, which under his leadership produced the most popular of the oratorios. In addition to his other labors Professor Barus led the singing festivals of all the societies in the | he manied 11. Jane Lytle, of Lebanon, Ohio. In 1563 lie


West, viz. : at Canton, in 1854; at Indianapolis, in 1858; at Lafayette, in 1859; at Terre Ilante, in 1860; at Colum- bus, in 1865; and again at Indianapolis, in 1867. Ile has been organist in the Jewish Temple on Plum street, C'in- cinnati, performing a hike service in several Christian churches in that city. Since 1858 he has been Professor of Music in the Wesleyan College.


AMNITZ, JOSIAH UPTDEGRAFF, Engineer, was born, April 4th, 1815, at Wheeling, Virginia, of German parentage. Early in life he went to Gallipolis, where he received as fair an educa- tion as could be obtained in the schools of that place. He lived at home and was variously em- ployed until 1834, when he started out to make his own way in the world. Stuting with a natural inclination for mechanical pursuits, he had acquired considerable valuable knowledge of machinery by close observation. Ile was thus fitted to accept an opening which offered at Cincin- nati, where he engaged as Second Engineer of the steamer " Potomac." Without any apprenticeship or previous train- ing he entered upon his new duties and discharged them satisfactorily. For a period of four years Mr. Camnite was employed as Second Engineer on different steamboats. In 1838 he became Chief Engineer of the steamer " Dayton." Ile ran on the Ohio continuously for several years, until he became well known as a trustworthy engincer and had ac- cumulated some means. There came a time when business on the Ohio was slack, and Mr. Camnitz thought he saw a good opening on the Miami canal. A few months demon- strated his error, and he returned to the river, soon securing a good situation as engineer. During his long career Mr. Camnitz has boated on every navigable stream, except the Kentucky, from Pittsburgh to the mouth of the Mississippi. During the war he was Captain of the " Peerless," which lay in Mobile bay on the day of President Lincoln's assas- sination. After the declaration of peace Captain Camnitz returned to Pittsburgh and bought the " Nymph No. 2," with which he engaged in the Mobile trade. In an ex- perience of forty years Captain Camnitz had not a single accident by which human life was sacrificed or placed in jeopardy. This was the result of care, sobriety and skill in the days when the gauge-cock, safety-valve and old- fashioned supply-pump had not yet given way to the im- proved steamboat engines of modern construction. The fame of this experienced engineer and boatman went up and down the valleys of the Ohio and the Mississippi, and in 1874 he was called to an easier life. The directors of Long View Asylum, regarding him as well for his care as his skill, appointed him Engineer at that institution. Hle now holds that position, and is as active in the discharge of his duty as when he fast laid hold of a valve. In 18.10


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married his present wife, Mrs. Mary K. Sutherland, | steadily increased from year to year, until, for the past daughter of Charles Oscar Tracy, a prominent lawyer of Portsmouth, Ohio.


ELLEBUSH, CLEMENS, Wholesale Jeweller, was born, December 1Sth, 1832, in the village of Boeringhausen, near Damme, in the southern part of the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg, Ger- many, and is a son of Herman and Elizabeth Hellebush. Ilis father, as well as his two elder brothers, were school teachers, the former having followed that calling for over half a century. From these he re- ceived a good German education, and when fifteen years old concluded to seek his fortunes in the United States, whither his brother Frank had already preceded him, and was at that time teaching a school in Cincinnati. On his arrival in the latter city he joined his brother, with whom he remained a year in the capacity of pupil and assistant teacher ; he also learned music, his brother being a cele- brated composer, and for thirty years organist in the Church of the Mother of God, in Covington, Kentucky. Clemens was also educated with a view of becoming a teacher, but he elected to enter into mercantile pursuits. When seven- teen years old he entered the house of Messrs. Storch & Co., Cincinnati, where he remained nine months, and then obtained a situation as clerk in the chy-goods house of J. I .. Bontellier, the largest retail house on Fourth street. Ile there occupied the responsible position of cashier, handling large sums of money daily, the duties of which he performed to the entire satisfaction of his employer. Ile here acquired a knowledge of business which has been of great advantage to him throughout his career; but the wages he there received did not appear to him enongh compensation for the services he rendered, and at the end of eighteen months he entered the jewelry house of Theo- dore Oskamp, who had recently started in the wholesale trade. In about four years after his employment com- menced the proprietor died, leaving the business in the hands of his brother, Clemens Oskamp, who gave to Clemens Hellebush an interest in the business under a contract which had five years to run ; and, at the expiration thereof, renewed the said contract for another term of five years, and increased his interest to one-third of the profits. At the expiration of the second term of five years of the partnership, having now been fourteen years connected with the house, he saw other fields in which he could better his condition and build up a business of his own, and which he thought, in the end, would be more profitable, and certainly pleasanter. Accordingly, not only from his own conviction, but acting on the advice of his friends, and also upon the solicitations of the many customers which he had made, he opened, in January, 1866, a wholesale jew- elry house at the northeast corner of Pearl and Main streets, where he yet remains and where his business has


three years, he has surpassed all others in the same line, not only in the city, but west of the Alleghenies. It has been a matter of surprise and astonishment to importers and manufacturers in the East that his business has grown to such enormous proportions. Ile employs no travelling agents, but relies upon strict integrity and honorable deal- ing as the best advertisement; a customer once secured, rarely ever leaves him. He has effected arrangements with the manufacturers by which he monopolizes his own specialties in articles of jewelry, silver and plated ware; so that the same patterns cannot be found in any other house. IIe also has special contracts for the celebrated Seth Thomas clocks and the Longine watch. He is also constantly in the receipt of large importations of French elocks and other goods from Paris, and also from Pforzheim, the most ex- tensive jewelry manufacturing place in Baden, Germany. Hle employs a large number of first-class jewellers, who manufacture to his own taste and design the greater portion of his domestic goods, and who do work to order, such as setting diamonds, also solid gold and silver work. During the past year his sales amounted to $325,000; and are in- creasing at the rate of $25,000 per annum. His residence is at Walnut Hills, one of the most beautiful suburbs of Cincinnati, and is surrounded with large grounds, five acres, elegantly laid out, the value of this property being over $50,000. Ile is also the owner of other real estate in Cov- ington, Kentucky, his former place of residence, which is also worth over $50,000. Ile was prominent as one of the Building Committee and also as Trustee in the erection of the beautiful edifice on Sixth street, Covington, called the Church of the Mother of God, which is built after the style of St. Peter's Church, Rome, and is one of the finest eccle- siastical structures in the Western country ; and great credit is due him for the assistance he rendered Rev. Father Fer- dinand Kuehr, as well as the congregation, for the interest he manifested in its erection. From the foregoing remarks it will be seen that he is the architect of his own fortunes, emphatically a self-made man; and no one in the com- munity is more respected and no business man stands higher than himself. He was married in Cincinnati, May Sth, 1855, to Elizabeth Specker, and is the father of eleven children, ten of whom are living.


RKENBRECKER, ANDREW, Starch Manufac- turer, of Cincinnati, Ohio, was born at Ileilgers- dorf, near Saxe-Coburg, Bavaria, July 4th, 1821. IIe enjoyed the best educational advantages until he emigrated to the United States with his father, Henry Erkenbrecker, his mother and sister Mary. They landed at New York, July 18th, 1836, and thence proceeded westward ; after a journey of four months they reached Cincinnati, and there settled on the farm of Major


Stamens Hellebush,


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Daniel Gaw, near Carthage, the whole family being em- | for its object the introduction to this country of all useful, ployed at twenty dollars per month. With the aid of Mrs. insect-eating European birds, as well as the best singers; and to see to it that the imported as well as the domestie birds have a better protection against the attacks of heart- less men and thoughtless boys; that the shooting of useful birds be prevented and the destruction of birds' nests be stopped, with all legal means at the disposal of the society. Of this he has been President since its organization. In 1873 he organized the Zoological Society of Cincinnati, a joint stock company, which has for its object the establish- ment and maintenance of a zoological garden at Cincinnati, and the study and dissemination of a knowledge of the nature and habits of the creatures of the animal kingdom. Of this society he is the Treasurer, and to both he has been a liberal contributor in money and labor, being indefatigable in his efforts to achieve for them the success they so richly deserve. Ile was married in 1845 to the daughter of John Myers, of Cincinnati, Ohio; she died in 1866, and he was again married in 1871 to Matilda Cunningham, of Cincin- nati, Ohio. Tiley and daughter, who resided at the farm, Andrew set about the acquirement of a knowledge of the English lan- gnage; and, having attained some proficiency, moved to Cincinnati and entered the store of John Myers, a candy manufacturer, on Main street. IIe subsequently served as clerk in the old Mansion House, and afterward in the grocery store of Charles Remelin, on Fifth street, opposite the present site of the Fountain Boulevard. By rigid economy he had saved from his earnings an amount suf- ficient to enable him to embark in business on his own ac- count in 1843. Ile took a small mill on Lock street, near Fifth, where he commenced the manufacture of flour, feed and pearl barley, to which he soon added starch; in the latter branch he only consumed about thirty bushels of grain per day, the product being entirely consumed in the home retail trade. As necessity required he increased the capacity of his works, and finally, in 1851, erected a factory at Morrow, on the Little Miami Railroad, capable of con- suming one hundred bushels of grain per day. This quan- tity was increased with the demand, having reached three hundred bushels per day, when the building with all its contents was destroyed by fire, April 13th, 1860. IIe thus CKERT, HON. TIIOMAS F., Engineer, Legis- lator and President of the Western Insurance Company of Cincinnati, Ohio, was born near Alexandria, Campbell county, Kentucky, July 12th, 1809. Ilis grandparents, George and Susan Eckert, were natives of Berlin, Prussia, where the former was a successful and opulent merchant. Deeming the new world better adapted to the raising of a family, and to offer greater inducements to capitalists, he loaded a brig at Ilamburg with merchandise and 200,000 bricks, and with his brothers, Leonard and Jacob, and his sister Susan, sailed for the United States. IIe landed at Philadelphia, built a house of his bricks and engaged in business as a merchant. After some years lie removed to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he erected the first brick house, and in it Leonard, the father of Thomas F., was born. When Leonard was twelve years of age his father died, leaving a large estate. Ile and his sister Susan were left to the care of their mother, who married again in a few lost the greater portion of the accumulations of years of in- defatigable labor; but, nothing daunted, he set about a reparation of his loss. Purchasing the site of his present works, upon which there then stood an old starch factory, he resumed operations. Ile had given years of study and patient labor to the perfection of his work, and in April, 1866, commenced the erection of his present capacious fac- tory, which is built upon plans which have been the results of diligent research, and upon the various features of which he holds patents. It is four stories in height, with a front- age of 201 feet on the Miami canal and an average depth of 165 feet. It has a capacity for the production of about 22 tons of starch per day, which consumes about 2000 bushels of corn. Of the internal arrangements, which are most complete, the most noteworthy are the tanks of stone and cement, which have entirely superseded all wooden vessels as receptacles of the starch in a fluid state. All the unloading is done by means of elevators patented by him. In addition to the buikling above mentioned capacious | years, and one of the uncles was appointed guardian to the warehouses have been added, as required. A switch from children. Upon attaining their majority they found a large part of their property squandered, and were obliged to ap- peal to the courts for the possession of what remained. After the accomplishment of this and the marriage of both they left Lancaster to seek a home in the West. Leonard married Mary, daughter of Colonel William Cheshire, the revolutionary hero, who was killed by the fall of a tree while on duty near Bunker Hill. She was first cousin to Richard M. Johnson, Vice-President of the United States under Van Buren, who killed Tecumseh, and sustained the same relation to Daniel Boone, the distinguished Kentucky pioneer, as well as to General Squire and Elijah Grove, the railroad, together with the canal, affords abundant facilities for transportation. The goods are shipped direet to all parts of the world, without intermediate handling by agents, an average of about fifteen thousand boxes being shipped monthly to foreign countries. The factory took the Medal of Progress, as the model factory of the world, at the Vienna Exposition, in 1873; also the highest medal for starch over one hundred and forty-nine competitors. Though engrossed in business affairs, he has given time to the furtherance of the public interests. He originated the Cincinnati Acclimatization Society, in 1871, which has




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