USA > Ohio > The Biographical encyclopedia of Ohio of the nineteenth century. Pt. 2 > Part 5
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full operation by ordinance of the City Council. J. HI. Walker was the first chairman of the Committee on Fire Department. On April ist, 1855, E. G. Megrue became Assistant Engineer, and performed the duties of that office for two years, when he was appointed Chief, April Ist, 1857, by Council, and has served ever since, a period of nearly nineteen years, with great faithfulness and efficiency in this most honorable and responsible office. It may be observed in this connection that since Captain Megrue was first en- rolled in the Paid Fire Department it has become, as a system, inferior to none other of a like character in the United States. The year 1853 was the date when steam fire-engines were first introduced, and Cincinnati was the birthplace. of these valuable and efficient machines in America. Cincinnati now claims her Fire Department as the model one of the United States, and one of the most efficient in the world. IIer system has been and is being adopted everywhere in the country. Every movement is made with a promptness, celerity and system, which it has taken years of close attention and discipline to attain. On April 29th, 1873, the State Legislature passed an Act to create a Board of Fire Commissioners, to be appointed by the Mayor of Cincinnati. P. W. Strader became the first President of the Board, and was succeeded by John L. Thompson, April Ist, 1874. The appointments of the mem- bers of this Board are made irrespective of the political opinions of these gentlemen ; they are selected from among the best citizens, and are five in number. The control of the Fire Department is entirely in their hands, and every member of the department is thoroughly and completely devoted to its service. When an appointment is made, the only question considered is whether the appointee is morally and physically capable of performing his duties, and whether he is sober, industrious and brave, and there is a spirit of emulation and " esprit du corps" to be found in no other department. Another cause of the success which has at- tended the Cincinnati Fire Department is in its magnificent apparatus. As already stated, Captain Megrue has held his position since April Ist, 1857, having been re elected Chief immediately prior to the expiration of each term of office. In June, 1873, he was elected for a term of three years ; and such is the universal confidence reposed in him by the citizens of Cincinnati, regardless of politics, that there is no doubt of his retention in the position. Upon the organiza- tion of the Fire Alarm Telegraph Department by the City Council, he became its Superintendent in addition to his duties as Chief Engineer. Religiously, politically and socially, he is a man of liberal views. As an admiral of the fleet owes his allegiance to the government symbolized by the flag that floats ahove him, so does Captain Megrue bend his every faculty to render still more efficient the noble fire department with which he has been connected in some capacity for over thirty-eight years. Ile is undoubt- edly a man of great integrity of character, of dauntless courage, of excellent judgment and indomitable resolution.
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Ilis life has been, on very many occasions, in the most imminent danger, and in a dozen cases at least have his wounds been of a serious nature. During a large fire in Cincinnati in July, 1875, he was buried in the falling ruins with eleven of his daring men -- three of whom were killed -and was completely obscured, to be dug out after two hours' work by his department in a crippled condition, from which he is slowly recovering. The general gloom which overhung the city when the knowledge of his severe injuries became publicly known, and the countless inquiries at head-quarters as to his condition, attested the high de- gree of estimation in which he is held by all classes of the people. Captain Megrue was married, December 25th, IS45, to Ann Levy, a native of Kentucky, a sister of Captain George Levy, now Chief Engineer of the Louisville Fire Department, and is the father of six children.
ENEY, JOSHUA ROBERT, ex-Judge and Law- yer, was born at Tiffin, Ohio, March 30th, 1839. Ilis grandfather, Joshua Seney, married a daugh- ter of Commodore Nicholson, was a member of the first Congress of the United States, and re- signed his seat in the second Congress to accept a judicial office in Maryland. His father, Joshua Seney, was commissioned by President Jackson as a Federal Judge of Pennsylvania, but never qualified. He was four years at Antioch College, Ohio, during the Presidency of Horace Mann, and subsequently entered the junior class of Union College, New York, where he graduated in 186o. Ile read law under Judge Pillars at Tiffin, and was admitted to prac- tise at Fremont, Ohio, in 1862. Was Suther of the 10Ist Regiment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry from 1862 until his removal to Toledo. He came to Toledo in December, 1864, where he has since resided. Was elected a Judge of the Court of Common Ples of the Fourth Judicial Dis- trict of Ohio in April, 1871, which office he resigned in October, 1874, to resume the practice of his profession. Ile was married at Kalida, Ohio, December 24th, 1867, to Julia Rice, a sister of General Rice, member of Congress from the Fifth District. He votes the Democratic ticket.
TEEDMAN, JAMES BLAIR, Printer, Soldier, and Major-General United States Volunteers, was born, July 29th, 1817, in Chillisquaque township, Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, of Scotch parentage. Ile received his education in a village school house in Lewisburg, Union county, in the same State. Ile became an orphan when thirteen years old, and was obliged to labor hard to earn a support for himself, sister and two brothers, and after leaving school became an apprentice to the printing business. He next became en-
gaged on the public works as a contractor, in which avo- cation he continued for eight years. Ile was elected a member of the Ohio Legislature in 1841, and re-elected in 1842. In I851 he was elected a member and President of the Board of Public Works of Ohio, and served for a period of four years in that office. In 1857 he was elected Printer to the House of Representatives of the United States. On the outbreak of the rebellion he was elected, by the votes of the members of the 14th Regiment Ohio Vohinteers, the Colonel of that command, and immediately left for the Geld. With this regiment he took the town of Parkersburg, Virginia, in May, 1861, capturing a large amount of rolling stock in the railroad depot. Ile then moved, with his command, on the northwestern branch of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad to Webster, rebuilding the bridges over Petroleum and Toll Gate ereeks, which had been destroyed by the enemy ; this work was completed in thirty honrs. Ile participated, with his regiment, in the battle of Philippi, June 3d, 1861, and led the advance in pursuit of the rebels under General Garnet, from Laurel Hill to Carrick's Ford, where his regiment attacked Garnet's command, fighting it alone for forty-five minutes, killing the general and routing his forces. In July, 1861, he returned home and reorgan- ized the regiment, of which he was appointed Colonel, and, with his command, went to Kentucky in September, 1861, reporting to General George II. Thomas, commanding Camp Dick Robinson. Ile was sent, with his regiment, by order of General Thomas, to Bourbon county, where he broke up and dispersed a rebel regiment which was being organized by Humphrey Marshall. Hle then returned to Camp Dick Robinson, when he was sent, with his com- mand, to Wild Cat, which he reached in time to save the 2d Kentucky Regiment under Colonel Garrard, and assist in whipping and routing the rebels under General Zolli- coffer. Ile then marched to Lebanon, Kentucky, where he joined Thomas and thence proceeded to Mill Springs, in which battle he commanded his regiment. He returned with Thomas to Lebanon, thence marched to Louisville; and immediately after the fall of Fort Donelson went with his regiment to Nashville. From this latter city he marched to Shiloh, and, under the command of General Thomas, participated in that battle. After the fall of Corinth he was engaged in the pursuit of Bragg's army. Ile served with Thomas in the campaign, which culminated in the battle of Perryville, Kentucky, in which action, having been promoted to the rank of Brigadier-General, he commanded the brigade of General R. L. McCook, who had been mur- dered in Alabama. In the battle of Stone River he was on the extreme right flank, but his troops were not engaged. After this battle he was assigned to the First Division of the Army of the Cumberland, ten thousand strong, and posted at Triune, Tennessee, where, for sixty days, his command was almost daily engaged in skirmishing with the enemy. In May, 1863, he was assigned to the command of the post of Murfreesboro' and the railroad defences, and in the fol-
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lowing August was relieved from this command by General Rosecrans, and ordered to the front in command of the First Division of the Reserve Corps, On September 16th, 1863, he received orders to make a reconnaissance in the direction of Ringgokl, Georgia, and marched to that point, skirmishing with the enemy for three hours before reaching the town. After a severe skirmish with the advance of longstreet's corps he fell back to the Chickamauga river, where he received an order to hold the bridge, on which the main road from Chattanooga to Atlanta crossed that stream. This position he held during the 19th, the first day of the battle of Chickamauga. On Sunday, the 20th, he abandoned the bridge and went to the support of Gen- eral Thomas, arriving, with his command, in time to save the remnant of the army on the fick from rout and capture. Ilis command suffered severely, losing about three thousand men in two hours. ITis horse was shot under him. For the part he bore in this terrible battle he was made a Major- General, on a telegram to President Lincoln asking his promotion for distinguished and gallant services on the field, and signed by Generals Rosecrans, Thomas and Granger. When General Sherman advanced from Chatta- nooga in April, 1864, General Steedman was assigned to the command of the District of the Etowah, extending from Stevenson, Alabama, to the rear line of the army, and to control the railroads in the head quarters at Chatta- nooga. This position he held until the close of the war. In June, 1864, the rebel cavalry under General Wheeler having passed around the right flank of Sherman, struck the railroad nine miles south of Dalton, Georgia, where he captured two companies of the 8th lowa Infantry. lle then invested Dalton with fifty-five hundred cavalry, de- manding the surrender of the garrison-the 2d Missouri Infantry-under the command of Colonel Siebakl, who refused to surrender; and General Steedman, in personal command of two regiments, the 14th United States Colored and the 58th Indiana Infantry, moved by railroad, reached a point nine miles north of Dahon, where he left the cars and moved stealthily in the night close up to the enemy, where he halted, and at daylight rushed upon him, routing with twelve hundred men Wheeler's entire force, and rescuing the garrison. When Hood-after Sherman moved in his " March to the Sea"-menaced Nashville, General Steedman without waiting for orders went with fourteen thousand men on fourteen trains of cars from Chattanooga to Nashville, arriving in time to participate in the battle. lle was placed in command of the left wing of Thomas' army, and made the first attack on Hood's forces, driving them over half a mile and capturing two lines of earth- works. On the second day he united with the Fourth Corps, under the command of General T. L. Wood, and being the ranking officer General Steedman directed the operations of both corps and routed the enemy at Overton Ilill. After the battle he was sent by General Thomas, with his corps, by way of Murfreesboro' to Stevenson and
Huntsville, if possible, to intercept the routed, fleeing rebels under Ilood at Florence, but the main body of the enemy had crossed the Tennessee river before Steedman reached Florence. Ilis command, however, broke up and captured a large number of rebel cavalry under General Rhoddy. Ile then returned to Chattanooga, and was shortly after- wards assigned to the command of the State of Georgia, with his head-quarters at Augusta, where he remained until April, 1866, when he was detailed, by order of Secretary Stanton, to make a tour of the Southern States and inspect the Freedmen's Bureau, which service he duly performed, and in September, 1866, resigned his commission of (full) Major-General. In February, 1867, he was appointed Col- lector of Internal Revenue at New Orleans. After his re- turn to Ohio he was elected a member of the Constitutional Convention of Ohio, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the resignation of IIon. M. R. Waite, who had been appointed Chief-Justice of the United States Supreme Court. General Steedman has been twice married. His first wife, to whom he was united in 1838, was Sarah M. Stiles. Ile was again married, in 1874, to Rose 11. Barr, who died February 7th, 1876. Ile is now editor of the Northern Ohio Democrat, published at Toledo, Ohio.
EAN, HON. EZRA V., Lawyer, was born, October 22d, 1825, at Wooster, Wayne county, Ohio, and is the eldest of two children, whose parents were Ezra and Eliza (Naylor) Dean. Ilis father (whose biographical sketch appears elsewhere in this volume) was a native of Columbia county, New York, of English extraction, and followed an agricul- tural life during his youth, afterwards becoming a prominent attorney-at-law ; he was also an officer during the war of 1812, and an early settler in Ohio, locating at Wooster in 1822, where he married Eliza, daughter of William Naylor, farmer and surveyor, who had removed from Elizabeth- town, Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, in 1813, and settled in Wooster. This family was of Scotch-Irish ancestry. She died in July, 1872, about six months after the death of Judge Dean. Their son, Ezra V., was most carefully trained by his parents in both moral and industrious habits. Ile received a liberal education both at Oberlin and Hud- son Colleges in Ohio, concluding his studies at Jefferson College, Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania, from which institution of learning he graduated in the class of 1847. The follow- ing year he commenced reading law with his father, and for a period of four years was so occupied. He was ad- mitted to the bar in 1850, and immediately became an asso- ciate with his father in the practice of his profession. In 1853 he was elected to the lower branch of the Legislature, wherein he served one term of two years, and was at that time the youngest member of that body. In 1862 he accom- panied the 120th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry as
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Quartermaster, and was subsequently made Brigade Quar- | Dr. Jacob Kirby continuously pursued the practice of his termaster, serving as such for some considerable time. Ile saw service mainly in the Southwest, being present during the siege and at the surrender of Vicksburg. He remained in Wooster until the autumn of 1864, engaged in the active control of an extensive legal practice in connection with his father. At the date last mentioned, he removed to Ironton, Lawrence county, where he was joined by his father in 1867, and where he has since resided and continued the prac- tice of his profession, and been the recipient of an extensive patronage. In 1867 he was elected Prosecuting Attorney of Lawrence county, notwithstanding it was a Republican stronghold, and he was a candidate for the Legislature in I873. Hle has ever been identified with the Democratic party, and cast his first vote for Lewis Cass, the candidate of the regular Democrats in 1848. In religious faith he is a Presbyterian. Socially he is pleasant and affable. Ilis integrity of character is unquestionable, and he has ever been remarkable for untiring energy and industry. He was married, 1851, to Charlotte, a daughter of Daniel Weaver, of Wooster.
IRBY, JACOB, and his twin brother, Colonel Moses 11. Kirby, of Upper Sandusky, Ohio, were born in Halifax county, Virginia, on May 21st, 1798, the children of Obediah and Ruth Kirby, who were of the Orthodox Friends' persuasion. Obediah Kirby died in 1808, in Halifax county, Virginia, leaving his wife and five sons surviving him. In 1814 the widow, with her four surviving sons (the eklest, Samuel, having been killed in the defence of Norfolk, Vir- ginia, in the war of 1812), removed from Virginia and settled in Hillsborough, Ohio, where she remained for some time, until after the marriage of her sons, with whom she made her home alternately until 1838, when she died at the house of her son John, in Upper Sandusky, Ohio. The widowed mother bestowed all her energy and means in giving to her twin sons a liberal education. At an early age they were sent to a classical school taught by the Rev. James Gilleland, near Ripley, Ohio, where they were pre- pared for college, and from that school were sent by their mother to the University of North Carolina, at Chapel Hill, where they graduated in 1819. After they had finished their collegiate education, they returned to Ohio, where Jacob commenced the study of medicine, and Moses that of law. During the study of his profession, Jacob was sent to Transylvania University, Lexington, Kentucky, in the medical department of which he graduated in 1823, Dr. Dudley being at that time President. After his return from Transylvania University he commenced the practice of med- icine in Hillsborough, Ohio, in partnership with Dr. Jasper Hland, an eminent and highly educated physician from Philadelphia, and from 1823 up to his last illness, a period of nearly fifty years, among his various other public duties,
profession in Highland county, in the most laborions, suc- cessful and unselfish manner. On February 28th, 1825, Dr. Kirby was united by marriage to Rachel Woodrow, second daughter of Joshua and Nancy Woodrow, of Hillsborough, Ohio. From 1829 to 1835 he with Hiram Campbell con- trolled and edited the Hillsborough Gacette. In 1834 he was elected to the House of Representatives, and in 1835 to the State Senate from the counties of Highland and Fayette. Moses II. Kirby, the twin brother, studied law with General Richard Collins, and after his admission to the bar was appointed Prosecuting Attorney in 1825 for Highland county, and continued in that office until 1830; he also represented Highland county in the Legislature in 1826, 1827 and 1830. During this last term of service he was elected Secretary of State, and after the expiration of his term of office as Secretary, never made Ilighland county his home. At this period the dual life of the twin brothers in their joint and several action and influence in Highland county ceased ; but though separated, their love, like that of David and Jonathan, was wonderful, as was evinced by Colonel Kirby's touching remark after the burial of his brother, " I feel like half of me is gone." Dr. Kirby, by his marriage with Rachel Woodrow (who was also of Quaker parentage), became united with a large and influen- tial family, and by the joint birthright of himself and wife with the Friends, he was always devoted to that people and they to him. He left surviving him his widow, Rachel Kirby, and two daughters, Mrs. Ann Smith, wife of Dr. William R. Smith, and their four children; Lizzie Kirby, the youngest daughter, and also the children of his second daughter (deceased), Mrs. Ruth Pugsley, formerly wife of Mr. Walter Pugsley, all of whom were as profound mourners at his death as they had been in every relation devoted to him in his life. On March 26th, 1873, he died at near the completion of his seventy-fifth year. In the relation of son, husband, and father, he cherished the most sensitive regard and care, though he studiously abstained from mere displays in the observation of the workl. His character was well defined by individuality. With a nature exceedingly sensi- tive, he approached the discharge of every public and pro- fessional duty with caution, but yet with a quiet determina- tion and industrious purpose to accomplish whatsoever, on any occasion, seemed to him to be his duty. Unobtrusive in his manners, and utterly void of policy, he possessed the art of attaching to himself, in all classes of society, and among a wide circle of acquaintances in the State, a peculiar confidence and esteem. Eccentric in his manners and ex- pressions of thought, he frequently appeared to disdain the conventionalities of society, yet at the same time he was remarkably refined in his feelings, possessing a keen appre- ciation of kindness, and almost a morbid aversion to giving trouble. His innocent unselfish honesty grappled to him with hooks of steel the confidence of all who consulted him, whether in his profession or about their troubles, and his
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admitted knowledge and undoubted scholarship made him } a champion upon all occasions in the cause of education, sound morals, and the elevation of the tone of society for all permanent and useful purposes. Knowledge was his ideal, and hence he was always an inquisitive student. Simplicity of taste was his shield against covetousness and the display of riches, and hence in the ministration of his profession, among the rich and the poor, he was perfectly indifferent to the worldly circumstances of his patient, never claiming what the rich ought to pay him, never complaining if the poor did not pay him. His services were scattered like autumn leaves, and no account of them was kept in any book, no promissory note evidenced the value of his labors, no bank account ever showed his deposits, no hidden chest ever concealed his gold. Medical phrase would now here naturally flow to the pen, in expanding and bringing out the peculiar and most striking features of Dr. Kirby's character, but the daily events of a laborious life, unrecompensed toil, profound sympathy with human suffering, indifference as to personal health and comfort whilst absorbed in the discharge of duty, and a striking modesty in claiming his dues, super- sedes the use of phrases, Thoroughly educated in every department of his profession, and thoroughly skilled and practised in the most of them, he gave especial attention to obstetries, and for fifty years, in palace and hovel, through all hours of summer's scorching sunshine and winter's storm and darkness, was he hastened to the home of the sufferer, and on such occasions, numbering near four thousand, sue- cess has embalmed him in the grateful memory of woman.
J. Benham, and Edward D. Mansfield; of those able pre- ceptors, but one, E. D. Mansfield, is now living. In the spring of 1837 he was admitted to the bar, and in the ensu- ing fall commenced the practice of law in Columbus, Ohio, having in October of that year married Mary, the daughter of John C. Wright. In the spring of 1840, however, he returned to Cincinnati, where he has since resided, and entered the law firm of Wright & Walker. His political attachments allied him originally with the Whig party, to which he belonged so long as it maintained its organization. He afterward, until the close of the civil war, acted with the Republican organization. Ile has outlived his partisan feeling, however, and of late years exercised the privilege of an independent voter, having regard mainly to the ability and integrity of candidates for office rather than to their party affiliations. His life has been devoted chiefly to his profession, and he has never songht politieal office, nor had any taste for the alluring turmoil and exciting warfare of party politics. Hle was for a short time one of the Judges of the Superior Court of Cincinnati, having been appointed by Governor Hlayes to fill the vacancy on that bench occa- sioned by the resignation of the late Judge Stover; and in the fall of 1873 he was elected a member from Ilamilton county of the late Constitutional Convention of Ohio, to fill a vacancy occasioned by the resignation of Josiah L. Keck. These responsible positions were filled by him with fidelity, and an ability which secured the warm commendation of the bench and bar as well as the general community. Apart also from his professional attainments, his fund of scholarly, literary and general knowledge is rich and varied.
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INER, HON. JOIIN L., ex-Judge and Lawyer, was born in what is now Madison county, Ohio, March 8th, 1810. Ilis father, Isaac Miner, a native of Massachusetts, removed from Chenango county, New York, to Ohio, in 1806. As a rep- resentative in the Legislature, from Madison county, and afterwards as a member and President of the Board of Canad Commissioners, he became well and favor- ably known among the leading men of the State of his day ; in 1822 he purchased a farm on the west side of the Scioto river, just below Columbus, where he died in December, 1831. The subject of this sketch entered Kenyon College in the fall of 1827, then located temporarily near Worth-
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