USA > Ohio > The Biographical encyclopedia of Ohio of the nineteenth century. Pt. 2 > Part 52
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almses and in reducing taxation. He discovered, at the end of his term in the Senate, in the spring of 1854, that he could not live very high and support his family by going to the Legislature (as many more have before and since dis- covered), and he determined to abstain therefrom in the future and to devote his time exclusively to his profession. This determination he rigidly adhered to until 1864, when he was nominated and elected a Presidential Elector by the Republicans, when the Ilon. A. Lincoln was a candidate for re-election to the Presidency. Ile met the Electoral College of Ohio at the capital of the State in December, 1864, and voted for Mr. Lincoln for President and Andrew Johnson for Vice-President of the United States. In the spring of 1865 he aided in establishing the Madison National Bank, of London, Ohio, and he was elected Presi- dent thereof, so continuing for two and one-half years, when he sold his stock and invested the proceeds in land. In 1870 he was appointed Assessor of Internal Revenue by President Grant, and confirmed by the Senate of the United States, for the Seventh Collection District of Ohio, and he held the office for nearly three years, when, the taxes having all been taken off by Congress except upon whis- key, beer and tobacco, the assessors of internal revenue were abolished by a law of Congress. During his term as Assessor nearly $2,000,000 internal revenue was raised in the district, comprising the counties of Franklin, Madison, Green and Clarke. He administered the office prudently and honestly, and to the satisfaction of the government and the people. Mr. Smith is still engaged in the practice of law. Ile supported the war of 1861 strenuously, but did not go into the service, as he was over the military age when the war commenced. He did, however, go into the service for ten days, at Camp Chase, during the Morgan raid, as Captain of a company. He was married in June, 1844, to an estimable lady, Jennette Smith, in Whitestown, Oneida county, New York. She is a descendant of the celebrated Otis family, of revolutionary memory, in Massa- chusetts. She has been a model wife and an ornament of her sex. Mr. Smith is still hale and vigorous, and stands a fair chance to live beyond the allotted age of man.
cKINNEY, HON. JOHN F., Lawyer, was born, April 12th, 1827, on a farm two miles north of Piqua, Miami county. His parents were natives of Pennsylvania ; his father had removed to Ohio towards the close of the last century, and his mother a few years later; they were married in 18OS, and resided on the farm where their children were born. Ilis father died when he was seven years old, but he resided on the farm until he grew to manhood. He re- ceived his preparatory education at the Piqua Academy, which he attended for three years, and subsequently passed a year at the Ohio Wesleyan University, at Delaware, Ile
afterwards commenced the study of law with his brother, S. S. Mckinney, of Piqua, whose biographical sketch appears in this volume, and was admitted to the bar in 1850, and immediately commenced the practice of his profession, in partnership with his brother, which has continued ever since, the firm enjoying the largest practice in the county, and is a highly lucrative one. In political views he has always been a Democrat, and has been that party's stand- ard-bearer on several occasions. In 1862 he was nominated and elected to Congress from the Fourth Ohio District, and served two years. In 1870 he was again elected to Con- gress from the same district, and also served two years. In 1864 and 1866 he was a candidate for the same position, but was defeated, the opposing party being in the majority. In fact the district hasalways been Republican, and each time, when he was elected, the Republican State ticket was also successful in his district, thus demonstrating his great popu- larity. Ile has been President of the Piqua School Board. In 1872 he was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, which ratified the nomination of Horace Greeley, and was a member of the Committee on Resolu- tions, representing his State. He was President of the Piqua Ilydraulic Company while it was a private enter- prise; it now belongs to the city. He was also President of the Western Ohio Park and Driving Association. Ile was married, 1853, to Louise Wood, of Piqua, and has three children living, two daughters and one son,
ORROW, HON. JEREMIAHI, Statesman, was born, 1770, in Pennsylvania. In 1795 he re- moved to the Northwest Territory, and in 1802 was elected a delegate to the convention for forming the State Constitution of Ohio. He was the first representative in Congress from that State, and then served as United States Senator from 181 3 to 1819. Ile was elected Governor of the State, and held that office from 1822 to 1826. He was subsequently ap- pointed Canal Commissioner, and in 184o again chosen to represent his district in Congress, serving from 1841 to IS43. He died in Ohio, March 22d, 1852.
IIITTLESEY, HON. ELISHA, Lawyer and Statesman, was born in Connecticut, but in his early manhood removed to Ohio. In the war of 1812 he served as an Aide-de-camp to General Wadsworth. Ile was Prosecuting Attorney for sixteen years, and was a member of the Legisla- ture in 1820 and 1821. He served seven terms as a repre- sentative in Congress. Ile was appointed in 1841, by Presi- dent Harrison, an Auditor of the Post office Department,
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and also the First Comptroller of the Treasury, which posi- tion he relinquished in 1857, but was reappointed by President Lincoln in 1861. Ilis whole public career was marked by an unswerving integrity aud untiring devotion to duty. Ile died in Washington, District of Columbia, Janu- ary 7th, 1863, in the eightieth year of his age.
OCKE, PROFESSOR JOIIN, Author, Inventor, Teacher, Physician, etc., was born, February 19th, 1792, in one of the New England States, most probably New Hampshire. Ilis father, Samuel Barrou Locke, was a millwright of such skill that his services were in great demand, and he resided successively in Vermont, New Hampshire, and M.uine. In 1796 he removed permanently to Bethel, in the latter State, where he erected buildings still known as " Locke's Mills." Ilis mechanical taste and ingenuity were manifested at an early age, as well as his love for books. Botany became a favorite study. About ISIo he entered an academy at Bridgeport to study languages, About 1816 he began the study of medicine and chemistry. Though he had never seen a chemist, nor a piece of chemical appar- atus, his inventive genius led him to construct his own instruments. But a few years previous the experiments of Galvani and Volta had become known, and he could not rest satisfied until he had tested these. Chiselling out a mould in a soft brick-bat, he cast a set of dishes of zinc, about the size of a silver dollar. Twenty of these, with as many silver dollars, were constructed into a "pile; " the dollars being used for the negative element, and cloths wet in brine for the imperfect conductor. The experiment was a partial success. Thus began his acquaintance with a sub- ject which in after years was to engage so much of his attention. Some of these zine plates are still in existence. Ile found it impossible to confine himself strictly to the study of medicine, and he spent much time in the pursuit of general physics. Turning his 'steps in the direction of New Haven, he here found all that he could desire in the pursuit of knowledge. After a few years spent profitably, and for the most part in the study of botany, he went to Keene, New Hampshire, as a teacher of botany. Ile also procured plants for the botanical gardens at Cambridge, and enjoyed the counsel and instruction of Professor Bigelow, of Boston. In IS18 he delivered his first public lectures in Portland, Maine. Turning his eyes longingly to the Pacific slope, he obtained an appointment as Assistant Sur- geon in the navy. But he was disappointed in his object and withdrew from the service, returning to New Haven. IIe resumed his medical studies, and received his degree. In 1819 he completed a treatise on botany, for which he made his own engravings. Thus far he had received no pecuniary or other encouragement from his father, and had not received a dollar of patronage or support except that
created by his own exertions. Nearly sixty years ago lie called the attention of the public to the river maple, com- pared with the sugar maple, in the manufacture of sugar, and as a shade tree. After having graduated he tried to establish himself as a physician, but failed, not from want of patronage, but because patients were more ready to be treated than to pay. Ile went to Windsor, Vermont, as a teacher in a female academy. The principal of this school had conceived the idea of establishing a like institution in Lexington, Kentucky, and the young doctor consented to accompany him. This arrangement was not carried out, and he proceeded West alone, arriving at Lexington in June, 1821. In this field his success was such that he ever afterwards was held in high esteem by his young lady pupils and their kinsfolk. In 1822 he came to Cincinnati on horseback. Ile received a rather cold reception, from no particular reason except the natural conservatism of the townspeople, and was on the point of abandoning his pro- ject, when he found a friend in Ethan Stone, and friends among the best society thereafter became numerous. " Dr. Locke's School " soon acquired a high reputation. Ile was opposed to sectarian schools, but nevertheless believed in general religious instruction and the cultivation of the social virtues. Ilis method of instruction was conversa- tional, and calculated to interest the pupil and remove timidity. Ile was among the earliest instructors in the Mechanics' Institute. Passing over several years, during which he was engaged in teaching the future mothers of Cincinnati and pursuing scientific investigation, the year 1835 is reached, at which period he was elected Professor of Chemistry in the Medical College of Ohio. Ile entered upon his new duties with zeal. He visited Europe and purchased apparatus. On hisveturn he found the college divided against itself, and a liberal inducement was made him to join a school in a neighboring State. Ile refused, and gradually dissension ceased and matters became tran- quil. He had a large acquaintance with the geology of the United States, and while engaged in making a geological survey of Ohio, under the patronage of the State, he discovered one of the largest trilobites known. In 1837 he made a journey to Europe on purposes connected with scientific investigation. Ile contributed to science many valuable inventions. All of them are now familiar to the scientific world. The most important of these was the " Electro-Chronograph," or " Magnetic Clock." Official notice of this invention was made to the authorities at Washington, in June, 1849. After the observations of Dr. Locke in magnetismn had been published, the English gov- ernment forwarded and presented to him a full set of mag- netical instruments, in appreciation of his labors. Ile found time for the study of astronomy, and if not as famous as some students of this science, his knowledge was as great. Ile occasionally wrote poetry, and if his verse is not famous and oft quoted, it was inspired in one who wor- shipped Nature. Ilis warm admirer and memorialist, Dr.
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M. B. Wright, of Cincinnati, says of him : " Ile did not carry his taper that he might be seen here and there of men ; but in the solitude of his laboratory he kindled the tires of his genius, and sent out rays as from a grand mirror, that the whole world might be illuminated .. lle had the inspiration and language of a true poet; he understood music as a science; he could sketch the land- scape with the accuracy of a practised artist; he was a mechanic, a mathematician, an astronomer, a chemist, a philosopher, a logician, a physician. Ile had studied all things upon the surface of the earth, and penetrated into its hidden depths, and formed an intimate, every-day acquaint- ance with the beauty and glory that surround it." He was a religious man, but not ostentatiously so. Ile never attached himself to any church, but shortly before death had decided upon joining the Episcopal Church. In nature he saw the Revelation, and worshipped it. During the winter of 1849-50 the medical college was dragged into the arena of political warfare, and he lost his professorship. From that day he was never the same man, and dissolution slowly proceeded. lle was urged by Dr. Wright to again accept the position and consented. In 1854, while in poor health, he accepted the position of Principal in the academy at Lebanon, Ohio. In October, 1855, he returned to Cin- cinnati a much changed man-thin, haggard, tremulous. While in this condition he went to Virginia to examine coal lands, and returned with his infirmities aggravated. Numer- ous symptoms tending to paralysis manifested themselves alarmingly. Memory and vision grew dim, and a paralytic condition set in. After being unconscious five days, he died July 10th, 1856.
EDARY, HON. SAMUEL, Editor and Politician, was born, ISor, in Ohio. His carly advantages of education were very limited. Soon after arriv- ing at man's estate he joined the Jackson party, and remained a faithful adherent to General Jackson throughout his entire public career. Ile carly became connected with the newspaper press, and was for many years editor of the Ohio Statesman, and his editor- ials, although lacking in polish, were full of vigor. He was for a long time one of the leading men in his party in Ohio. Although he was a warm personal friend of the late Stephen A. Douglas, he separated from him when the latter opposed Buchanan. During President Buchanan's admin- istration he was appointed, and served for some time, as Governor of the then Territory of Kansas. During the war of the rebellion he was a "peace Democrat," though his son was in the war, and of whose career he was very proud. Ilis death was attributed to the remains of the poison in- fused into his system at the National Hotel, in Washington, in March, 1857. Ile died at Columbus, Ohio, November 7th, 1864.
EEMELIN, CHARLES GUSTAV, Lawyer and Author, was born at Heilbronn, Wurtemberg, Germany, May 19th, IS14, and grew up amidst the still subsisting bitterness of the townspeople against the despotie transfer of the old free city to the kingdom of Wurtemberg. His first politi- cal lessons were, therefore, hatred of arbitrary conquests and annexations. Ilis father was a wholesale grocer. Ilis mother died when he was two years old. At the age of five he started to school, where he remained until after his fifteenth year-seven years in his native place and three years at the birth-place of Schiller. Ile subsequently took a thorough course of study in the natural sciences. Leav- ing school, he spent a year or two in his father's store, and finally, after having vainly made one 'attempt to go to. America, at the age of eighteen, having obtained his father's consent, he started for this country, and landed in Philadelphia in 1832. Ile secured employment in a gro- cery at six dollars per month; but at the end of a year determined to go to Wheeling, Virginia. At Hagerstown he got into serious difficulty for attempting to interfere in the whipping of a slave girl. This caused him to go to Pittsburgh instead of Wheeling, determining never again to enter a slave State. From Pittsburgh he started for St. Louis ; but on arriving in Cincinnati, in the fall of 1833, he took the cholera, and after recovering, abandoned the idea of going farther, soon found employment, and has since continued to reside in the city. Ilis first employment was with T. B. & II. B. Coffin, in the grocery business. After one year this house assisted him in starting his own grocery. He was uncommonly prosperous, and in ten years had bought a farm in Green township, and had accumulated a considerable fortune. In ISag he retired from the grocery business and went to live on his farm. He had carly taken an active part in the establishment of a Cincinnati German newspaper. In 1836, through his instrumentality, the Volksblatt was started, and during the following year he became sole proprietor. After retiring to his farm, he began the study of the law, and was admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court of the State in 1848. In 1844 he was elected to the lower House of the General Assembly, and in 1846 to the Senate. In 1850 he was a member of the Constitutional Convention. In all of these bodies he took a prominent position. Ilis report on the annexation of Texas, on bank taxation, and his many speeches on various subjects, furnished texts for popular argumentation, and contributed largely towards breaking down the predomi- nance of the Whig party. But he has always been too radical to be a leader in his own party, seklom being in accord with the public opinion of the times. In 1854 and 1855 he was Bank Commissioner for the free and independ- ent banks of Ohio; and in 1856 he was appointed by Gov- ernor Chase as one of the Commissioners for the State reform schools. To become thoroughly acquainted with this subject he visited Europe at his own expense, and on
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his return his plans were adopted in the reform schools of the Stats, and at the reform farm, at Lancaster, Ohio. In 1So7 Governor Hayes appointed him one of the Commis. sioners of Mines. Hi, last public service was as member and President of the Board of Control. His microns literary productions are distributed over various periodicals, both German and English. He has published three books : " The Wine Trespass Mannal ; " " The Wine- Makers' Man- uil," and " Politics as a Science." He is decidedly schol- arly, and is still an earnest student. Ilis zeal for knowledge induced him in 1874 to go to Europe to attend lectures on law, history and political economy, at Strasburg and Wur- temberg. In 1837 Mr. Reemelin was married to his present wife, Louise Mark, of Cincinnati. They have seven chil- dren, all, excepting one, having been educated in both Europe and America.
EAD, COMMANDER ABNER, an Officer of the United States Navy, was born, 1821, in Ohio, and received his education at the Ohio University, at Athens, which institution he left in his senior year, in 1839, having received a midshipman's warrant. Ilis first voyage was on the schooner " Enterprise " to the South American coast, having been detached from a ship of war destined to the Mediterranean, on account of some little difficulty with the captain previous to the sailing of the vessel. Prior to his examination he passed a year in reviewing his studies at the Naval School in Philadelphia, and stood fifth in a clas, of forty-eight. Ile was at once detailed to the duty of Acting Sailing Master, in which capacity he made several voyages, and soon ac. quired the reputation of being one of the most skilful navi- gators in the service. At the breaking out of the Mexican war he was on the coast of Africa, but returned in time to make a cruise in the Gulf and participate in some naval operations near the close of the war. The progress of naval promotion being slow, he did not reach the rank of Lien- tenant until 1853, and in 1855 the Naval Retiring Board consigned him to the list of retired officers, but he was not long after reinstated by the Examining Board. Soon after the commencement of the late civil war he was ordered for service to the " Wyandotte," the command of which soon devolved upon him, and it was this vessel which performed such important service in saving Fort Pickens from falling into the hands of the enemy. In May, 1862, his health was so much impaired that he was relieved from his command for a time, in order to place himself under medical treat- ment. A severe fit of sickness prostrated him for some weeks, and before he fully recovered his strength he asked for sailing orders, and was assigned to the command of the steam gnuboat " New London." Proceeding at once to Ship Island, he commenced cruising in the Mississippi Sound, and in eight days captured four valuable prizes. The ex- ploits of this vessel won for it from the enemy the appellation
of the " Black Devil," and it soon succeeded in breaking up the trade between New Orleans and Mobile. The " New London " captured nearly thirty prizes, took a battery at Bilosi, and had several engagements with Confederate steamers on the sound. A short time previous to his death, he lost his left eye in an engagement at Sabine Pass. In June, 1863, he was placed in command of the steam sloop- of-war " Monongahela," and soon after participated in an attack upon the enemy's batteries above Donaldsonville. In this engagement he was fatally wounded, and died July 12th, 1863. lle was a skilful officer, and a universal favorite throughout the navy.
OUSE, REV. ERWIN, Clergyman, Editor and Anthor, was born at Worthington, nine miles north of Columbus, Ohio, February 17th, 1824. Ilis parents, Lyman B. and Sarah House, were natives of New Haven, Connecticut. At the age of thirteen, during a religious awakening in Lock- land, near Cincinnati, where his parents then resided, he joined the Methodist Episcopal Church. In the fall of IS41 he entered Woodward College, Cincinnati, where he graduated in 1846. Then Sammel Lewis and Salmon P. Chase were trustees, and old Dr. Ray was Professor of Mathematics at Woodward. In 1849 he was granted license to preach as a local minister in the Methodist Church by the Quarterly Conference of Ninth Street, now Trinity, Church, Cincinnati. In 1865 he was admitted into the Cincinnati Conference. As early as 1837 he wrote for the papers, and in 1847 was appointed Assistant Editor of the Ladies' Repository, an old, popular monthly magazine of the church. This position he filled many years, and was one year in entire charge of its editorial work. Ile afterwards became Assistant Editor of the Western Christian Advocate, one of the oldest and most ably conducted weekly papers published by the Methodist Episcopal Church. These edi- torial positions he filled for the period of twenty-five years. He was the author of a number of works, many of which have had a large circulation in the church. Among these the most important are : " Sketches for the Young; " " The Missionary in Many Lands; " "The Homilist; " " The Scripture Cabinet," and " The Sunday-School Hand-Book." At least two of these works have been republished in Eng- land. In his editorial work he was associated with some of the finest men of his church. Ile was an efficient worker and an able advocate for the temperance cause. Ile was most famous, probably, as a Sunday-school author, speaker and worker. As a speaker to children he had few equals ; as a writer he was ready and agreeable; in the church he lilled a wide place well, and in his home and everywhere he lived the life of an educated Christian gentleman. To the last hour or moment of his life he was at his post in the office of the Advocate, where he died of heart disease, May 20th,
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1875. Mr. Hlouse was married in August, 1848, to Margaret Davis, sister of Drs. John and W. B. Davis, of Cincinnati. Of their four children but one survives.
ILL, BRIGADIER-GENERAL JOSHUA WOODROW, Soldier, was born, December 6th, 1831, in Chillicothe, Ohio. Ile received a thor- ough English and classical education, and was appointed in 1849 a cadet in the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he grad- uated third in his class. In 1854 he received an ordnance appointment, and was stationed at Watervliet Arsenal, West Troy, New York. In the following year he was recalled as one of the instructors at West Point, and after serving two years in that capacity was ordered to the Pittsburgh Arsenal, and from thence in 1858 to Vancouver, Washington Terri- tory, to superintend the building of an arsenal there. Find- ing this impracticable, in consequence of the difficulty exist- ing about Vancouver's Island with the British government, he returned, and soon after was ordered to Fort Leaven- worth. In 1860 he resigned his position in the army, and accepted the Professorship of Mathematics and Civil Engi- neering in the Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute. On the outbreak of the civil war he resigned his professor- ship, and upon offering his services to the Governor of Ohio was appointed Assistant Adjutant.General of that State. In August, 1861, he was commissioned Colonel of the 23d Regiment Ohio Volunteers. Ile joined General Nelson in his Kentucky expedition, and after his return was placed in command of a brigade, receiving the commission of Brigadier- General July 29th, 1862. Ile subsequently commanded a division for a time, evincing great courage and skill; and upon the reorganization of the army under General Rose- crans, he was assigned a brigade in General Sheridan's division, at the head of which he gallantly fought and fell during the memorable Wednesday of the battle of Stone River, Tennessee, December 31st, 1862.
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