USA > Ohio > The Biographical encyclopedia of Ohio of the nineteenth century. Pt. 2 > Part 56
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
1
576
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
tern of generous and hearty hospitality. To those who | a stock of goods, getting credit on Mr. Moore's recommen- viewed him at a distance his manner seemed reserved and cold; but a more intimate acquaintance revealed a hent warm with all the genial sympathies of love and friendship. Ile was privileged not to outlive his activity and usefulness, but to fall at the post of duty in the unblunted vigor of his strong intellect. Early in December, 1852, he repaired to Columbus to attend the Court in Banc. Ile was retained in some cases of importance, and one in particular which required profound effort in the preparation of the argument. Ilis intense application aggravated and developed a disease to which he was predisposed, and which was the cause of his death. He left Columbus in February for his home, but was not able to proceed further than his son's, in Painesville, where he died on March 4th, 1853. It was said of him after his death : " By this event the State, the church, the neighborhood, and the family circle, of which he was a light and ornament, have sustained an irreparable loss. None knew him intimately but to respect and love him. Few men through so long a series of years have re- ceived more decisive proofs of public esteem and general confidence; for most of his mature life has been spent in official stations of high trust and responsibility. In his death Ohio mourns the removal of one of her most beloved and honored citizens-one whose best energies have with conscientious integrity been devoted to the promotion of her best interests."
IIAWIIAN, REZIN W., Merchant, was born, October 19th, 1811, in Berkeley county, Vir- ginia, and is the youngest son of Frederick Shaw- han, who was a native of Kent county, Maryland, but had settled in Virginia after the war of the Revolution, in which he was an active partici- pant, having enlisted when but seventeen years of age, and served under Generals Wayne, Greene, La Fayette, and Washington. Ile was at the capture of Stony Point, by Wayne; at the battle of Monmouth, the crossing of the Delaware, and the subsequent capture of the Hessians at Trenton. In 1812 he removed to Ohio, and at first located in Fairfield county. In 1820 he removed to Wayne county, and afterwards settled in Seneca county, and died near Tiffin, August 26th, 1840, in the eightieth year of his age. Rezin was employed on a farm until he was about fifteen years old. ITis educational advantages were exceedingly limited, comprising only that which could be obtained in the district schools of that day, and amounting in all to about eight months. About the year 1826 he entered the store of William McComb, in Wooster. When eighteen years of age he was employed as a clerk by Zopher T. Moore, with whom he remained about three years. In 1833 he visited Seneca county, where his father had set- lled, and in the autumn of that year accompanied his former employer, Z. T. Moore, to New York, where he purchased
dation. On his return to Ohio he opened a store in Tiffin, which was then comparatively a new town, having been laid out but a few years, and contained a population of about five hundred. He had but a limited capital when he first embarked in business, but rapidly increased it by fru- gality and good management. He was thus actively en- gaged for eighteen years, selling goods and purchasing grain and all kinds of produce. The nearest shipping point on the lake was at Sandusky, and all goods required wagon transportation from the latter place to Tiffin until 1840, when the Mad River Railroad was constructed from Sandusky to Tiffin, which was the terminus for some years. Thus the country improved very much, and trade at Tiffin increased rapidly after the line was opened for travel. In 1851, feeling the need of relaxation, he closed up his busi- ness in Tiffin, and transferred his stock to a branch store at Cary, which he had established a few years previously. Ile completed, in 1850, the Shawhan House, and having leased it, reserved a suite of rooms therein for himself and wife, wherein he passed the three following years in study, paying particular attention to geography, history, and the natural sciences. The limited schooling he had received during youth seemed to him to demand an increase of knowledge, and he availed himself of his leisure hours to acquire a first class education. Ile commenced the pur- chase of standard works, and has now the best private library in that portion of the State. He regards these three years of relaxation and mental culture as time well em- ployed. In 1854 and 1855 he travelled much in Michigan and Wisconsin, and during the latter year purchased 2000 acres of land in Dane county, Wisconsin. In December, 1857, he made a trip with his wife to Cuba, where he passed the winter, and returned via New Orleans. He attended the land sales at Omaha, Nebraska, and Leaven- worth, Kansas, in 1858, where he purchased some 30,000 acres of government land, all of which paid well. In the same year he joined G. Sneath in starting the Bank of Tiffin, which, after the war, was merged into the National Exchange Bank of Tiffin, in which he has been a large stockholder since its organization. In August, 1862, he purchased from his nephew, F. R. Shawhan, who was in the dry-goods trade, the latter's interests in business, as he was desirous of entering the army, which he did as Captain of a company, and served throughout the war. Ie contin- ued in the dry-goods trade until 1865, when he sold the establishment to Engleman & Dorle. In 1866 he erected the Empire Block, and in the following year opened a dry- goods store in it, in company with J. B. Wilson. The firm carried a heavy stock of goods, and did a large business for some three years. In 1870 they relinquished the store, disposing of the same to G. W. Burkirk. In 1871 Mr. Shawhan sailed for London, and passed two months in England during the autunm of that year. On April Ist, 1875, he sold out an interest which he had, with Captain
577
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA.
I. H. Shawhan, in a store in Tiffin, and at the same time , was written; a work of great research, completeness and purchased the interests of W. 11. Schlosser, with whom he had been the principal in a business connection, and since that period has been actively engaged in the chy-goods trade. Hle has ever been most successful in that line, and is pos- sessed of a valuable estate. He enjoys a vigorous health, and gives a close and personal attention to all his own affairs. Of the numerous family which his father had, fourteen chil- dren in all, but two are left beside himself. These are a sister, Mrs. Anderson, of Fortine, aged eighty-six years; and a brother, Josiah Shawhan, residing at Cary, seventy-four years of age. Ile was married, April Ist, 1839, to Elvira Tuller, of Worthington, Ohio, who is still living, aged fifty- seven years.
ERKINS, JAMIES HI., Lawyer, Editor, Clergyman and Poet, the youngest child of Samuel G. and Barbara Higginson Perkins, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, July 31st, 1810. Ilis youth was spent in mercantile pursuits and in acquiring a fair education ; but stocks and trade were not con- genial to his tastes, and as soon as he was at liberty to do so he abandoned them. Ile was wanting in the love of money-making, the prerequisite of worldly success, and when he became acquainted with the true character of competitive trade, he was filled with dismay and disgust. The pride of the opulent and the cringing concessions of the needy, with the fawning flattery that vitiates the courtesies of fashionable life, awakened in his heart a feeling of sad contempt, and he grew plain and blunt in his speech, careless in dress, reserved and solitary. In February, 1832, he moved to Cincinnati. There he became interested in the study of the law, and entered the law office of Timothy Walker as a student. In the genial, social atmosphere of the West he recovered his buoyancy and began a new life. In 1834 he was admitted to the bar. flis commencement in the practice of law revealed a high order of talent, and argued brilliant personal success, But he became dissatisfied with the seden- tary life and, as he thought, the low moral standard of the legal profession, and soon abandoned it in utter disgust. Ile then applied himself "ith great energy in the uncertain field of literature. Ile contributed largely to several periodicals ; wrote poems, tales and essays for the Western Monthly Magazine, and was in the early part of the year 1834 editor of the Saturday Evening Chronicle, which he purchased in the winter of 1835 and united with the Cincinnati Mirror. Ile was for a while one of the editors of the Mirror. In the summer of 1835 he engaged with others in a manufac. turing enterprise at Pomeroy, Ohio. This was not remu- nerative, and in 1837 he returned to Cincinnati and took up his pen. In the following year he projected several books, but only finished a series of critical and historical articles for the New York Quarterly and the North American Re- view. In 1839 his work entitled " The Annals of the West "
perspicuity of style. During the next few years appeared his papers on " Early French Travellers in the West; " " Eng- lish Discoveries in the Ohio Valley; " " Fifty Years of Ohio; " "The Pioneers of Kentucky, " " The North- western Territory," and " The Literature of the West." In 1839 he became minister-at-large to the poor of Cincinnati ; to this office with great earnestness he gave his best powers of mind and body, and to him the poor and unfortunate of that city to-day owe many of the institutions from which they derive protection and consolation. In 1841 he ac- cepted a call as pastor of the Unitarian Church of Cincin- nati. Ilis eloquence, his Christian feeling and work among the poor, led to this selection of him by that society. Ilis literary pursuits he still kept up, and his interest in educa- tion and public benefactions never flagged; but with his pastoral relations he never was satisfied, and accordingly offered his resignation in 1847, notwithstanding his friends assured him of his remarkable gifts as a preacher, while the house was crowded when he preached, and there were not wanting many other evidences of his fitness. The church refused to accept his resignation, and he was finally induced to withdraw it, and remained in charge of the pas- torate of the Unitarian Society until his death, which oc- curred suddenly, and in a way much to be regretted, on the 14th of December, 1849. In 1844 he was chosen Presi- dent of the Cincinnati Ilistorical Society, and in 1849, at the time of his death, he was Vice-President and Recording Secretary of the united Ohio and Cincinnati Historical So- cieties. Mr. Perkins was endowed with many remarkable traits of character, and some uncommon elements of great success. Ile was by no means faultless, and was not free from the evils of temperament, training, caprice, indulgence, habit; but he was progressive, aspiring, humble, honest, un- selfish-a Christian. He was a ready and finished writer ; an orator of exceptional powers, and a poet from whom verses had poured forth with unconscious ease from boy- hood upward. Ile left a family of several children. One of his sons is a young lawyer, of Cincinnati.
YON, JOIIN, Manufacturer, was born in Campbell county, Kentucky, June, 1807. Ilis father was a mechanic and millwright, and was one of the earliest emigrants from New England to the neighborhood of Cincinnati. Ilis mother was E. Reynolds, of Kentucky, whose parents were among the early adventurers with Daniel Boone, and were concerned in the historic events of the " dark and bloody ground." Her father was a soldier in the Revolution under General Greene, and was also concerned in the In- dian wars under General Wayne. With but little education, in 1816 the subject of this sketch came to Cincinnati and began to learn the shoe trade. After working a year, he regularly indentured himself, according to the custom of the
73
578
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
times. After serving out five years of his indenture, he | 1860 he organized the Ehm-Grove Normal School, after- travelled to various towns of the State and worked at his wards known as the Central Ohio Conference Seminary, at Maumee City, Ohio, which he and his wife successfully conducted for three years, when his health becoming im. paired, he was obliged to abandon his profession. While resident in this latter locality he received the honorary de- gree of Master of Arts from the Baldwin University. In 1862 he removed to Toledo, and became one of the pub- lishers of the Toledo Commercial. At this time, by his in- dustry and economy, he had saved from his carnings by wise management about $10 000 with which to begin business. IIe subsequently devoted his energies to city improvements and dealing in real-estate. Ile was a Delegate to the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, held in Brooklyn, New York, in 1872; and was again elected a Delegate to the same body, which is to meet in Baltimore, Maryland, in May, 1876. Ile was married in 1858 to Mary E., daughter of Joseph Beecham, of Richland county, Ohio. trade for several years. In iSo he returned to Cincinnati and was married to latitia Tanahill, who died in 1872. In 1834 he started a retail shoe store, which he continued until 1843. Ile had by this time gathered some money, which he invested and lost in the pork business. Ile then resumed the shoe and leather trade, which he carried on prosperously until 1854, when he commenced manufacturing ladies', misses' and children's shoes. There had been previously but one effort of moment made to establish this line of manu- facturing in Cincinnati, and he is, therefore, one of the pioneers in shoe manufacturing in the West. The whole- sale shoe manufacturing business of Cincinnati has now be. come one of her most important interests. Ile early intro- duced into his factory all modern machinery, and used every means to supply the great demand for machine- made work which sprang up during the war. Mr. Lyon justly deserves a prominent place in the business history of Cincinnati. In
1873 he retired with a competeney and an honorable repu- tation, and now resides with his only living child at their home on Ninth street, Cincinnati. Ile has taken little in- terest in polities or the affairs of society. Ile is a member of Trinity Methodist Church, and although he has been strictly a business man, he has never lost sight of the de- mands made by the world on the Christian gentleman.
IETT, JOIIN W., School Teacher, was born, No- vember 11th, 1824, in Jefferson county, Virginia, and is the son of George and Lydia Iliett. IIis father's ancestors came from England in 1734, and took possession of a large farm in the Shen- andoah valley, which was the home of the family for over one hundred and twenty years. When he was three years of age his father removed to Seneca county, Ohio. IIe was subjected to the limited opportunities of pioneer life, being much of the time without any school ad vantages ; however, when sixteen years old, he had acquired a thorough knowledge of the common English branches, by dint of study at home during the evening hours, not having attended school more than three months in all up to that time. About that period, he returned with his father to his old home in the Shenandoah valley. When he had attained his majority he visited Ohio and engaged in teaching school. Meeting with great success, he returned again to his native State and pursued a thorough course of study in the Jeffer- son Academy, fitting himself for teaching, that being his favorite vocation. He opened the second free school in Virginia, and was actively identified with the movement of that day to adopt a liberal free-school system in that State. In 1850 he returned to Ohio and took part in introducing the Union School system, and was Superintendent of Union Schools in Fremont and Delaware, Ohio, respectively. In
URNEY, COLONEL OWEN T., Printer, was born, 1836, in Painesville, Ohio. His father died in the Mexican war in 1848. When fifteen years old Owen entered the printing office of Charles Scott, then proprictor of the Ohio State Journal, in Columbus, and finished his trade as a pressman there. The breaking out of the late rebellion found him in the employ of Ilarris & Ifurd, and at the same time Captain of a favorite military company, the Montgomery Gnards, composed mainly of Catholic young men, the pride of St. Patrick's congregation. The company offered its services under the first call for troops, and were ordered to Camp Dennison, but no demand being made upon them, they were never called to active duty. After the expiration of this term of enlistment, Captain Turney, in company with the late James Ryan, established a soldiers' claim agency in Columbus, and received a commission as Notary Public. In a short tim however, he received the appointment of Chief Clerk in the office of Major MeDowell, paymaster. When the latter was removed to another post Major MeCook suc- ceeded him, and removed his head quarters to Cincinnati, Captain Turney still retaining the clerkship. Major Mc- Cook was killed in the Morgan raid near Cincinnati, and Captain Turney was appointed to the vacancy, as additional Paymaster United States army, with the rank of Major, and assigned to the district having St. Louis for head-quarters. . Towards the close of the war he was transferred to the Dis- trict of the Gulf, with head quarters at New Orleans, where he was mustered out in 1869, being the last of the volunteer paymasters to be thus honorably discharged from the service. During his occupancy of the position in this latter district he was appointed a Brevet Lieutenant Colonel for meritorions attention to duty. Upon his return to civil life he served a clerkship in the Piqua shops, Columbus, and afterwards
579
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
connected himself again with the printing interests, and the Union as a State. He was an active member of the curly in 1875 became an assistant in the business depart- meut of the Catholic Columbian, in which capacity his efforts in behalf of the new paper were indefatigable, even up to a few weeks preceding his death, when he could be prevailed upon with difficulty to desist, and look after his fouling health. Ile always placed the origin of his com- plaint in the outdoor celebration of St. Patrick's day, 1875, which, being extremely cold and disagreeable, induced a severe bronchial affection, and laid the foundation of a quick consumption. Ile was a man highly esteemed by all with whom he came into contact, and wherever duty called him, he made warm friends by his open-hearted con- duct and genial qualities. Ile was a member of St. Patrick's choir for many years, and finally of the Cathedral choir, Ile was alse a zealous supporter of St. Patrick's Total Abstinence and Benevolent Association. He died February 10th, 1876, in the fortieth year of his age.
ORTHLINGTON, HON. THOMAS, one of the early Governors of Ohio, first distinguished as a leader in the movement by which Ohio was ad- mitted into the Union, was born, July 16th, 1773, in Berkeley, now Jefferson county, Virginia. Early in life he was attracted to the West by the treaty of Greenville, and in 1796, with a party of young men, visited and made extensive locations of lands in the Virginia military district, lying between the Scioto and Miami rivers. In April, 1797, with his wife and infant child, and their thirty-six slaves, whom it was their object to emancipate, he settled near Chillicothe. Ilis vigorous and discriminat- ing mind, and uncommon firmness and perseverance of purpose, soon gave him an influential position. In 1799 he was a member from Ross county in the first Territorial Legislature. A powerful effort, originating in Cincinnati and Detroit, had nearly succeeded in changing the plan marked out in the ordinance of 1787, for the division of the Northwestern Territory into States. Both branches of the Legislature, with General St. Clair as Governor, concurring, had voted that the Eastern State should be bounded on the west by the Scioto and a line extending thence to the lakes. The object, as explained by Judge Barnet, in his " Notes on the Northwestern Territory," was to erect a large State between the Scioto and the Wabash. To this scheme, Mr. Worthington was unalterably opposed. The Eastern Divi- sion, thus diminished, must have been long delayed, for want of the requisite population, from the coveted privilege of becoming a State. Though defeated in the Legislature, he went to Washington, as agent of the minority, and was so successful in his representations, that Congress was in- duced to set aside the views of the local authorities, and passed the enabling Act, April 30th, 1802, by which Ohio, with its present boundaries, was permitted at once to enter
Convention which formed the Constitution of 1802, and responsible in some degree for the restrictions in that in- strument by which the executive department was so seri- ously impaired. His apology for this mistake, as he after- wards acknowledged it to be, was the keen sense, then felt, of the injuries which had resulted from General St. Clair's arbitrary and almost despotie use of his powers as governor of the Territory. This feeling had been still further in- flamed by St. Clair's untimely dictation to the Convention, in his address delivered at the opening. Ile was Senator in Congress from Ohio, from the year 1803 to 1808, and again from 1810 to 1815. Among other measures he in- troduced the bills for laying out the Cumberland road from tidewater to the Ohio river, for the division and sale of the public lands in quarter sections, instead of tracts two miles square ; and for quieting land titles; thus opening great in- ducements for the vast emigration that soon followed. Ile was styled, in the National Intelligencer, " The father of the American system of public improvements." During the interval between his two senatorial terms, he was employed by the government in treating with the Indians, and was held in great deference by Tecumseh and other leaders of the hostile tribes. In 1814, being elected Governor of Ohio, he resigned his seat in Congress, In 1816 he was re-elected Governor. He made great exertions for the es- tablishment of colleges and public schools, and although not immediately successful, his efforts contributed largely to the final result. The State Library owes its origin to a wise but somewhat irregular use he made of the Governor's contingent fund. But in January, 1818, the Legislature took that institution under their patronage. Still pursuing his favorite policy, he recommended to that body the con- struction of canals, and subsequently, as a member of the lower Ilouse, advocated the system, and was a member of the first board appointed in 1822 to report on that subject. Whilst still devoting himself untiringly to the work of their construction, and awaiting a meeting of the Canal Board in New York, he died in that 'city, June 20th, 1827. In private life Governor Worthington was noted for his emi- nent integrity, and by a purity and simplicity of character and conduct almost approaching austerity. But while he refused himself every indulgence, his charity was open- handed and bountiful, and his hospitality always liberal. Bernhard, Duke of Saxe Weimar, in his memoir of travels in the United States, has preserved an account of his recep- tion at Governor Worthington's residence, which gives a most flattering view of Ohio society at that early day. His spacious mansion of stone, in the architecture of the olden times, and which was surrounded in his day with highly cultivated gardens, vineyards, and orchards of every kind of fruit, still remains to attest the noble scale of his ideas. In laying the foundation of the prosperity for which Ohio has since become celebrated, it may fairly be said that among the able men with whom he was associated, there
1
,
580
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA.
was none whose foresight, energy, and distinguished labors [ and then of increasing the capabilities and opportunities of in shaping her laws, public improvements, agriculture, finances, and literary institutions, were wiser or more effi- cient than his. It is greatly to be regretted that no record of his active and varied life has been kept. Chief Justice Chase, in the historical sketch prefixed to his compilation of the Statutes of Ohio, justly describes him as a gentleman of distinguished ability and great influence.
INNEY, JOSEPHI NEWCOMB, Merchant and late General Freight Agent of the Little Miami Railroad, is a native of New England, he, as well as his father before him, having been born in Vermont. Ile was born in Royalton, Windsor county, in that State, on the 30th of May, 1819, and inherited from his parents qualities of character which, in the course of his life, have contributed in a great measure to his uniform success, his father being distinguished for his great integrity and excellent judgment, and his mother for her superior intelligence and amiability of character. In his youth he enjoyed such advantages of education as were afforded by the common schools and the academy of his native town, making the best use of the opportunities at his disposal. When he had reached the age of twenty years he left school and set out to seek his fortune in the West. He found employment first in the Caledonia Iron Works, located in Franklin county, Pennsylvania, and owned by IIon. Thaddeus Stevens and Mr. James D. Paxton. IIe filled the position of clerk in this establishment for the period of five years, each year bringing with it increased responsibility and also increased compensation. In 1844 he returned to Vermont, where he was married; and im- mediately after removed to Cincinnati. There, with the accumulated earnings of his five years' labor for capital, he embarked in the grocery business. There proved to be but little that was encouraging, however, in his experience as a grocer, and he made that experience brief, quitting the business after a few months. In 1845, after giving up his gracery business, he accepted the position of Freight Agent of the Little Miami Railroad, at Cincinnati. The road at that time was merely in its infancy, being only in process of construction from Cincinnati to Springfield, Ohio. Its completion to Springfield and its connection with the Mad River Railroad running thence to Sandusky, and through that connection with the Lake steamers running to Buffalo, New York, whence the New York Central Railroad and the Erie canal afforded communication with the seaboard, marked a new era in the commerce of the country, and gave a new outlet to the Southwest, which had hitherto de- pended on the slow process of wagoning over the Allegheny mountains to Philadelphia or Baltimore, or upon the more perilous method of boating down the Mississippi river to New Orleans. To the end of accomplishing this purpose,
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.