USA > Ohio > The Biographical encyclopedia of Ohio of the nineteenth century. Pt. 2 > Part 57
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the road, Mr. Kinney gave the best energies of his life. llis position brought him into personal and business rela- tions with Jacob Strader, President of the road, John Kil- gore, Vice- President, W. H. Clement, Chief Engineer and Superintendent, A. II. Lewis, Depot Master, and P. W. Strader, General Passenger Agent, and in co-operation with these officers he worked faithfully to draw to the new chan- nel of traffic the vast commerce of the West. It was largely through his endeavors, through his energy, perseverance, ability, and judgment, that important connections were formed with the railroads to Columbus, Cleveland, Pitts- burgh, Wheeling, and other points, and the Little Miami beeame one of the most powerful and sueeessful roads in the country. For twenty years Mr. Kinney served the road in the enpacity of General Freight Agent, and then he re- signed his position. No sooner had he done this, however, than he was honored with a seat in the directory of the road. During all his years of faithful service in the interest of the railroad, he was not at all unmindful of his own in- terest. " Ile worked himself for the railroad, and made his money work for him," he said. He was frugal in his habits, and the savings from his salary, together with the money he brought with him to Cincinnati, formed a capital which he invested from time to time in various enterprises, such as omnibus lines, transfer companies, and street rail- roads, all of which were important adjuncts to the railroad company which he served, and at the same time were sources of individual profit to himself. The profits he real- ized from these enterprises were judieiously invested in bank and other substantial stocks, which gradually increased in value. Prominent among these investments was the purchase of a steam saw miN at Clinton, Iowa. At the time of the purchase it was but a small establishment, but now it is the largest of the kind on the Mississippi river, if not in the country. Soon after his retirement from the posi- tion of general freight agent, he, with R. M. Shoemaker and others, became interested in building the Kansas Pacific Railroad, from Kansas City to Sheridan, a distance of some five hundred miles; and later in the Cincinnati, Dayton & Springfield Railroad, now known as the Dayton Short Line. In the year 1872, chiefly to aid in establishing his oklest son in business, he formed a partnership with his old friend, Seth Evans, in the pork packing business, under the firm-name of Evans & Kinney. The firm now occupies an extensive establishment, recently completed, on Mill creek, near the city. Ile is also one of the promoters, builders, and directors of the Union Railroad Depot at St. Louis, recently completed, and is also largely interested in the Union Railway and Transit Company of that city. These two enterprises involved an ontlay of two million dollars. He is associated in them with his old friends, W. II. Clement, President of the corporations, R. M. Shoe- maker, and others. Ile is also a stockholder and active Director in the Merchants' National and Commercial Banks,
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and in several insurance and street railway companies, as well as in various commercial and manufacturing institu- tions. And it is a noticeable fact, and one which explains much of the uniform success of his life, that, in all his enterprises, he has associated himself with the men best fitted to carry forward the interests in which he took part; while to their trained fitness and experience in their several specialties, he joined his own clear judgment, untiring energy, and indomitable perseverance. . In matters of reli- gion, though not a communicant in any church organization, he is broadly liberal in his views, and respectfully tolerant , of every denomination. Ile attends regularly, with his family, the Presbyterian Church. Politically he was an old-line Whig during the continuance of the Whig party, and since has acted with the Republican party, although, in local issues, he votes for the man best suited for the office, irrespective of party lines. Ilis habits of life are simple, temperate, and eminently domestic ; his attachments to his friends are strong and lasting, and his liberality is hearty and unostentatious. He has been twice married. In 1844, just before removing to Cincinnati, he married Altha L. Dutton, of Vermont. She died in 1852, leaving one child, an infant son, now engaged in business with his father. In 1853 he married again, taking for his second wife Annie M. Willson, of Cincinnati. She died on the 22d of July, 1868, leaving four sons, the eldest of whom has just entered commercial life, and the others are attending school. Mr. Kinney resides on Walnut Hills, one of the beautiful suburbs of Cincinnati, where he has lived for some seventeen years, and as one of that community takes great interest in all that pertains to its advancement.
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OHIL, IION. HENRY, Insurance Agent, was born, July 4th, 1844, in the kingdom of Bavaria, Ger- many, and is a son of Conrad Bohl, formerly of that country. Ilis father being a farmer by occupation, and desirous of a more extended field for carrying on that pursuit, decided to emi- grate to the United States. He accordingly left Germany in March, 1855, reached Marietta, Ohio, in the following May, and resumed his avocation near that city. Ilis son, Henry, assisted him during the summer months, and at- tended school in the winter, until he was seventeen years old, when he left home, and effected an engagement in a chair factory in Marietta, where he remained some four years. Ile next entered into the clothing business, which he carried on for four years. In January, 1869, he engaged in local insurance in Marietta, and was very successful. Ilis health, however, became impaired in 1871, and by the advice of his physician, he concluded to dispose of his office and business, and engage in out-door employment, which he did, by accepting a spe ial agency for the Home Insurance Company, of Columbu , Ohio; but as his health | in secret societies. In 1865 he was made a Mason in
did not improve he removed the following year, March, 1872, to Atlanta, Georgia, where he accepted a Southern department of five States, for the American Central Insur- ance Company of St. Louis. He made many warm friends in the Southern States, and in 1873 he was elected Secre- tary of the " Underwriters' Association of the South," com- prising eleven States, and being auxiliary to the National Board of Fire Underwriters of the United States, with their head-quarters in New York city. Having nearly regained his health, and his family being anxious to return to their old home in Ohio, he removed again to Marietta, in March, 1874, after an absence of two years, and took charge of a Western department of three States for the American Cen- tral Insurance Company, which he had managed in the South. Ile resigned this position in the autumn of 1875, and accepted the management, for Ohio, for the Milwaukee Mechanics' Mutual Insurance Company, and also again em- barked in the local insurance business at Marietta. From 1867 to 1871 he took an active interest in politics, and was for several years a member and Secretary of the Demo- cratic County Central Committee. He was at various times offered nominations for county offices, which he declined on account of feeble health. After his removal to the South and during his residence there, he took no part in the movements of the day; but on his return home, his old political friends, knowing him to be an effective worker, insisted on his aid to recover the county of Washington from the Republicans, they having been in the ascendency for a number of years. In 1875 they urged him to accept the nomination for County Treasurer, which, however, he de- clined emphatically, on the ground that he desired no political county office. Ile finally accepted the candidacy for Representative to the Oldo Legislature, and in October, 1875, was elected by a majority of nearly three hundred votes. One of his first acts, after taking his seat in that body, was to introduce a resolution pledging the House of Representatives of the people of Ohio, to be in favor of a purely secular education at the expense of the tax-payer, without any division of the public school funds among any sect or sects, and to maintain and support the admirable provision of the Ohio Constitution on that subject. This resolution received the unanimous vote of the whole Ilouse. This resolution was introduced for the reason that the leaders of the Republican party, in the political campaign of 1875, had charged their opponents of being in favor of a division of the public school funds. On January 15th, 1876, United States Senator Allen G. Thurman, of Ohio, addressed a letter to Mr. Bohl, defining his position on the financial question, which was forthwith published and read with great interest throughout the country, as the Senator was then a prominent prospective candidate for President of the United States. Mr. Bohl was reared in the com- munion of the German Reformed Church, of which he and his family are now members. He has taken a great interest
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American Union Lodge, No. 1, at Marietta: This lodge is the oldest west of the Allegheny mountains, having been chartered by the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, in Febru- ary, 1776. Among the many Worshipful Masters may be named Hon. Lewis Cass, ex-Governor Meigs, and General Rufus Putnam. He is also a member of the Odd Fellows and Red Men Orders. In 1870 he was elected a Repre- sentative to the Grand Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of Ohio; also Great Sachem or presiding offi- cer, for the State of Ohio, of the Improved Order of Red Men ; and in 1871 Representative to the United States Great Council of the same order. Ile was married at Marietta, in 1864, to Margaret, daughter of Jacob Raden- bangh.
ILLIKAN, WILLIAM, Journalist, was born, Sep- tember 22d, 1805, in Colerain township, Ross county, Ohio. He is the eklest sou of John and Mary Millikan, who moved to Delaware county iu ISog. When the war of 1812 was declared, his father was commissioned first lieutenant of a company raised in Delaware county. During the severe winter of 1814 many of the sokliers died from what was known as the cold plague. Among those who succumbed was Lieutenant Millikan, then stationed at Chillicothe. The subject of this sketch received his elementary education in the indifferent country schools of pioneer times. When he entered the printing office of Ezra Griswold, his education began in earnest. In the fall of 1830 Mr. Millikan joined Mr. Griswold in the publication of the Ohio State Gazette. In the spring of 1832 he dissolved his connection with the Gazette and started the Western Galaxy, a Whig paper, at Marion, Ohio. In May of 1832 he went to South Bend, Indiana, where he established the Free Press, also a Whig paper, with which he supported General William Henry Harrison for the Presidency. For a part of the time Mr. Millikan was associated with his brother in the publication of the Free Pres. In 1815 he sold his paper to Schuyler Colfax and A. W. West, and purchased an interest in the Kalamazoo Telegraph. He remained in the Telegraph establishment for two years, when he disposed of his inter- est and joined his brother John as an equal partner, in the conduct of the La Porte County ( Indimna) Whig. After a connection of seven years with the Whig, he engaged in other business. In October, 1858, Mr. Millikan yielded to the solicitation of friends and returned to Ohio, establishing the Fayette County Herald, a Republican paper, published at Washington Court House. He has made the Herald strong and influential, and successful as a business venture. Ile has taken his youngest sou, William, into partnership iu the business and editorial management of the paper. Besides pursuing his vocation as a journalist, Mr. Millikau has been active as an individual member of his party. In 18.19 he was elected to the ludiana Legislature from La-
porte county, and re-elected . in 1850. In 1865 he was elected Mayor of the city of Laporte. In 1875 he was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives. In Novem- ber, 1829, in the village of Delaware, Ohio, Mr. Millikan married Kachel Abbott. January 28th, 1834, at Newark, Ohio, he married Amanda Holines, third daughter of Judge Alexander Holines. January 28th, 1841, he married Emma Cleveland, third daughter of the late Hardin Cleveland, of Elkhart county, Indiana. In April, 1865, Mr. Millikan married Mary B. Bostnick, of Waterloo, daughter of John Robinson, of Chillicothe. Mr. Millikan has five adult children living.
ERRELL, CHARLES B., Physician and Surgeon, was born in Holmes county, Ohio, September 27th, 1839. Ifis parents, Ilanson and Sarah Ferrell, of Franco- English descent, removed from Virginia and located in Jefferson county, Ohio, where they were married. They soon after re- moved into the wilds of Holmes county, of which they were among the earlier settlers. Dr. Ferrell entered school at an early age, and by untiring industry and application re- ceived a liberal education in the common branches. Being a farmer's son, school-days were limited to but a small por- tion of the year, and the remainder of the time was spent in assisting his father. At the age of sixteen a taste for medical literature developed itself, and he borrowed from a friend Wilson's Anatomy, Carpenter's Physiology, and Kane's Chemistry, and commenced the study of medicine. The leisure hours on rainy days and at meal time were occupied in following the bent of his mind. A vacant house on his father's farm served as medical college and dissecting room, and here the long nights were faithfully occupied in reading and dissections. Ile spent thus three years, as farmer, school-boy, medical student, and instructor, the two latter being carried on clandestinely, for a resurrec- tionist would have been looked upon with horror in that locality, and he would doubtless have felt the strong arm of the law if he had been discovered. When nineteen years of age he entered the office of Dr. Isaac Putnem, of Mt. Holly, Ohio, and continued his studies here, and in 1 860 at the Ohio Medical College in Cincinnati. In March, 1861, being at the bottom of his financial resources, he was obliged to begin the practice of his profession. Through the kindness of his instructor he was permitted to commence business in his office, and met with good success. Ile acted as surgeon in the beginning of the war, 1862-63, visiting the battle-fields of Pittsburgh Landing, Fort Donelson, and Murfreesboro', and bearing the greater portion of his own ex- penses. Ile also commanded a company of the " Squirrel Hunters," who went to protect Cincinnati from invasion by Kirby Smith. Resuming practice in the intervals, in Octo- ber, 1863, he removed to Nashville, Ohio, and entered with vigor into practice. Ilere he was very successful, and
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continued business uninterruptedly until November, 1872, [ years, his mental and physical faculties are wonderfully pre- when he went with his family to New York, where he served. Ile has always been noted for untiring energy and industry, and has been the architect of his own fortunes, having amassed an ample competence. He was manied in 1820 to Catharine, cinighter of John Hawkes, an early pio- neer of Brown county, Ohio. She died in 1875, having had fifteen children. spent the winter in the medical colleges and hospitals, re- ceiving a diploma from Bellevue Hospital Medical College, and certificates of private instruction from several eminent physicians of that city. Leaving New York in March, 1$73, the balance of the year was spent in travelling over the Western States and Territories, including the Gulf States, California, Oregon, Washington. Territory, and a part of British Columbia, with the view of studying the prev- alent diseases, and the influence of climate on the same. Returning to Ohio in December, 1873, he located in Colum- bus, where he still resides and is rapidly gaining public esteem and favor, and building himself up a good practice. Ile was married to Mary E. Brown, October 27th, 1864.
OD, HION. GEORGE, Lawyer and Jurist, was born, December 11th, 1773, at Suffield, Hartford county, Connecticut. He graduated at Yale Col- lege in 1795, and having selected the law as his profession, pursued his studies at the celebrated law school at Fapping Reeve, Litchfield county, and was admitted to the bar in October, 1797. Ile com- menced the practice of his profession in New Haven, where he remained a few years. In ISoo he removed to Youngs- town, Trumbull county, Ohio, and in August of the same year was appointed the Prosecuting Attorney of that county. In 1801 he sent for his family to join him. Ile was elected in ISO4 a Senator in the State Legislature from Trumbull county, and at the close of his term in that body was ap- pointed, in 1806, a Judge of the Supreme Court, to fill a vacancy occasioned by the resignation of Jonathan Meigs. In ISIo he was again elected to the Senate from Trumbull county. When war was declared by Congress against Great Britain, he accepted a commission of Major in the regular army from President Madison, and, March 13th, 1814, was promoted to the rank of Licutenant-Colonel of the 17th Regiment United States Infantry. In the winter of 1815 he was appointed President Judge of the Third Cir- cuit of Ohio, which office he held until 1830. In the autumn of the same year he was elected Proseeming Attor- ney, which was the last office he held. Ile was one of the most eminent lawyers and advocates of his time. Ile was married, prior to his removal to Ohio, to Sally Isaacs. Ile dicd at Briar Hill, April 11th, 1841, leaving a widow and five children.
RION, JOIIN, Farmer and Merchant, was born, September 6th, 1798, in Kanawha county, (now West) Virginia, and is the oldest son of Robert and Nancy ( Balentine) Irion. His father was a native of South Carolina, who was a farmer by oc- cupaation and a surveyor by profession. Ile re- moved to Ohio in 1So2, and first settled in Brown county, where he resided about twelve years, and proceeded, in 1814, to Fayette county, where he sojourned until his death. Ile was an active participant in the carly Indian wars of Virginia, and married there Nancy, daughter of Thomas Balentine, both of whom were natives of the north of Irc- land, but emigrated to America, and were among the carly settlers of what is now the State of West Virginia. Jolm is the eldest of a family of thirteen children. Ile worked on a farm when a boy, and attended the district school during the winter season. When twenty-two years of age, he began life on his own resources, as a farmer in Fayette county, and has resided in that section ever since, with the exception of some five years passed in Brown county. Ile has been through his long life principally engaged in agri- cultural pursuits. Ile filled the office of Justice of the Peace of Union township, Fayette county, for a considerable period ; and was also Land Appraiser of the same locality for one year. Ile was a Captain under the old militia law ON BONHORST, CHARLES G., Dentist, was born, March 34, 1820, in the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and is a son of Baron Charles F. Von Bonhorst, a lawyer, and one of the oldest and most prominent citizens, who was born in Berlin, Prussia, fought against the first Napoleon, and emigrated to America in 1808, and married a lady, a native of Washington county, Pennsylvania. Charles, the younger, attended a private school in Pittsburgh, and had completed an academie course, when fourteen years of age. Ile com- menced to play the violin in the theatrical orchestra when fifteen, continuing until he had attained his majority, in the of the State. Ile was at one time interested in the stock of the Panhandle Railroad, and also in several turnpike com- panies. At present he is a stockholder in the Dayton & Southeastern Railroad Company. He has recently em- barked in the boot and shoe business, under the firm-name of Irion & Co., himself owning the controlling interest. His political views are those held by the Republican party, having previously been a Whig of the Henry Clay school. Ilis religious belief is not circumscribed by the doctrines of any particular church. Socially he is of pleasant and courteous manners, lle has always led a temperate life, and, though he has nearly reached the age of fontscore meantime studying dentistry, paying for his instruction in
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the same from his salary received as a musician. lle then opened an office, and practised for two years. At the age of twenty-three he visited different cities.in the South, where he continued his practice until the civil war broke out, when he returned to Pennsylvania, and after being engaged in his office for a year, made a pleasure trip to Europe. On his return to the United States he remained in Virginia from 1863 to 1865, when he removed to Lancaster, Ohio, and has since resided there, engaged in the control of an extensive practice, and has the reputation of being one of the most skilful dentists in the State. Ile has made many improve- ments in dentistry, and received several patents, the most recent being an "Applicator," for painless extraction of teeth. Among other patents may be named a lamp to con- sume its own smoke, without a chimney. He has been an industrious, persevering worker in the battle of life, and has attained his present position only by the exercise of an in- domitable will and energy. Ile was married, February 14th, 1847, to Annie Decker, who died in 1854. Ile was united in marriage, September Ist, 1857, to Olive Lorentz, of Virginia.
OWERS, CAPTAIN LUCIUS A., of Chillicothe, was born, on February 18th, 1828, in Franklin county, Ohio. Ile was the oklest of four chil- dren, whose parents were Allen and Lora Il. (Preston) Bowers. llis father was a native of Orange county, New York, and moved to Frank- lin county in 1816. Ile followed mechanical pursuits through life, and died in the same county in 1868, at the age of seventy three years. The mother of Lucius is a native of Connecticut, and now lives in Franklin county, at the advanced age of seventy-five years. On his father's side Captain Bowers is descended from revolutionary stock. I lis early education was liberal, and in the main received at Kilbourne College, Ohio. From his boyhood until he reached his twenty-fourth year, with the exception of his collegiate days, he was employed in agricultural pursuits. In 1852 he went to Thorntown, Indiana, and engaged in the stove business. Ile continued so occupied in that place until 1858, when he returned to his farm in Franklin county. There he remained, taking up various pursuits, until the beginning of the war of the rebellion. Being of patriotic impulses and decided views concerning his coun- try's condition, he enlisted in Company I, 46th Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and was mustered into the service on October 20, 1861. He soon after accompanied this regi- ment to the field, and saw service in the celebrated actions of Pittsburgh Landing, Siege of Corinth, Haine,' Bluff, Siege of Vicksburg, Jackson, Missionary Ridge, Resaca, Dallas, Kenesaw Mountain, Atlanta, Jonesboro' and Pine Ilill, and other battles of not so great moment. Soon after his en- listment he was appointed Orderly Sergeant. On January 24th, 1862, he was commissioned as First Lieutenant. Ile
was promoted to the rank of Captain on February 20th, 1863, for brave and meritorious conduct on the fields of Pittsburgh Landing, Shiloh and Corinth. He was mastered out of the service by reason of the expiration of his term on October 26th, 1864. After the fall of Memphis he was de- tailed for the recruiting service, as a commissioned officer, at Columbus, Ohio. This was a high and well-deserved com- pliment to his abilities and bearing as a soldier and a man. After his discharge from active service he was Assistant to the Post Quartermaster, Colonel Burr, at Columbus, and at Camp Chase, until October Ist, 1865. On the tenth day of that month he took the Zettler Hotel, at Columbus, which he managed until 1871. In this year he sold his interest in that house, and took the United States Hotel, in the same city, which he kept for two years. Then he left Columbus, and moved to Chillicothe, where, as controller, he carries on the Emmitt House. This hotel is one of the first in the State, and under his able management it has prospered. Captain Bowers was married on April 5th, 1864, to Eliza- beth A. White, a native of Malden, Massachusetts, by whom he is the father of five children. Politically he is a Repub- lican, and was formerly a Whig. Religiously he is a Prot- estant. It is worthy of mention that his family on both sides has been remarkable for longevity. At a meeting of his grandparents in 1848, their respective ages were 74, 79, 78 and 80.
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