The Biographical encyclopedia of Ohio of the nineteenth century. Pt. 2, Part 59

Author: Robson, Charles, ed; Galaxy Publishing Company, pub
Publication date: 1876
Publisher: Cincinnati, Galaxy publishing company
Number of Pages: 760


USA > Ohio > The Biographical encyclopedia of Ohio of the nineteenth century. Pt. 2 > Part 59


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by long connected circuits instead of frequent stoppages and repetitions, and delivery entirely by telegraph, killed compe- tition and became successful. Ile conceived and carried into practical operation the Pacific Telegraph from St. Louis to San Francisco. Ile thus furnished the builders of the Union Pacific Railroad their example, as they followed practically the route he had laid out with his telegraph. lle started out in the spring of 1861 with more than one hun- dred fat beef cattle, wagons, tools, material for the entire line, tents and provisions for men, a knife, a pair of revolv- ers, and a sixteen-shooter rifle, to defend themselves against the Indians, and although in many places they had to draw timber for posts two hundred and fifty miles, and water for men and teams long distances, yet notwithstanding these and other difficulties the line was completed on the 24th of October of that same year, Ile was the first President of the Pacific Telegraph Company, and when it was consoli- dated with the Western Union Telegraph Company he was made President of the entire combination, which position he continued to hold until 1867, when he resigned in conse- quence of a serious illness caused by overwork. Although he has a large fortune, acquired by industry, perseverance and capacity for executing great projects, he is not idle, but is a leading director in many of the largest factories, banks, railroads and other public institutions. When the Citizens' Savings and Loan Association of Cleveland was organized in 1867, he was elected its President. Ile originated the Lake View Cemetery Association, and as its President opened it to the public in 1871. The " Wade Park," an extensive tract of land, has been beautified at his own ex- pense, and the publie enjoy the benefit of its beauties. Ile is appreciated in Cleveland as one of her benefactors for his unostentatious charities, and for opening, beautifying, and improving localities and streets,


prevailed throughout the region. There were but few neighbors at first, but towards the close of 1824, some more settlers appeared. The country, however, improved but slowly, although it became healthier after farms were opened. Two years after the family arrived, a school house was built, which Augustus attended when about eight years old. lle received all his education in the district schools held there, but was generally employed in assisting his father to clear the farm, or in working by the month in the vicinity. When fourteen years old, he worked one season at four dollars per month wages. Ile married when in his twen- tieth year, and commenced a farm on forty acres of land on Toussaint creek, which he had purchased; it was about three miles distant from his father's place. Hle commenced with nothing. He built a cabin, but had neither furniture to place in it, nor a team to assist him in clearing the land. lle remained there two years, when his parents died, and he returned to the homestead; this was situated on the river opposite the site of the present town of Elmore. Ile was elected a Justice of the Peace when he was twenty-one years old, and held that position for nine years. Until 1850 he was chiefly employed in clearing and working the farm, and gradually improved his financial condition. At that date he purchased a tract of land opposite his farm for John 11. Foster, of Norwalk, and laid out the town of Elmore. Dur- ing the following year he purchased Foster's interests in the place, and proceeded to dispose of the lots, The Cleveland & Toledo Railroad was completed the same year, and as it passed through Elmore, the lots sold off rapidly and profit- ably. Hle continued to make investments in lands, and found himself in a few years engaged in an extensive real estate business, buying and selling for himself and others in Ottawa and adjoining counties. Ilis transactions have been very large and varied. In one township near Elmore, nearly every tract has been owned or sold by him. He is now associated with llon, Rutherford B. Hayes and others in real estate operations in Toledo and its vicinity. In political sentiments he was formerly an old-line Whig, and after the disintegration of that party was inclined towards conservative views, but during the late civil war he was one of the most active in his own county in aiding the govern- ment and raising recruits. Ilis son, James B. Luckey, though but seventeen years of age, recruited a company for the 3d Ohio Cavalry, and served as Captain of Company L. throughout the war. In 1864, when it seemed almost im- possible to induce men to enlist, Mr. Luckey persuaded more than one to go to the field, giving one man forty acres of good land, to another one hundred dollars, and pledged himself individually to contribute three dollars per month to the families of all who should volunteer. lle was also appointed by Governor Tod, and acted very efficiently, as a Draft Commissioner. He was married, February 26th, 1837, to Desire M., daughter of Joseph Hall, one of the first settlers at l'ort Clinton, and an owner of extensive tracts


UCKEY, AUGUSTUS W., Real Estate Operator, was born, March 6th, 1817, in Gallipolis, Ohio, and is a son of John 1 .. and Anna ( Wolfler) Luckey. Ilis father was a native of Maryland; he was married in Middletown, Pennsylvania, in 1816, and soon after removed to Ohio, moving his wife and worldly goods in a one-horse wagon over the mountains, and located at Gallipolis. In December, 1823, they removed to northern Ohio, stopping first at Lower Sandusky, now Fremont. Ilis father having located one Inindred aeres of government land on Portage river, sixteen miles distant from Lower Sandusky, moved his family there in the same month, and were five days on this short journey of sixteen miles, being obliged to ent their way through the woods, and ford the streams. After they reached the tract of land, they were obliged to build a log house, and during the winter suffered many privations. In the following summer they were nearly prostrated with the fevers which Iof land and of several mills on Portage river. Ile has had


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four children, of whom two are now living. Mary, his ' the owner of a fine farm at a short distance from the town daughter, is the wife of D. Wood, and resides in Fortino; limits, and also of another some miles beyond, which is and his son, James B., is associated with him in the real estate business. The latter is now Auditor of Ottawa county, a Republican in politics, but elected in a county strongly Democratic.


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AWSON, LA QUINIO, M. D., Physician and Farmer, was born, September 14th, 1804, in the town of Erwin, Franklin county, Massachusetts, and is a son of Lemuel Rawson, a native of the same State, and a lineal descendant of Edward Rawson, the first Secretary of the colony of Massa- chusetts Bry, who emigrated from Gillingham, England, in 1636, to New England, and represented the town of New- bury in the General Court of the year 1639. Dr. Rawson passed his early years upon his father's farm, attending the district school during the winter season. When sixteen years of age he entered the academy, where he continued for two years, teaching school in the winter. When about nineteen years old he left home and travelled to Ohio, reaching Newbury, Geauga county, where an elder brother resided, engaged in the practice of medicine. In March, 1824, he commenced the study of medicine with his brother, remaining in his office about two years, and thence went to Zanesville, where he continued his readings with Dr. Flanner. In July, 1826, he was licensed by the Ohio Medical Society, and commenced the practice of his profes- sion in Crawford county, where he remained about eighteen months. In December, 1827, he removed to the town of Lower Surdusky-now Fremont-and resumed his practice. The country was new, and the town contained less than three hundred inhabitants. There were but few physicians in that section, and the practice was very laborious and trying to the soundest constitution. In 1833 he went to Cincinnati, where he passed the winter in attendance upon the lectures in the Ohio Medical College, receiving from that institution the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He subsequently went to Philadelphia, and attended the lec- tures delivered at the University of Pennsylvania, where he also graduated, and received the diploma of that celebrated school, and also the diploma of the Philadelphia Medical Society, of which he became a member. While continning the active practice of medicine, he held the office of Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas of Sandusky county, and also Clerk of the Supreme Court continuously from 1836 to 1852. In 1855 he became, with others, interested in the construction of the Lake Erie & Louisville Railroad; and at the time of the organization of the company was made its President, which office he continues to hold. He has taken an active part in the management of the road, aiding it liberally with his means. Previous to 1860 he withdrew entirely from the practice of his profession, and has since employed his leisure time in agricultural pursuits, he being


devoted to stock raising. He is a stock holder and a Direc. tor of the First National Bank of Fremont, Ile is a Re- publican in politics, but has never been a candidate for any office. He was, however, a delegate to the National Con- vention of 1864, which assembled in Baltimore, and nomi- nated President Lincoln for a second term. Ile was married, July 8th, 1829, at Fremont, to Sophia Beaugrand, and has had eight children, of whom there are but thrce now living-one daughter and two sons-all at home. Ilis eldest son, Eugene A. Rawson, born March 14th, 1840, enlisted in the army while at school in Homer, New York, and was several times promoted. While Major of the 77th Regiment Ohio Volunteers, and leading his command in a charge at Tupelo, Mississippi, in 1864, he fell mortally wounded.


RIMBLE, ALLEN, ex-Governor of Ohio, was born in Augusta county, Virginia, November 24th, 1783. llis ancestors, paternal and maternal, were of the intelligent, adventurous Scotch Irish stock that at an early day settled the valley of Virginia and formed the bulwark of stout arms and brave hearts between the Northwestern Indians and the Eastern settlements of Virginia. In one of their savage and merciless assaults on this border population of Augusta county, John Trimble, the grandfather of Allen, was slain while defending his home and family, and James, his only son, then a lad of ten years, with others, taken prisoners. This bloodstained band was successfully pursued over the Allegheny mountains by a party under Colonel Moffit, a stepson of Jolin Trimble, the Indians surprised, and the prisoners rescued. When twenty-one years of age James, the father of Allen Trimble, participated in the severely contested but decisive battle of Point Pleasant, fought by the valley troops, under General Lewis, in 1774, with the combined Indian forces, under their most distinguished chief, Cornstalk. He also commanded a company of bor- der troops during the revolutionary war, that aided in suc- cessfully repelling the frequent inroads attempted on the border settlements by the combined British and Indian forces. In 1780 he married Jane, daughter of James Allen, whose only brothers perished on battle-fields - one at Grant's defeat, near Fort Duquesne, and the other at Point Pleasant, under Lewis. In 1784 Captain Trimble, having previously located in Kentucky the land warrants received for military service, formed, with his young family, part of a company of over 500 souls who, under command of Gen- eral Knox, of revolutionary memory, traversed the wilder- ness from Virginia to the interior of Kentucky on horseback, depending upon their rifles for supplies and for defence against hostile Indians. Allen, the subject of this sketch, was eleven months old, and was carried in his mother's


Allen Finalho


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arms on this tedions and perilous journey. Captain Trim- ble settled a few miles from MeConnell's Station (How Lexington, Kentucky), where he continued till his death in 1804. He had in 18oz, influenced by high moral and religious considerations, and with a view to the ultimate interests of his growing family, resolved to manumit his slaves and make his home in the territory northwest of the Ohio river. In execution of this purpose he visited Ohio in 1802, accompanied by his son Allen, and selected lands in the Scioto and Paint valleys, and one tract of 1200 acres on Clear Creek, in Highland county. On this latter he determined to locate his family, and in April, 1804, with a sufficient working force, built on it a comfortable double log cabin, cleared the land, and planted an orchard of five or six acres, the trees for which were carried on horseback from Kentucky, his son Allen managing the home business during his absence. The death of his father in October of this year ( 1804) left Allen-not yet twenty-one-the re- sponsible head of the family, with his father's well-consid- ered and cherished purposes to execute (save one, the freedom of his slaves; the deeds for the manumission of these had been recorded in his lifetime). With a good English and thorough business education, a self-reliance taught by his father's confidence and example, and with a strong sense of duty to a mother and younger brothers and sisters, he was not unfitted for the delicate trust, and with the energy and despatch which distinguished him in after life, he proceeded to settle the affairs of his father's estate, and in October, 1305, took possession of the residence in Ohio consecrated by his father's labors. In 1809 he was appointed Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas and Su- preme Court for Highland county, and County Recorder, which positions he occupied seven years. This appoint- ment caused him to make Hillsborough, the county seat, his residence, which it continued to be during the remain- der of his life. Notwithstanding his official position, he yielded to his country's call for brief periods of military service in both 1812 and 1813. When Hull's surrender exposed the frontier to the incursions of combined British and Indian forces, and before the United States government has provided means of defence, Governor Shelby, of Ken- lucky, appointed General Harrison, of Ohio, to the com- mand of the Kentucky troops. The latter issued a call for regiments for thirty days' service, to be raised in Ohio and join his Kentucky troops. Allen Trimble was elected Colonel of one of these regiments, and joined General Har- rison at St. Mary's. Hle was ordered with his command to the relief of the garrison at Fort Wayne, which was seriously threatened by the enemy, and to disperse the Indians com- bining on the upper Wabash and Eel rivers. This service was performed in such marmer as to clicit from General Harrison a very complimentary approval. The time for the call having expired, and its purpose accomplished, these troops were disbanded. In 1813, at the general call of Governor Meigs, he marched a regiment to Upper San-


dusky. For want of supplies General Harrison was com- pelled to dismiss this patriotic force of Ohio volunteers and direct their return to their homes, . In 1816 Allen Trimble was elected to the Legislature from Highland county by a laurge majority over the former representative, and took his seat in the first General Assembly convened at Columbus. In 1817 he was elected to the Senate from the district com- posed of the counties of Highland and Fayette; the sanie constituency returning him four successive terms of two years each by very large majorities, At the session of 1818 he was elected Speaker of the Senate over General Robert Lucas, the former Speaker, and was continued in that posi- tion, almost by common consent, for seven successive years. That he should have been continued Speaker so many years, at a time when the Senate of Ohio was remarkable for men of ability, is evidence that he possessed the higher qualities of manhood which inspired and retained the con- tidenee of his compeers. It was claimed by them at the time, and oft repeated since, that Allen Trimble made the ablest presiding officer that had been known in Ohio, At the session of 1821 he was elected United States Senator by the General Assembly, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Colonel William A. Trimble, brother of Allen. The Speaker of the Senate, by provision of the Constitution, became the acting Governor until the position was filled by the people at the general election of October, 1822. During the session of 1821 a joint resolution of the Legislature authorized the Governor to appoint a committee to examine and report to the next General Assembly upon the subject of common schools, and the policy of the adoption of the system by the State of Ohio. The acting Governor was careful to appoint men of enlightened and liberal views, trusting to the merits of the subject to clicit from them a favorable report. Owing to the intrinsic difficulties of the subject, not then understood as now-especially by men in a new State, made up largely of population from older States, in which no such system prevailed-the committee did not report till the session of 1824. They then pre- sented an able and unanimous report in favor of the system, and legislative enactments during that session engrafted it upon the public policy of the State. At this session, also, the canal policy was adopted, and ex-Governor Brown, Allen Trimble, and Ebenezer Buckingham (a member of the Senate) were elected by the General Assembly the first Canal Fund Commissioners, and authorized to negotiate the first loan of the State for canal purposes. This was suc- cessfully accomplished and on as favorable terms as any since made by the State. At the October election of 1826 Allen Trimble was elected Governor by an unusually large majority over his competitors, John Bigger, John W. Camp- bell, and Benjamin Tappan-the vote being for Bigger 4114, for Campbell 4675, for Tappan 4192; in all, 12,981; and for Trimble 71,475-a majority of 58,494. The liberal and enlightened views of public policy which had marked his career as a legislator, characterized his administration as


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Chief Executive, and were earnestly pressed upon the Leg- | Episcopal Church in 1828, from strong, deep conviction of duty as a responsible agent owing service and love to his Creator, his walk through life was fraught with influence for good, and his death embalmed with holy and tender remembrances by his surviving relatives and friends. Ile passed from life peacefully, happily, the 3d of February, 1870, in his eighty-eighth year.


islature. At the session of 1826 Governor Trimble was authorized by the Legislature to select the half million acres of land granted by Congress to the State for canal purposes. Associating with himself Mr. Louis Davis, of Cincinnati, an early pioneer, he spent several weeks of the summer of 1827 in the Maumee and Sandusky valleys, in the discharge of this duty, and received the thanks of the Legislature for the manner in which the important trust had been performed. In 1828 General Jackson's popularity and influence had not only created a powerful party for his support, but one in violent hostility to Mr. Clay and his friends. Governor Trimble had been one of Mr. Clay's most ardent supporters from his first appearance on the field as a candidate for the Presidency. No amount of patriotie service to the State seemed able to stem the tide of party feeling, or resist the force of party discipline which had been inaugurated by the Jackson party. The Clay Whigs of Ohio went into the battle with Governor Trimble as their standard-bearer, and after the most severe political contest known in the State to that time, had the gratifica- tion of electing, not only the Governor, but a majority of both branches of the Legislature. The State was carried at the November election for General Jackson by several thousand majority. Success in this contest increased the previous partiality of the Whigs of the State for their Gov- ernor, attributing, as they did, their success in the general cleetion in great measure to his popularity. A wise and economical administration of the affairs of the State retained political power in the hands of the Whig party of Ohio until the Presidential election in 1832. At the close of this executive term, December, 1830, Governor Trimble retired from public life, carrying with him to that retirement as large a share of public confidence and respect as any man who had served the State. Including his clerkship, he had now been in official positions continuously for twenty years -thirteen years prominently before the publie eye, as Representative, Senator, Speaker of the Senate, and Gov- ernor of the State-and in every position regarded as an honest, capable, faithful public servant. Ile had aided in maturing and putting into successful operation liberal and enlightened systems of policy that secured to the State a rapid growth and substantial prosperity, and made it a worthy example as the first-born of the free States north- west the Ohio river. Though but forty-seven years of age, he could well afford to retire with gratified ambition and give his attention to agricultural pursuits, to which he had been trained from boyhood, and which he had always pur- sued with interest and pleasure. To aid in building up this important interest of the State he gave time, influence, and money, and had the gratification during his life of witness- ing the fruit of efforts made in connection with other enlightened and liberal agriculturists of the State, in the rapid development and improvement of this great field of human labor. Having attached himself to the Methodist


IRCHARD, SARDIS, Merchant, Banker, and Philanthropist, was born, January 15th, 1801, in Wilmington, Windham courty, Vermont, and was the youngest son of Roger and Drusilla (Austin) Birchard. Both of his grandfathers were revolutionary soldiers. One of these, Elias Birchard, died of a disease contracted in the service near the elose of the war ; and the other, Captain Daniel Austin, served as an officer under Washington throughout the war, and survived many years. The Birchards were among the first settlers of Norwich, Connecticut. When his mother died, five children survived her, and Sardis, the youngest, was taken by his sister Sophia, who had married Ruther- ford Ilayes, and became one of their family, and lived with them at Dunmerston, Vermont, until 1817, when he accom- panied them in their removal to Delaware, Ohio. Ile acquired the rudiments of an English education by an irregular attendance. at such schools as were kept at that early day in the country towns of Vermont. Ile became an expert hunter and horseman for a boy of his age, and gained some knowledge of business in the store of his brother-in-law, R. Hayes. In Ohio he worked with the latter in building, farming, driving, taking care of stock, and employed all his spare hours in hunting. He was able, with his rifle, to supply his own and other families with turkeys and venison. In 1822 his brother-in-law died, leaving a widow and three young children, and a large un- settled business. Sardis, at this time, was barely twenty-one years of age ; but he at once assumed the duties of the head of the family, and applied himself diligently to the manage- ment of the unsettled affairs of his brother-in-law's estate, and to the care of his household. In September, 1824, he first visited his future home, Fremont, then Lower San- dusky, accompanied by his friend, Benjamin Powers, sinee a banker of Delaware, Ohio. In the summer of 1825, while mowing in the hay field, he was seriously injured in health by over exertion, and from the effects of this he never entirely recovered. In the winter of 1825-26 he was confined to his bed with an attack called consumption, and it was supposed he would not live till spring. Ile, how- ever, spoke hopefully of his condition, and a cheerful dispo- sition, aided by the elasticity of his constitution, carried him safely through. Ile subsequently made a trip to Vermont on horseback, where he remained until the ap- proach of winter, when he repaired to Georgia, and passed


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the winter in that salubrious region. In IS27 he purchased a stock of goods in New York city, and accompanied it when shipped to Cleveland. His intention was to self to Laborers on the Ohio Canal, which was then in course of construction from Cleveland southwardly. After passing down the canal into the Tuscarawas valley, he became dis- satisfied with that trade, and having disposed of a portion of his goods to another trader, took the balance to Fort Ball (now Tiffin), where he remained, trading successfully with the new settlers until December of that year, when he removed to Lower Sandusky, and was the first to go into business there alone. He received the Indian trade to a large extent by refusing to sell them liquor. He was in trade three or four years, and having accumulated $10,000, considered himself rich enough to retire. About 1831, however, he formed his first partnership with Rodolphus Dickinson and Esbon Husted, he furnishing the capital. The firm.name was R. Dickinson & Co., and they soon had in operation one of the largest retail stores north of Colum- bus and west of Cleveland, their yearly sales amounting to $50,000, the majority being on credit. He bought the first vessel with Richard Sears, each owning an equal interest. This was a schooner, the " John Richards," about one hundred tons burthen, and worth about $4000. The first shipment of wheat out of Lower Sandusky, according to the best of his recollection, was made on this schooner; and this shipment was probably the first sent eastward from any lake port west of Cleveland. The wheat from the ridges of Seneca county was then much sought after for starch manufacture, and was then worth fifty cents per bushel. In 1835 Esbon Husted died, and his place in the firm was taken by George Grant, who had been a clerk in the establishment since the formation of the firm. In 1841 the latter died, when the firm dissolved, the business being settled by Mr. Birchard. On January Ist, 1851, in partner- ship with Lucius B. Otis-forming the firm of Birchard & Otis-the first banking house in Fremont was established. On the removal of Judge Otis to Chicago, in 1856, the re- maining member of the firm formed a partnership with Anson II. Miller and Dr. James W. Wilson, under the firm-name of Birchard, Miller & Co. In 1863 the First National Bank of Fremont was organized, when the bank- ing firm of Birchard, Miller & Co. was merged in it. It was the second national bank organized in Ohio, and the fifth in the United States. Mr. Birchard was elected Presi- RIMBLE, COLONEL WILLIAM H., third son of ex-Governor Allen Trimble, was born at Ilills- borough, Ohio, October 22d, 1811. Ile was educated chiefly at Miami University, and read law with Samson Mason, at Springfield, Ohio. While engaged in the practice he yielded to the wishes of his Whig friends, and represented Ilighland county in the Legislature three terms-1845, 1846, and 1847-and was solicited in 1848 to be a candidate for the Senate in the strong Whig district composed of the counties dent of the bank on its organization, and held the position till his death. During the half century which elapsed after arriving at man's estate he was active and conspicuous, where good words and works were required, in the promo- tion of every important scheme designed to advance the welfare of the town and county of his residence. He was connected with the first enterprise that opened river and lake commerce between Fremont and Buffalo. Appropria- tions by the State for the construction of the Western Re- serve and Maumee road had in him an early, untiring, and lof Fayette and Highland. This he declined, having pre-




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