The Biographical encyclopedia of Ohio of the nineteenth century. Pt. 2, Part 6

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


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ALDWIN, SEYMOUR WESLEY, Merchant and Bank Director, is of New England birth, having been born in Meriden, Connecticut, on July 29th, 1807. Ile was a farmer's son, and his experience was that of farmers' boys in general, at that day in particular. Ile worked on the farm as the principal business to be done, and obtained his education as the exigencies of faim labor permitted. In this manner, working on the farm in the summer and attending the dis- trict school in the winter, he occupied himself until he was eighteen years of age. Then he left the farm and left the school, and entered upon commercial pursuits as a Yankee ington, in Franklin county, Ohio, but removed the following pedlar. Ile succeeded in this line of business, and re- summer to Gambier, Knox county, its permanent location. Ile was a student under the presidency of its founder, Philander Chase, the first Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church of Ohio, and graduated in the summer of 1832, in the second graduating class. In the fall of 1835 he moved to Cincinnati, and entered the office of Salmon P. Chase, late Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, as a student of law, and attended the Cincinnati Law School, then in charge of John C. Wright, Timothy Walker, Joseph mained in it until 1835. Then he decided that the time had come to go into mercantile life on a more ambitions scale. Ile believed in the West as a field of enterprise, and accordingly removed to Elyria, Ohio, where he started in the dry-goods business. He has resided there ever since, , engaged in business as an extensive and exceedingly pros- perous dry-goods merchant. Ilis success in his mercantile career has been great and uninterrupted, and no man in the country has been blessed with a greater degree of business


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prosperity. He is energetic, enterprising and active, and study. In the spring of 1843 he entered Woodward Col- promptly and fully a> he meets all the requirements of his ; lege as a beneficiary, and afterward was engaged for a time individual business, he has time and energy to bestow on other matters. He is a Director of the National Bank of Elyria, and takes an active interest in all measures calculated to forward the welfare of the community. He was abo elected first President of the Home Bank of West Meriden, Connecticut. Politically he was an early Whig; later he acted with the men who formed the anti-slavery party, and since the organization of the Republican party he has worked consistently with that party. His first vote was cast for John Quincy Adams, for President. His life of hard work was pleasantly interrupted in 1870, by a tour of several months in Europe. In 1830 he married Mary E. Candee, who died in September, 1836. Ilis present wife, Fidelia Hall, he married in 1837.


YLAR, HON. J. W., Journalist and Legislator, was born in Carlisle, Brown county, Ohio, on March 11th, 1847. By profession a newspaper man, he is at the present writing ( March, 1876) Editor and Publisher of the People's Defender, at West Union. At the October election of 1875 he was elected to represent his county ( Adams) in the Ohio Legislature. Of that body he is one of the youngest mem- bers.


WENS, WILLIAM, M. D., Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics in the Pulte Medical College of Cincinnati, Ohio, was born in Warren, Trumbull county, Ohio, April 24th, 1823. Ilis parents were natives of this country. His early education was obtained in the country schools of a sparsely settled district, and his acquirements, at the age of thirteen, must have been of the most meagre character, since, up to that period of his life, he had attended the ses- sions but two quarters in each year. Through the winter months of his earlier years, on account of the distance of the school from his home, and the prevalence of heavy snow-storms, he was obliged to relinquish his studies, and satisfy his craving for knowledge by reading all the books belonging to his father, or which could be borrowed from his neighbors; His course of reading developed in him a great fondness for travel, which was subsequently gratified by his departure from home, in company with an invalid army officer, with whom he visited Florida, the West Indies, and South America. After thus spending two years in rambling hither and thither, he became anxious to learn a useful business or profession, and, in accordance with that desire, returned to Ohio, and in Cincinnati applied himself to the trade of cooper, as one which would permit him to devote one portion of his time to labor and the other to


in working at his trade during one-half of the day, and in attending the college recitations during the other half, while he studied his lessons in the hours formerly devoted to sleep or recreation. He continued this manner of life, often changing his workshop and master, until carly in the spring of 1846, when an opportunity was offered him to enter a drug store, as assistant. In the following May the Mexican war broke out, and he then enlisted in the Ist Regiment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Company E, com- manded by Captain J. B. Armstrong. Shortly after arriving at the theatre of war he was appointed Hospital Steward for his regiment, and in this capacity served faithfully until the cessation of hostilities. During the conflict he was en- gaged in nearly all of the more important battles under General Taylor. Upon being mustered out of the service, he returned to Cincinnati, and resumed his former position . in the drug store, where he remamed until 1849, the date of his graduation in medicine. While thus employed he had attended lectures during the day, and at night served as niglu clerk. During the intervals between the winter courses of lectures he gave his attention closely to the drug business and his studies, taking four full courses before graduating. After his graduation, with high honors, he was immediately appointed Demonstrator of Anatomy in the Eclectic Medical College, and retained that position during the following two years. In the ensuing year he was solicited to take the same office in the Western College of Homeopathy, at Cleveland, Ohio. That position he accepted, and, while filling it, attended a full course of lectures npon the Homeopathic Materia Medica and Thera- peuties. In the spring of 1852 he again returned to Cin- cinnati, and there resumed his professional labors. In the autumn of 1855 he purchased an interest in a Water Cure establishment at Granville, Ohio, and sustamed his connec- tion with this enterprise until, at the expiration of two years, it proved to be a financial failure. Hle then moved to Yellow Springs, Ohio, and there embarked in the same business, taking in a partner as financial manager, in order to permit him to devote his entire attention to the medical management of the institution. At the end of eighteen months he found that he had lost all the money invested by him in the business, and also was surprised at the discovery of the fact that all the available property was in the hands of his partner. In November, 1858, he returned to Cincin- nati, hoping to retrieve his wasted fortunes in this city, and find a less ruinous road to affluence. Ile had abandoned faith in " financial managers." In the spring of 1861, after the lapse of two years and six months, his circumstances were not less straitened, and, on the outbreak of the South- ern rebellion, he assisted in organizing two companies for the war. One, of infantry, could not be accepted ; the other, of cavalry, was attached to the 5th Regiment of Ohio Volunteers. In that company ( K) he accepted a commis-


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sion as First Lieutenant, and during the ensuing conflict | Army, and was ordered to Louisville, to assist in the held many important positions of danger, responsibility, and Crittenden United States General Hospital. On the eve of the battle of Nashville he was ordered to that place, and took charge of " Branch of No. 16, United States General Hospital," Here the mortality list was most appalling : out of two hundred and fifty beds, the death rate had averaged from eight to ten per diem. Under his manage- ment, however, matters rapidly assumed a better aspect, and, after the lapse of two weeks, the death rate lessened wonderfully. Thereupon the medical inspector of hospi- tals, Dr. John E. MeGirr, sent to him a letter personally complimenting him in glowing terms on the desirable re- sult attained. Ile continued in charge of this branch until the close of the war, when he went to Washington, in order to facilitate the settlement of his accounts with the various departments. He then returned to Cincinnati, Ohio, and resumed the practice of his profession. He assisted in founding the Pulte Medical College of Cincinnati, occupied the chair of anatomy in that institution for two years, and subsequently was assigned to that of materia medica and


trust. As First Lieutenant, and subsequently as Captain, his record is wholly honorable, and he was several times commended " by special order" for conrage, fidelity, and intelligence. As Acting Assistant Surgeon, Acting Assist- ant Quartermaster, and Acting Assistant Commissary, his accounts were always found to be entirely correct, and were invariably approved by the department. * In July, 1863, he was commissioned a Captain in his regiment, and took command of the company in whose organization he had assisted. At the battle of Shiloh his company was detailed to watch the Confederate movements on the Federal right flank, and, after the action, he was assigned to look after the sick and wounded, and to take special charge of those who belonged to his own regiment until they were all on board of steamers for the Northern hospitals. He afterward rejoined his command in front of Corinth, and took an active part in scouting service in the vicinity of the enemy's lines. On two occasions he assisted in cutting off the rebel railroad communications in their rear, measures which ulti- [ therapeutics, which he still retains, After the close of the mately compelled the evacuation of this stronghold. Ile took part also under General Phil Sheridan, in the pur- suit of the Confederate troops to Booneville. After the capture of Corinth, he was detailed to the surgical charge third course of lectures, he was appointed Dean of the . Faculty, and has since continued to act in this capacity. In June, 1865, he was appointed Examining Surgeon for Pensioners, for Hamilton county, and held the office for of the sick and wounded of a cavalry field-hospital in that ( four years. Ile is a member of the American Institute of place, and retained his position there until he was commis- sioned Captain about fifteen months later. While engaged in the hospital, he applied his attention to the study and practice of surgery, thus acquiring, by close and incessant observation, a thorough knowledge of this branch of medi- cal science. During the battles of Iuka, September 19th, 1862, and Corinth, October 30, 4th, and 5th, he occupied a conspicuous position in the field, was with the ambulances, and took charge of the sick and wounded. During an ex- pedition into north Alabama, in December, 1862, a battalion


Homeopathy, of the State Homeopathie Medical Society of Ohio, of the Cincinnati Homeopathie Medical Society, of the Society of Natural History, and of other organizations of a scientific, literary, or social character. He has written numerons articles for homeopathic journals, and is now one of the regular contributors to the Cincinnati Medical Advance, the homeopathic organ of this section of the country. Ile is still an earnest medical student, controls a large and lucrative practice, and is to-day one of the most energetic and able defenders of homeopathy in the State of of raw recruits, known as the Ist Alabama Cavalry, was ! Ohio or elsewhere. He was married, May 12th, 1853, to found to be without a commander. On the recommenda- Sarah E. Wilcox, of Cincinnati, by whom he has had six children ; of these, one boy and three girls are now living. tion of his commanding officer, he was ordered to assume command of this undrilled rabble ; and, on the tennination of the campaign, Colonel Sweeney issued a special order, commending the gallantry displayed by him in dislodging the command of General Roddy from a stronghokl at Blue EEK, WILLIAM M., ex-Probate Judge, Lawyer, was born in West Union, Adams county, Ohio, November 22d, 1818. He was the sixth child in a family of nine children, whose parents were John Meek and Ann (Jones) Meek. His father, a native of Virginia, was for sixty years a clergy- man of the Methodist Episcopal Church, one of the zeal- ous and fearless pioneer preachers of the West. Ile was sent to Ohio in 1803 by the Baltimore Conference, and there, by his tireless labors in a virgin field, accomplished an incalculable amount of good .. He died at Felicity, Clermont county, Ohio, December 31st, 1860. Ilis mother, Springs, and in the subsequent pursuit in which those un- disciplined men captured a large number of prisoners, among whom were several officers. Also, in command of his company, he participated in all the battles around Chattanooga, and was with Sherman's command in his march through Georgia, and at the capture of Atlanta. At Cherokee, Alabama, October 20th, 1863, he commanded a cavalry charge made upon Colonel Forrest's forces, and on this occasion several times narrowly escaped death. When the period of enlistment of his regiment had expired, he was mustered out as Captain, then at once rejoined the army, as Acting Assistant Surgeon of the United States | a native of Virginia, was a daughter of John Jones, who


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was identified with the struggles of the revolutionary patriots. On the paternal side he is of Scotch, and on the maternal of Weish, extraction. From his fourteenth to his eighteenth year he was occupied alternately in working on a farm during the sunmuer months, and in attending school in the winter season. In 1836 he was sent to Hillsborough, Iligh- land county, Ohio, to pursue a course of literary study at a select school there located. In the summer of 1838, having spent the intervening period in diligent study, he returned to West Union, Adams county, and during the ensuing two years was constantly employed in attending to his duties as a bookkeeper in one of the stores of the place. In 1841 he began the reading of law at West Union, under the super- vision of Hon. Nelson Barrere, now one of the leading at- torneys of Hillsborough. In 1844 he passed the required examination, and was admitted to the bar. Through the following year he was not engaged in any particular pursuit or business, but February Ist, 1845, opened his office in West Union, and there remained until 1850, continuously occupied in the active practice of law. In 1850 he moved to Winchester, Adams county, Ohio, where he passed four years, chiefly in the dry-goods business, while still practising to a limited extent his profession. In November, IS54, he removed to Hillsborough, Highland county, opened a law office, and decided to devote his time and energies solely to professional labors. Ile then met with great success, and speedily acquired a very extensive clientelage, which is still constantly increasing in value and importance. In 1863 he was elected Probate Judge of Highland county, Ohio, was re-elected in 1866, and again re-elected in 1869-holding the office in all nine years. The Republican party possesses his esteem and support, while his religious sentiments find a congenial atmosphere within the boundaries of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was married in August, 1845, to Hester De Bruin, a native of Maysville, Kentucky.


HOMPSON, HON. JOIIN G., Commissioner of Railways and Telegraphs for the State of Ohio, ex-Member of the Ohio State Senate for the counties of Franklin and Pickaway, was born in Union county, Ohio, February 17th, 1833. His parents were James Thompson, who followed the occupation of farming, and Catharine (Gamble) Thomp- son. Upon finishing his education at the Marysville Academy, he moved to Columbus, Ohio, in 1854, and em- barked in the dry-goods trade, at which he continued until IS59, when he was elected Treasurer for Franklin county. After the expiration of his term of service in that office, in 1863 he resumed his business relations, and also, in connec- tion with others, established a private banking house, under the firm-style of Bailey, Thompson & Co. In 1870 he with- drew entirely from business, and in the course of the follow- ing year was elected to the State Senate from the counties


of Franklin and Pickaway. He was re-elected in 1873, but after serving the first year of the term resigned the position in order to accept that of Commissioner of Railroads and Telegraphs, tendered him by Governor Allen. He has been prominently identibed with the political action and measures of the State since the beginning of his career, and has uni- formly given his support and influence to the Democratic party. From 1860 to 1863 he was Secretary of the Demo- cratic Central Committee, and subsequently became its Chairman, a position which, with the exception of an inter- val of two years, he has since retained. In 1868 he was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention at New York, in 1872 to the Convention in Baltimore, and during each of the attendant campaigns was an efficient member of the National Committec. He has repeatedly been elected a member of the City Council of Columbus, and in all times has taken an active part in the various public improvements of the place. On December 6th, 1875, he was elected Sergeant-at-Arms of the National Ilouse of Representatives. . Ile was married, February 17th, 1857, to Fannie High, daughter of II. S. Iligh, of Franklin county, Ohio.


ARD, WILLIAM W., Chief Engineer and General Superintendent of the Cleveland, Tuscarawas Valley & Wheeling Railway, was horn, Septem- ber 6th, 1831, in Madison county, New York, and is the son of W. J. Card, a surveyor and civil en- gineer by profession, who has had charge of various public works in both Pennsylvania and Ohio. His primary education was received in the public schools of his section, but was completed in an academical institution. During his boyhood years he assisted his father, who had been elected Surveyor of Fairfield county, Ohio, and by this means he obtained a complete knowledge of all the details of surveying, both theoretical and practical. In 1851 he joined a corps of engineers who were engaged in the con- struction of the Cincinnati, Wilmington & Zanesville Rail- road, and he remained in that connection until the line was surveyed and located. He was appointed in 1853 the Resident Engineer for the eastern division of the road, and when his work was completed he accepted a similar posi- tion on the Milwaukee & Mississippi Railroad, which is now termed the Milwaukee & St. Paul. In 1859 the super-


intendent of the Cincinnati, Wilmington & Zanesville Rail- road died, when he was elected to fill the vacancy, which he did to the entire satisfaction of the officers of that corporation for five years thereafter. In 1864 he was tendered the posi- tion of Superintendent of the Pittsburgh, Columbus & Cin- cinnati Railroad, now termed the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati & St. Louis Railway, which he accepted, retaining this impor- tant post nearly eight years. In May, 1871, he was induced to take charge of the office of Chief Engineer and Superin-


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tendent of the Cleveland, Tuscarawas Valley & Wheeling | practice of his profession, and where he has remained so en- Railway, which he still holds. He was married, June, 1872, |gaged ever since. He had learned his profession thoroughly, to Hattie Dinsmoor, of Columbus, Ohio.


ONES, WILLIAM W., Physician, although a resi- dent of Ohio, and a native of New York, might be claimed by New England as one of her children. Ilis grandfather was a major in the revolutionary war. Both his parents were natives of Connecti- cut, and emigrated from Litchfield county in that State to central New York in 1817. New England may be said to have stronger claims upon him as one of those who derived their ancestry from the Captain Jones who com- minded the " Myflower," without whose stubborn opposi- tion to the wishes of the Pilgrims, Plymouth Rock would have been unknown in history, and New England had not been New England. In Dr. Jones himself, this oldest of New England blood is mingled on the maternal side with Scotch. He was born at Smyrna, Chenango county, New York, September 28th, 1819, a little more than a year after his parents had removed there. When he was only eight years of age his father died, leaving a large family, with but slender provision for their material support. Appreciating the value of education, the mother struggled to give her children such advantages as a new eountry at that time af- forded. William was kept at school at the academy of his native town until he was twelve years of age, and afterwards completed his studies at Salem Academy in the same State, working the while, as he found time and opportunity, to lessen his mother's burden, and share in his own support. Having a passionate fondness for books, on leaving school he entered a printing-office, at which business he served for four years, in three different offices which had successively filed for want of support. In 1836 he abandoned the oc- cupation, and removed to Dresden, Ohio, where he entered into business as clerk and afterwards as partner in a flouring mill. The knowledge of business acquired by his commer- cid pursuits at that time has been of very great advantage to him since, in his professional intercourse with the people, but he became satisfied that its pursuit for a lifetime would fail to bring that happiness to him which was his chief aim in life. Having formed an intimate friendship for Dr. W. WV. Rickey, who had one of the best medical libraries to be found at that day, he was easily persuaded by him to com- mence the study of medicine in 1844, believing that this profession presented a worthy field for attaining all the objects which could be hoped for, with a full knowledge that it implied a life of toil and devotion in those who em- braced it, and generally much less of material sueeess than followed the application of the same talents in business pur- suits. Ile graduated in the medical department of the Uni- versity of Buffalo in 1849. After receiving his diploma he removed to Toledo, where he at once entered upon the active


as he did everything, and very soon he stood high as a physi- cian and surgeon. His advance was rapid and continuons, and before long his patronage was large and lucrative. Ile did not consider that, on receiving his diploma, he had finished his studies. On the contrary he has read and in- vestigated constantly, and has kept even paee, in his knowl- edge and in his practice, with the most advanced develop- ments of medical science, and so the confidence and esteem which his skill and accomplishments won for him at the first have been continued and increased, until he now occupies a foremost position in the ranks of his profession, and not only is that position recognized by the community at large, but still more cordially by his professional brethren. In 1875 he was elected President of the Ohio State Medical Society, and he now holds that position in the Alumni Asso- ciation of the University of Buffalo; and he is, moreover, an honorary and corresponding member of various medical and scientifie societies in several States of the Union. As a citizen, no less than a professional man, is Dr. Jones es- teemed. Ile holds professional honors in far greater esteem than the greatest political preferment that could be bestowed upon him. Nevertheless, in response to the desire of his fellow-citizens, he has from time to time held public office. In 1857 he was elected a member of the City Council of Toledo, of which body he was President during his term of offiee. Ile filled the position most honorably and accept. ably, and won the unreserved commendation of all, of what- ever party. In 1870 he was elected Mayor of Toledo, and held the office for a term of four years. Ilis administration of the duties of chief magistrate of the city was an eminently satisfactory one, characterized by ability, dignity, and the most rigid integrity. He was married in 1851 to Adeline Knaggs, of Toledo, and three sons and two daughters have been born to them.


e ALLARD, JOHN, Retired Capitalist, was born, October Ist, 1790, at Charlemont, Massachusetts, and is the third of eleven children, whose parents were William and Elizabeth ( Whitney) Ballard. Ilis father was a native of Woreester county, and of Welsh extraction; he was both a mason and a farmer during life ; he died in 1840. Ilis mother was also a native of the same locality, and was a daughter of Jonathan Whitney, of English descent. John worked on a farm until he was thirteen years of age, attending the district school during the winter months. In 1803 he was placed with Horatio HI. Buttrick, of Laneaster, Massachusetts, to learn the trade of a carriage-builder. The selection of this calling was owing to his inability for farm labor, his health not per- mitting him to encounter the hardships incident to a farmer's life. Ile remained at Lancaster until after he had entered




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