USA > Ohio > The Biographical encyclopedia of Ohio of the nineteenth century. Pt. 2 > Part 67
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admitted to practise in the State Courts in 1859, and about the year 1871 was admitted to practise in the United States District Court at Cleveland, Ohio. Ile is now one of the leading lawyers in Sandusky, and is widely recognized as an able and a trustworthy practitioner and solicitor of patents. HIe also controls a large business in the collection of pen- sions, etc., and as a collection and insurance agent. Ilis principles and sentiments attach him now to the Republican party, although until the outbreak of the rebellion he was a supporter of the Democratic organization. In the spring of 1861, desirous of throwing in his assistance toward support- ing the national government and the venerated constitution, he enlisted as a private soldier in the 7th Regiment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and remained with it in this capacity until the following winter, when he was made Orderly Ser- geant. June 9th, 1862, he was wounded at the battle of Port Republic, Shenandoah valley, while in Shields' Divi- sion, 3d Brigade, General E. B. Tyler commanding. Ile then received a furlough, and returned to his home. Ulti- mately, in the spring of 1863, he was discharged from the service, in consequence of disability resulting from his wound. Ile has held several local offices of trust in San- dusky, Ohio, and is one of the most influential and re- spected citizens of the town. Ile was married, February 24th, 1861, to Mahala J. Karshner, of Sandusky, Ohio.
ERKINS, JOHN, a resident of Athens, Athens county, Ohio, was born on the 27th of December, 1791, in Leicester, Vermont, and was the fifth of the ten children of Dr. Eliphaz and Lydia (Fitch) Perkins. Dr. Perkins was born on the 21st of August, 1753, in Norwich, Connecticut ; his wife, Lydia, was born, June 14, 1760, in Canterbury, Connecticut, at which place they were married on the 17th of Septent- ber, 1780. Dr. Perkins was educated and it is believed graduated at one of the Eastern colleges. Soon after Icav- ing college he entered into mercantile business; but being unfortunate, and sustaining a heavy loss at sca, he aban- doned the business, and commenced the study of medicine, and as soon as duly qualified entered upon the duties of the medical profession, and continued to discharge them with faithfulness and skill until advanced age. He removed with his family to Ohio in 1799, locating temporarily in Marietta, where he remained a few months, and where his wife died, leaving on his hands nine children, two of which, twins, were infants, born in Reading, Pennsylvania, while the family were on their journey. Their first chill had died in infancy. In 1800 he visited Athens, at that time called Middletown, purchased a cabin home, and soon after re- moved his family to it. At one time after he settled there, there was only one other family on the plot where the town of Athens now stands ; there had been two or three others,
IIEELER, SAMUEL C., Lawyer, was born in Greencastle, Fairfield county, Ohio, September 16th, 1828. His parents were natives of America and traced their ancestry to Germany, Wales and England. Ile received a partial education in the district schools located in the neighborhood of his home; but secured much of his general literary knowledge through his own unassisted efforts. Upon relin- quishing school life at an early age, he worked on a farm until his eighteenth year was attained, when he moved to Lancaster, Ohio, where he was apprenticed to learn the art of saddle and harness making. After having served his time, he continued to work at his trade, travelling through Ohio and Michigan, until he found himself in Sandusky, Erie county, Ohio. When about twenty-eight years of age, he commenced, in 1856, the study of law in the office of Judge A. W. Hendry, under whose supervision he pursued his studies with untiring ardor and perseverance, lle was | but they had left, and their cabins were empty. At an early
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dute a postoffice was established in the place, and soon | a highly respected and prominent citizen, and died in the after Dr. Perkins was appointed Postmaster, which office he joyful hope of a blessed eternity, on the 28th of January, ISAS. She left one son, John Perkins Dana, who grew up under favorable circumstances, acquired a good education, graduated at the Ohio University, and is now a practical business man of unblemished character and upright princi- ples. John Perkins married his second wife, Nancy Ilamp- ton, of l'hiladelphia, Pennsylvania, on the 28th of August, 1845. She was a native of London, England, and came to America in infancy with her parents, in about the year 1810, who settled in, or in the vicinity of, Philadelphia, where she grew up, and continued to reside until her marriage with Mr. Perkins. She was pious, and had many good traits of character, became a member of the Episcopal Church in early life, and so continued until her death, which occurred on the 20th of July, 1873. Mr. Perkins is habitually tem- perate, using neither tobacco nor strong drink of any de- scription ; is an early riser, and now, in the eighty fifth year of his age, is remarkably active and healthy, for all which he sincerely thanks the Giver of all good. held eighteen or twenty years. Some two years after the death of his first wife he married Catharine Greene, a na- tive of Rhode Island, and near kin of General Greene, of the army of the Revolution, an excellent woman, who died in 1821. Not long after this he married his third wife, the respected widow of Mr. Bezaleel Culver, of the vicinity of Athens, a good woman and worthy member of the Presby- terian Church in Athens. She outlived her husband several years, and died on the 27th of August, 1837. Dr. Perkins was an early and fast friend of the Ohio University, and for a time its Treasurer. Ile took deep interest in the common schools in the country around. Ile was a man of sterling integrity, ardent piety, and an efficient member of the Pres- byterian Church. Politically he was a Republican. John Perkins, from early childhood, had the benefit of moral and religious training. Ile had just entered on his. ninth year when his mother died, but her pious instructions and admo- nitions were written upon the young heart, never to be ob- literated. When his father settled in Athens, school advantages were very limited, but on the opening of the Ohio University there was a change for the better. At its commencement, however, there were but three to answer to OYCE, DANFORTHI II., was born August 10th, 1839. Ile is of English descent, the son of Danicl N. Royce and Amanda Taylor. Ilis father came to Ohio in 1816, and married in Worthington, Franklin county, in 1820. Dan- forth II. was educated in the public schools of Columbus, where his parents resided. After leaving school he went to learn the trade of a machinist in the Little Miami Railroad shops, working there for eleven years. In De- cember of 1865 he accepted a position as foreman in the es- tablishment of an agricultural machine company, which he held until May Ist, 1866, and left to accept the office of President and Superintendent of the Franklin Machine Company, which he had been active in organizing. As the head of the Franklin Company, his technical knowledge and business capacity have brought him into great prominence. In the spring of 1875 he was nominated for Mayor of Co- lumbus by the workingmen, but his large business interests demanded his exclusive attention, and he was obliged to decline the nomination. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias, Odd Fellows, and Red Men. Mr. Royce mar- ried Sallie A. Curtis, February 2d, 1862, at Zanesville, Ohio. the first morning roll-call. John Perkins was one of that number. Ile continued in the institution several years, principally engaged in English studies, giving some little attention to the Latin, and intending to take a regular col- legiate course, but his health became impaired, and he found it necessary to give up his books, which he did with great reluctance. Some time after this, in 1814, he entered the store of Messrs. Skinner & Chambers, in Point Ilarmer, as a clerk, and served there something over two years; and in 1816 he returned to Athens as a partner of Mr. William Skinner, above named, and began a mercantile business there, under the firm of John Perkins & Co., which con- tinued some eight years, when it was dissolved, Mr. Per- kins taking the stock on hand and continuing the business in his own name; and from this time until 1873 he was en- gaged exclusively in mercantile business, sometimes with partners, though generally alone, but in 1848 he made a change in the character of his trade into that of drugs and medicines. In the year 1821 he married Mary Ann Ilay, of Cambridge, Washington county, New York. She was born on the 16th of July, 1798. She had a good education, and was a woman of intelligence and refinement. Some time after her marriage she became a member of the Presby- terian Church, and so continued until her death, which oc- curred on the 20th day of August, 1841. She left two ENN, IIANSON L., Lawyer, was born on Indian Creek, Clermont county, Ohio, September 16th, 1813. Ifis father was engaged in milling and farming. Ile resided with his parents until near daughters : Mary Ilay, born 23d of October, 1822, and who died, after a long and painful disease, on the 8th of May, 18.49 ; she was an ardent Christian and member of the Presby- terian Church. The second daughter, Catharine Fitch, was born 26th of March, 1825 ; she was married on the ISth of September, 1845, to Mr. Joseph M. Dana, of Athens, Ohio,
6 his majority, employed in active manual labor, or in securing such elementary education as was ob- tainable at that time in the common schools of the country.
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During this period he acquired those habits of industry and [ by the Nebraska bill, he took from the first a decided stand the promptitude and energy, which were his chief character- in favor of its principles. He refused to participate in the fusion which resulted in the formation of the Republican party. In the Buchanan and Breckinridge campaign, his party being disorganized, he attached himself to what he believed to be the party of the Constitution and the Union, and labored earnestly and efficiently to secure the success of Democratic measures. During the canvass he traversed the several counties of his Congressional district, and also various counties in the adjoining State of Kentucky, in all of them advocating his views with ardent fervor. "No man in southern Ohio did more for the triumph of Democratic principles and the success of Democratic candidates than he. The effect of his labors was seen in the result of the election. This Congressional district was redeemed, and the Demo- cratie candidate returned by a triumphant majority." He died, of crysipelas, in Georgetown, Brown county, Ohio, June 29th, 1857, in his forty-fourth year. istics in after life. In 1835 he settled in Georgetown, Brown county, and began the study of law under the guid- ance of George W. King, a prominent and an able legal practitioner. While thus pursuing his studies, he supported himself by writing in the Clerk's office. At the April term, 1837, of the Supreme Court for Brown county, he was ad- mitted to practise law in the various courts of the State. Immediately after his admission he engaged in the practice of his profession in partnership with Martin Marshall, of Augusta, Kentucky, who was at that time attending the va- rious courts of this county. On him then devolved the labor of preparing cases, and transacting the entire office business, a task which he performed with admirable exacti- tude and ability. To the investigation of his cases he brought a thorough knowledge of legal principles, a clear and discriminating judgment, and indomitable energy. This partnership continned five or six years, until M. Mar- shall, owing to age and infirmity, was compelled to relin- mish his attendunice at court. From this time until 1855 he continued in active practice, part of the time alone and part of the time in partnership. He was then control- ling an extensive business in the different counties of his judicial district. Subsequently, his private business having become so extensive as to require a great deal of attention, he retired almost entirely from practice, appearing only in important cases, and for his former clients. As the result of his assiduous devotion to his profession and business he amassed a handsome fortune. Also as a business man he had few equals, and in every public improvement he was ever foremost, while his means and his influence were never withheld from any undertaking calculated to advance public morality, or to promote the general welfare. No enterprise in which he once heartily engaged ever failed to ultimately achieve success, while to him more than to any other man are the people of Brown county indebted for the public im- provements which have been there carried to completion. .
" In him the needy and unfortimate ever found a friend, and the poor man a benefactor. His ear was ever open to hear the tale of want and woe, and his purse to relieve suf- fering and distress." Strong in will, resolute in purpose, he was true in friendship, loyal even as an enemy. Beginning life without means, and without the influence of powerful friends, he won for himself not only a valuable estate, but a high position among the professional and business men of the community which honored and loved him. Until the disintegration of the Whig party, he was intimately identi- fied with its organization, and labored zealously to insure its success. Ile was the President of the Whig State Con- vention, held in Ohio in 1855, and when the Know-Nothing organization came into being and absorbed so large a portion of the Whig party, he refused to countenance the movement, and constantly expressed his opposition to the new princi- ples advocated. In the great issue presented to the country
AY, DEMING, W. II., Soldier, Contractor, and Lawyer, was born, February 12th, 1832, in Pick- away county, Ohio, and is the eldest son of the late Demvold G. and Ruth Day. His father, who was a contractor, died when his eldest son was twelve years old, and the latter was thus early thrown on his own resources. He attended the public school in Chillicothe, and subsequently became a student in the Western Liberal Industrial Institute at Marietta, and re- ceived a diploma therefrom. Ile shortly afterwards became a bookkeeper, and also attended the Commercial College in Cinciifhati, where he graduated with honor to himself and the institution. He commenced the study of law with John and Ichabod Corwin. In 1854 he removed to Wood county, Ohio, and being admitted to the bar, commenced the practice of his profession in Bowling Green, being the first lawyer in that place to open an office. Ile succeeded in building up an extensive and lucrative practice, and prose- cuted nearly all the criminal cases, including those of the State as. Walter; State as. Franklin, for felonious assault, the defendant being convicted, and sentenced to ten years' imprisonment ; and more recently in the Noble murder case in 1876. During the war of the rebellion he entered the service, and was elected Captain of Company K, 11Ith Ohio Volunteers, and was identified with General Rosecrans' command. Ile participated in the pursuit of Morgan, dur- ing the latter's raid into the border States, in 1863, and on July 19th of that year was at the battle of Baughton Island, where 1200 of the guerillas were captured, and 83 officers. These were taken to Camp Morgan, near Cincinnati, on 23d August following. When the 23d Army Corps was re- organized, he was appointed Chief of Ordnance, on the staff of General Hartzuf, and participated in the Knoxville campaign. He was next placed in charge of all the supply
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trains of the 23d Army Corps, and was thus transferred from the infantry to the Quartermaster's Department. After this corps was mustered out, in North Carolina, in 1865, he con- tiuned in the service as Assistant Chief Quartermaster of the Department of North Carolina until the following year, when he received the appointment of Quartermaster General of Ohio, and served as such through the administration of Governor Cox and a part of that of Governor Hayes. In 1868 he took the contract for building the Lunatic Asylum, at Athens, Ohio, which he erected, and commenced also the building of the Central Lunatic Asylum, at Columbus. Ile, however, disposed of his interest in the latter contract, and went to Chicago after the great fire in that city, where he erected several large structures. Ile returned to Bowling Green in the spring of 1873, where he resumed the practice of his profession. Ile has been a Republican in politics, ever since the formation of that party. Ile was married, June 6th, 1854, to Adelia A. Williams, and has four children, two daughters and two sons, all living, viz., Ellen Gertrude, Ilelen Mary, Frederick Williams, and Rudolph Merriam.
UDLOW, ISRAEL, First Surveyor of the North- west Territory, now Ohio, was born, in the year 1765, at Long Hill Farm, near Morristown, New Jersey, where his father, Cornelius Ludlow, re- sided. Ile was of English ancestry, his grand- father having left Shropshire, England, at the time of the restoration of the Stuarts, to escape the persecutions of the crown, as the Ludlow family had espoused the cause of the Parliament, and had taken a prominent part in the affairs of the commonwealth. Sir Edmund Ludlowv, the head of the family at that time, was banished from England, and died in exile at Vevay, Switzerland. In 1787 Israel Lndlow received the following letter from the Surveyor- General and Geographer of the United States :
To ISRAEL LUDLOW, ESQ. :
Dear Sir : I enclose an ordinance of Congress, of the zoth instant, by which you will observe they have agreed to the sale of a large tract of land, which the New Jersey So- ciety have contracted to purchase. As it will be necessary to survey the boundary of this tract with all convenient speed, that the United States may receive the payment for the same, I propose to appoint you for that purpose, being assured of your abilities, diligence and integrity. I hope yon will accept it, and desire you will furnish me with an estimate of the expense, and inform me what moneys will be necessary to advance to you to execute the same.
I am, dear sir, yours, THOMAS HUTCHINS, Surveyor- General of the United States.
HIe accepted the appointment, received his instructions and an order on the frontier posts for.a sufficient escort to enable him to prosecute the surveys ; but the extreme weak- ness of the military force in the Northwest Territory -- as
| Ohio was then called-left him in a very hazardous and ex- posed condition. Ilis great energy, bodily strength and personal beauty, however, soon attracted the attention and admiration of the Indians, and won friends and safety for his little baud, where the tomahawk and scalping-knife would, but for these, have been used against them. There are letters still preserved from General Joseph Harmer, ad- dressed to Israel Ludlow, of date of 1787, and August 28th, 1788, which speak of the impossibility of affording him an adequate escort, and of the danger of his pursuing the sur- vey at that time; but such danger and privations incurred by him did not deter the prosecution of the work. In 1789 he became associated with Mathias Denman and Robert Patterson in the proprietorship -- to the extent of one- third -- of the settlement about Fort Washington, which was to be called by the whimsical name of Losantiville, a com- pound word, intended to express " the city opposite the mouth of the Licking." To it, however, was given the more euphonious appellation of Cincinnati by Israel Ludlow, in honor of the Cincinnati Society of revolutionary officers, of, which his father was a member, and which society was much criticised at that time. Late in the autumn of 1789 Colonel Ludlow commenced a survey of the town, which has since become the " Queen City of the West." In 1790 White's, Covolt's, and Ludlow Stations were created. The latter was near the north line of the town plot of Cincinnati, and a block-house was the first tenement erected there. As the Indians had become very savage and ferocious, strong forts were built, and military placed therein for the protec- tion of the few whites who had ventured to settle in their neighborhood. So dangerous was the situation that persons who ventured beyond a certain limit of these forts fell vie- tims to the brutality and ferocky of the savages, In 1791 General St. Clair s army was encamped at Ludlow Station, along what is now called Mad Anthony, street, and the present site of the Presbyterian and Christian Churches. From thence, on September 17th, 1791, St. Clair proceeded to the Big Miami, and erected Forts Hamilton and Jeffer- son, and on November 4th following was fought the bloody and unfortunate battle called " St. Clair's Defeat." Israel Ludlow, now Colonel Ludlow, pursued his surveys under great difficulties, but completed them, and May 5th, 1792, made a full report of the same, and of all the expenses in- cident thereto, which were accepted by Alexander Ilamil- ton, Secretary of the Treasury of the United States. In December, 1794, he surveyed the plot of a town adjacent to Fort Ilamilton-hence the name -- and was sole owner. In November, 1795, in conjunction with Generals St. Clair, Dayton and Wilkinson, he founded the town of Dayton. Previous to this, however, General Wayne had succeeded General St. Clair -- after the latter's defeat -- and prosecuted the Indian war until its termination in 1795, when emigra- tion commenced again, and new towns and farms spread through the yielding forest. On November 10th, 1796, Colonel Ludlow married Charlotte, second danghter of
86. L. Jackson. M. D
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General James Chambers, of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and on the 20th of the same month they started on their journey to Cincinnati. After a tedious ride over the moun- tains they reached the Monongahela river, and descended in a small boat to the vicinity of Pittsburgh, where they em. barked on the waters of the Ohio. Colonel Ludlow was soon afterwards appointed to establish and survey the boundary line between the United States and the Indian Territory, agrecably to the treaty of Greenville, made by General Wayne, in 1795. It was a most dangerous under- taking, and while absent from Ludlow Station, which he had made his residence, his wife was in constant dread of hearing that some fatality had befallen his little party. In fact she could not anticipate any happiness while separated from her " beloved Ludlow," as she calls him, especially during his constant absence from the fort upon his arduous duties. She writes to him in 1797 of her increased fear for his safety, upon hearing that the Shawnees had appointed a chief, unknown to him, to attend him ; and she urges him not to relax his vigilance for one moment. Iler distress of mind can be better imagined than described when she learned than he was unable to obtain an escort, and at the sanie time knowing the great importance of the boundary being established, both to the government and to the set- tlers. It is a fact that he made a great part of the surveys with only three active woodsmen as spies, and to give him notice of danger. Ile died in January, 1804, at his home at Ludlow Station, after four days' illness. The house still remains in a good state of preservation, notwithstanding it is now eighty-six years old ; and his great-grandchildren may stand in the room where he died, and resolve to imitate his virtues. Ile was not permitted to witness the wonderful results of the enterprise to which his untiring industry was directed in forwarding. That he had a prescience of its importance is shown by his large entries of land in the re- gion tributary to Cincinnati. Looking forward to a long life, he felt his immediate object was to lay the broad foun- cation of pecuniary fortune. Modesty was a well-known trait of his character. With an eye quick to discern, and energy to have applied, every measure conducing to the prosperity of the territory and the city, he was himself in- different to his own political advancement, and willing to wait until the fulfilment of his plans. Thus it is, without legislative record of the facts, his name is not known in a manner commensurate with his services to the infant colony and youthful State. Ile was no politician in the clamorous sense of the term. Ile was a man for the times in which he lived, and possessed a peculiar fitness for the capacious sphere of his influence. Ilis life was illustrated by a series of practical benevolences, free from ostentation, and the laudation of scarcely other than the recipients of his disin- terested kindnesses. The shock created by the announce- ment of his death was great. The inhabitants joined the Masonic fraternity in paying the closing tribute of respect to his memory, and an oration was pronounced by Ilon. John
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