USA > Ohio > The Biographical encyclopedia of Ohio of the nineteenth century. Pt. 2 > Part 72
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EOMAN, GENERAL STEPHIEN B., Mariner, Soldier, and Lawyer, was born, December Ist, 1836, in Fayette county, Ohio, and is the son of Alva and Elizabeth (Cockerill) Yeoman. Ilis father was a native of New York State, and a farmer by occupation, who removed at an early day to Ohio, first settling in Fayette county, and removed subsequently (1837) to Jasper county, Indiana, where he resided till his death. Ilis mother was a Virginian by birth, the daughter of William S. Cockerill, an early settler of Fayette county, and a soldier of the war of 1812. Stephen worked on a farm until fifteen years old, attending the win- ter schools. In 1851 he absconded from his guardian, and proceeding to New Bedford, shipped on a vessel " be- fore the mast," from which he rose during his eight years of a sailor's life to the positions of second and first mate. Ile circumnavigated the globe twice, was shipwrecked twice in the south Pacific ocean, and passed twenty-seven months on a whaling vessel. In 1859 he returned home, and be- came a farm-hand, alternating with study at school, until the outbreak of the civil war in April, 1861, when he ac- companied Company F, 22d Ohio Volunteers, as Orderly Sergeant, to Virginia. At the expiration of four months the regiment was mustered out of the service, and he returned home and recruited Company A, 54th Ohio Volunteers (Zouaves), with which he went to Kentucky as Captain. Ile served with this regiment until January 10th, 1864, when, on account of losing a hand which had been blown
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off by a cannon shot at the battle of Arkansas Post, he re- tired from the service. He was an active participant in the battles of Shiloh (or Pittsburgh Landing), Corinth, Yazoo, Vicksburg, and Arkansas Post, besides lesser engagements and skirmishes. On his return home he was appointed a Captain in the Veteran Reserve Corps, and was stationed at Cincinnati until July, 1864, when he was promoted to the Colonelcy of the 43d United States, and with that regiment was in all the latter great battles around Richmond, Virginia, and for some time commanded the Ist Brigade, Ist Division, 25th Army Corps, and was soon thereafter promoted Briga- dier General by brevet. In 1865 he was finally mustered out of the service, and on his return to civil life, engaged in the drug business for eighteen months. In 1866 he was elected Probate Judge of Fayette county, and held the office for three years. In IS70 he retired to his farm in Madison township, Fayette county, where he resided for two years, engaged in agricultural pursuits. In 1872 he returned to Washington, where he was admitted to the bar, and en- ยท tered upon the practice of his profession, and has since re- sided there, where he has established a lucrative legal busi- ness. lle is a Republican in principle, and a Biptist in re- ligious belief. lle is a pleasant companion, of genial man- ners and extensive information, having experienced so varied a life in the last twenty-five years. He was married, IS64, to Cordelia A., daughter of Daniel Wood, an carly settler of Fayette county, Ohio.
ENNEDY, WILLIAM B., Merchant, was born, October 11th, 1832, in Hamilton county, Ohio, of American parentage; his family were among the earliest settlers of Ohio, a great-grandfather being one of the pioneers of the State. Ile re- ceived a liberal education in Farmer's College, Hamilton county, where he remained until nineteen years of age, and then engaged in teaching. Ile subsequently re- turned to the farm, continuing there until he was appointed, in 1854, a clerk in the County Auditor's office, holding that position for five years, In 1850 he engaged in the manu- factme of a patent match, which he continued until ISor, when, in consequence of the civil war, his principal trade being with the South, he relinquished it. He was subse- quently employed in a clerical capacity with one of the leading mercantile houses of the city until 1867, when he established the firm of W. B. Kennedy & Co., and engaged in the merchandise commission business, in which he has since continued. He is a prominent member of the Ma- sonic fraternity, also of the Odd Fellows and Knights of l'ythias. In the order of Odd Fellows he was, from 1866 to 1869 inclusive, a representative to the Grand Lodge of Ohio; and a representative to the Grand Encampment from 1867 to 1870 and 1872 to 1875, in all eight years, over which latter body he now presides as Most Worthy Grand Patriarch. He was a charter member of the Grand Lodge
of the Knights of Pythias of Ohio, supreme representative from Ohio to the Supreme Lodge of the World, 1870 to 1872, both inclusive, and was elected an officer (S. G.) of the latter body, and served in 1873 and 1874.
OLONY, IION. JAMES, Lawyer, was born, April 12th, 1848, in the city of Cincinnati, and is a son of the late Daniel and Sarah (Stevens) Molony. Ilis father was a native of Roscarbery, county of Cork, Ireland, a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, and emigrated to America in 1830, and settled in Cincinnati. Ilis life was devoted to literary pur- suits, and he filled the Professorship of Ancient and Modern Languages in Miami University, Farmer's College, and Woodward College, Ohio, successively, for about twenty years, and died September 9th, 1852. His wife was a native of South Danvers, Massachusetts. James received a liberal education at Farmer's College, from which he gradu- ated in 186S. Ile then became a clerk in the Lafayette Bank of Cincinnati, and subsequently was in the employ of Cuppler & Marston, of St. Louis. Ile was also.an agent of the Erie Railroad at Nashville, Tennessee, until 1871. Ile then returned to Cincinnati, where he commenced the study of law with General Banning, and in December, 1873, was admitted to practise at the bar, and has since given his attention to professional duties in Cincinnati, where he re- sides. Ile was Deputy Sheriff of Hamilton county for two years under George W. Wiegler. In 1873 he was nomi- nated on the first ballot as a candidate on the People's ticket for the Legislature, and in 1875 was a candidate on the Democratic ticket for the same position, being chosen like- wise on the first ballot by a large majority of the llamilton County Democratic Convention. During- the civil war, from 1863 until its close, he was a guidon of the 5th Ohio Artillery, and was an active participant in the great battles of the Tennessee and Southwest campaigns, including the siege of Vicksburg. Ile is of pleasing and courteous man- ners, has a cool and determined demeanor, and although young in years, his experience in life has been varied, and eminently adapts him for the profession he successfully pursues.
6 ARFIELD, SAMUEL, Banker, was born, January 16th, 180S, in Baltimore, Maryland, and is a son of the late John and Elizabeth (Speies) Marfield, both of whom were natives of Germany. His father was a merchant, and came to America when young and settled in Baltimore, where he resided until his death. Samuel received a liberal educa- tion, and when sixteen years old was apprenticed to the saddlery trade, which he thoroughly learned in six years. lle then engaged in business on his own account, as an
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importer and dealer in saddlery hardware, in which he con- tinued for eight years. In the spring of 1839 he removed to Ohio, and settled in Circleville, where he carried on the hardware business exclusively until 1848, when he asso- ciated with it the banking business, finally relinquishing the former in 1852, and has given his entire attention to bank- ing ever since. He is now proprietor, principal officer and Director of the Martield Bank of Circleville. He is also a large shareholder in various railroad companies. . He has never sought nor held any political or public office what- ever. His political principles are those of the Republican party ; in religious belief he is a Presbyterian. His energy and industry are untiring. Starting in life poor, he has been himself the architect of his own fortunes, and now ranks among the solid business men of Ohio. Ile was married in 1833 to Harriet M. daughter of Henry Wright, a prominent Marylander.
AFFENSPERGER, HENRY J., Real Estate Dealer, was born, June 29th, 1832, at East Berlin, Adams county, Pennsylvania, of Ameri- can parentage and of German descent. lle was educated at Springfield, Ohio, and after leaving school became a salesman in the dry-goods house of II. Hedrick, in that town, where he remained three years, when, growing tired of a comparatively inactive life, he turned his attention to pursuits more congenial to his tastes, and entered into various speculative movements. Since he became a seller of real estate he has made Toledo the scene of his largest operations in that line; and that city has witnessed the heaviest transactions that have taken place in the entire State. Although the weather was very unpropitious for such operations, yet the magic of his name rendered them a perfect success in every respect. Ilis sales were not the mere ordinary transactions of a business man, but the colossal undertakings of one who is innately endowed with the rare talent of managing and disposing of immense tracts, from which an ordinary man would shrink. In fact, he has risen far above his associates in business; nor is Toledo alone the scene of his triumphs. One of his most remarkable sales was " Northwood," near Columbus, Ohio, where, notwithstanding the property had previously and unsuccessfully been placed in the market, yet upon his assumption of the management he made it one of his most brilliant transactions. Ile has also received various propo- sitions from different States to assume control of sales which "have startled the public by their magnitude. Since his ad- vent into Toledo he has done more towards advancing the welfare of that city and promoting its growth than any other person in the same line of business. His success lie, wholly in his wide experience, in his matured judgment, together with his fixed determination to engage only in bona-fide and legitimate transactions. He never enters
upon any operation without bestowing upon it careful con- sideration and thoroughly overlooking the field. He never endeavors to hastily dispose of the property in question, but bides his time, and is ever successful. Possessed of a quick wit, rare business ability and an energetic, persevering dis- position, he is withal a whole-souled, genial gentleman, courteous to all. He has been identified as a Trustee and Director of several of the leading trade associations. He was married, June 20th, 1866, to Elizabeth A. Brewster, of Norwalk, Ohio,
IIATTUC, WILLIAM B., General Ticket Agent of the Atlantic & Great Western Railway, was born, June 11th, 1841, near Jefferson, Schuyler county, New York, and is a son of Samuel and Desire Shattuc, now of Ohio. Ile is of Scotch descent, his great grandfather having emigrated to America from the vicinity of Edinburgh, while his grand- father, who had settled near Bennington, Vermont, fell while bravely fighting under General Stark for American independence. When William was in his twelfth year his parents removed to Ohio, settling near Oberlin. When fourteen years old he left home and began the battle of life. lle had many struggles to acquire an education, but he fought his way, alternately teaching school and studying. At the outbreak of the civil war he enlisted as a private in the 2d Ohio Cavalry, and participated in many important engage- ments, and was mustered out in 1863, having been pro- moted through all the grades up to the rank of Major. On his return to civil life he obtained a situation as clerk in the office of the Auditor and General Ticket Agent of the At- lantic & Great Western Railway Company, at Meadville, Pennsylvania. Not long afterwards the general ticket office was transferred to Cincinnati, where he became the Assist - ant General Ticket Agent, and, April Ist, 1867, on the resignation of General Fuller, he was appointed his suc- cessor, as General Ticket Agent, which position he has continued to hold. He is a most indefatigable worker, and nothing in his extended and complicated department escapes his attention. He is a most excellent example of the self-made man of our time, having risen from obscurity to his present prominent but well-earned position.
AVIS, WILLIAM EDMONDS, was born, July 26th, 1831, in Hamilton county, Ohio, the son of John Allen Davis and Rachel Scull. After he had received a thorough English education in the district and high schools of Cincinnati he learned blacksmithing, the trade of his father. It is his pride that he was not behind his fellow-craft .men at the forge. At the age of twenty four he began and con-
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tinued to read law for three years. About this time he was ; were buried just outside of the stockade. With the aid of appointed Principal of the Ohio State Reform Farm School his messmates, and what other help he could get, he did much to alleviate suffering, and is credited with having saved the life of many a poor fellow. Mr. Richardson, of the New York Tribune, in his published account, says of him in this connection : " Mr. Davis was General Superin- tendent, and brought to his arduous duties good judgment, untiring industry and uniform kindness." His sensitive nature revolted at the sights which occurred with painful frequency. Prisoners (particularly colored prisoners) were shot by the guards without the shadow of provocation. Ile went alone to the commandant, made a touching appeal and secured a show of compassion for a short time. As an instance of his brave and self sacrificing spirit, it is told of him that upon one occasion, when the guard was about to fire on three colored prisoners, he interposed, gave a bold order and averted the deadly delivery. At the close of the war letters poured in upon Mr. Davis, bringing the hearty thanks of friends and relatives for his kind ministrations to loved ones in the prison-pen. While at Saulsbury he be- came acquainted with the order of " Heroes of America," a secret organization of Southern men true to the Union. Soldiers belonging to this order had the double privilege of being cared for by any brother member they might mect, in case of escape, and being shot by the confederate au- thorities if known to belong to the " Heroes." Mr. Davis was initiated in one of the underground lodges of this order, afterwards inducting his companions and about one thousand other Union prisoners. Sickness and death were daily in- creasing. The desire to escape, great from the first, became the controlling motive. The plot was laid and the anxious prisoners awaited their opportunity. It came with the night of December 13th, 1864. Out into the cold, and rain and darkness Mr. Davis led his little company of fugitives ---- Captain Wolf, and Richardson and Browne of the Tribune. A tedious journey of four hundred miles, beset by peril at every step, lay before them. Travelling on foot under cover of the night, fed by the hands of slaves, sleeping now in the underbush, now in a deserted barn, amid the snow on the mountains or drenched by the cold, chilling rain in the val- leys, this stout-hearted party plodded on. Led by a man of unfaltering purpose and sagacity, with faith in God and the hope of again seeing their dear ones, they pressed on, over untold obstacles, until, at the end of thirty days' march, they entered the Union lines at Knoxville, Tennessee. In 1866, under President Lincoln's administration, Mr. Davis was appointed Pension Agent-for the payment of pensions -at Cincinnati, which important trust he held for five years, disbursing about ten millions of dollars. In 1867 he was appointed, by Governor Cox, of Ohio, one of a commis- sion of three to locate and build an asylum for the insane in southeastern Ohio. For five years he was President of this commission, and as such had the pleasure of handing over to the State authorities the splendid institution at Athens .- for Boys, at Lancaster, where he remained near three years, and then reisgned. In December, 1863, he was elected Chief Clerk of the Senate of Ohio, for a term of two years. While in this position he acted as special correspondent of the Cincinnati Gazette. In the spring of 1864, after the first adjournment of the Senate, he went out as special war cor- respondent of the Cincinnati Gasette, joining Sherman's army, then at Nashville and Chattanooga. At the battle of Resaca he was captured, taken to Atlanta, housed in a loathsome prison-pen for several days, removed to Rich- mond, Virginia, and placed by Major Carrington in " Castle Thunder." While here his suffering for the lack of the necessities of life was beyond description. At the end of three months he was transferred to the Confederate States Penitentiary, at Saulsbury, North Carolina, while the more favored correspondent of the New York World was sent North. The malignity shown by Secretary of War Seddon, and Robert Ould, Commissioner of Exchange, in thus dis- criminating against the correspondent of a radical Republi- can newspaper was of a piece with the treatment of Junius Henri Browne and A. D. Richardson, correspondents of the New York Tribune. These latter gentlemen had been four months in the Saulsbury prison when he arrived there. The trio soon became fast friends. At this time there were not over twenty prisoners of war in the penitentiary, most of the inmates being men convicted of crimes against the statute laws, deserters from the confederate army and men under the ban of political suspicion. In October of 1864, three months after he reached there, Saulsbury was made a regular prison for Union captives. During the second weck of October ten thousand prisoners of war were thrown into the Saulsbury prison, within a stockade embracing about six acres of ground. Then began starvation, privation in every form, and all the suffering incident to life in a cramped prison-pen, under rigorous regimen. He had been active in attending to the few sick in the prison prior to the coming of the ten thousand, ministering to their temporal wants as best he could, and affording spiritual consolation to the suffering and the dying. His straightforward, manly deportment won upon the post surgeon, Dr. Richard (). Curry, a Christian gentleman, who was anxious to show his appreciation of Mr. Dwvis' worth and services. Through the surgeon's intercession a log cabin within the enclosure was allotted to him and four of his friends, and he was made assistant to Dr. Cmry after the Union prisoners ar- rived. He had entire charge of the arrangements for the care of the sick, being virtually superintendent of the sanitary affairs of the camp. At times he had as many as three thousand sick prisoners under his charge. With his characteristic zeal and Christian spirit he devoted himself to his labor of love and mercy, day and night going the rounds of the sick wards for two months. During that time nearly two thousand of his lellow prisoners died, and Tone of the linest of its kind in the State. Mr. Davis was
Mu& Dans.
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one of the organizers and managers of the Cincinnati ; On the 29th of May eight companies were moved to Green- Chronicle Company, being elected President of its Board land Gap, and on June 4th a detachment, including Neil's battalion, had a severe skirmish near Moorefield, in which the rebels were defeated. The regiment was mustered out, September ist, 1864. Ile was married, May 12th, 1864, to Sarah E. Chrisman, of London, Ohio, and has three chil- dren. Always a Republican, he was elected a delegate to the National Convention of 1872, but on private grounds declined to serve. He has always been identified with the material interests of his county, and is one of its leading citizens, respected by all for his strict integrity, personal honor and genial manners. Ile is about to close out his entire stock of fine horses, consisting of forty-two head and comprising some of the best blood in the State, and his re- tirement from stock- raising will be keenly felt by all inter- ested in the improvement of the horse. At all the State fairs held in central Ohio of late years he has been a promi- nent exhibitor. of Directors. When the Chronicle was consolidated with the Cincinnati 'Times he became President of the new com- pany. During the last year of his seven years' connection with the Times he was its business manager. While thus employed, in 1873, without his solicitation, President Grant appointed him Assistant Treasurer of the United States, at Cincinnati. This position he reluctantly accepted and now holds, discharging his duties with the industry and fidelity which have through life been among his most marked char- acteristics. Ile is largely interested in public enterprises, giving much of his time not otherwise employed to narrow gange railroading about the city of Cincinnati. He is President of the Cincinnati & Westwood Railroad Company, which is constructing one of these suburban routes. He resides at Westwood, one of the beautiful suburbs of Cincin- nati, and has long been a member of the Westwood Board of Public Education, having been Chairman of the com- mittee which constructed the fine school building in that place. The success of this project was largely owing to his personal efforts. He has for twenty-five years been a mem- ber of the Baptist Church, and is prominently connected with several secret and social organizations; notably among them the Order of Scotch Rite Masons, he having taken the thirty two degrees of that order. August 9th, 1855, he married Mary P. Stoughton, of Cincinnati, and has three sons and one daughter.
EIL, WILLIAM ALLEN, was born in Columbus, Ohio, on January 28th, 1836, and is a son of Robert Neil, for some years a farmer, and, for many, President of the Little Miami Railroad, but now living in retirement in Columbus, at the ad- vanced age of eighty years. William attended the public schools, and after studying under Dr. Lord, a very eminent teacher, entered the German University of Columbus, where he remained until the age of nineteen. Ilis health being then feeble, his father purchased him a farm of one thousand acres near London, Madison county, to which he removed, and lived on it until a few years | the winter there, and thence removed to McArthur, Vinton
since. Ile began raising stock, aiming to breed and sell young horses without records. This policy has not gained him the notoriety a different one might have brought, but his animals are none the less valuable, and his reputation for integrity is second to none in the State. During the war he entered the army as Second Lieutenant of the 23d . Battalion Ohio National Guards, on May 9th, 1864, and was mustered in at Camp Dennison, where he was immedi- ately elected Captain, and on the formation of the battalion, Major. The regiment, having been organized by joining the 23d Battahon Ohio National Guards with the both Regiment Ohio National Guards, proceeded to New Creek, West Virginia, on May 12th, and arrived there on the 14th.
OLF, ANDREW, M. D., Physician, was born, July 19th, 1810, in Athens county, Ohio, and is the third of ten children whose parents were Chris- topher and Khoda (Dorr) Wolf. Ilis father was a native of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, of German lineage, and principally engaged in farming, although he was interested in milling and in the manufacture of salt; he settled at an early day in Athens county, where he married Rhoda, daughter of Mathew Dorr; she died in 1856. Andrew worked on a farm until he was twenty years okl, and attended school in winter. In 1830 he entered the Athens Academy, where he pursued a literary course for some three years; towards the close of his studies there he commenced to read medicine under the supervision of Dr. Columbus Bierce, of that place. Ile then went to Washington county, New York, where he con- tinucd his medical studies under the guidance of Dr. Jon- athan Dorr, of Cambridge, in that county, and during his three years sojourn from home also attended medical lec. tures at the Vermont Academy of Medicine, graduating there with honor. Returning to Athens, Ohio, he passed
county, where he has since resided, and has established an extensive and remunerative practice; his surgical skill is extraordinary. Ile has labored incessantly and ener- getically in his profession for upwards of forty years, and having ever been a man of most temperate habits possesses at his advanced age a powerful body and temperament. Politically he is a Republican, having originally been a ITenry Clay Whig. Ilis religious belief is that of the Episcopal Church. He was married in 1836 to Eliza, daughter of Captain Robert Lotridge, of Rensselaer county, New York ; she died in i859, having had two children. lle was a second time married, in 1860, to Pauline Bryan, also a native of Rensselaer county, New York.
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