USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume I > Part 19
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quently freely acknowledged; and, long before his death, Chief Justice Chase had the satisfaction of knowing that the advantages of this law to the people of the United States were unparalleled by any monetary measure ever enacted, as by it the money or its representative bank bills, constituting about one-half of the currency of the nation, was made uni- form and of exactly the same face value in every part of the United States.
BEBB, WILLIAM, lawyer and judge, the fourteenth governor elected by the people of Ohio, was born in Hamil- ton county, Ohio, in 1804, and died at his home in Rock River county, Illinois, October 23d, 1873. His father, Ed- ward Bebb, emigrated from Wales, Great Britain, in 1795, traveled across the mountains to the valley of the Miami on foot, purchased in the neighborhood of North Bend.an ex- tensive tract of land, returned to Pennsylvania and married Miss Roberts, to whom he had been engaged in Wales, and, with his bride, riding in a suitable conveyance, again crossed the mountains and settled on his land in what was then but a wilderness. He was a man of sound judgment, and, in common with many of his countrymen, of a joyous and ever hopeful disposition. His wife was a lady of culture and re- finement, and her home in the valley of the Miami, with no neighbors except the wild, unshorn and half naked savages, was a great change from her previous life. There were, of course, no schools near to send her children to, and this was matter of grave concern to the parents of our subject, who was in consequence taught to read at home. In those years the Western Spy, then published in Cincinnati, and dis- tributed by a private post-rider, was taken in by his father, and William read with avidity the contents of it, especially the achievements of Napoleon Bonaparte. His education advanced no further, until a peripatetic schoolmaster passing that way stopped and opened a school in the neighborhood, and under him our subject studied English, Latin and math- ematics, working in vacation time on his father's farm. When twenty years old he himself opened a school at North Bend and resided in the home of General Harrison. In this employment he remained a year, during which he married Miss Shuck, the daughter of a wealthy German resident of the village. Soon after he began the study of law, while continuing his school, and boarding at his own house several of his pupils. As a teacher he was eminently successful, and his school attracted pupils from the most distinguished fami- lies of Cincinnati. In 1831 he rode to Columbus on horseback, where the supreme court judges examined him and passed him to practice in the State. He then removed to Hamilton, Butler county, and opened a law office, where he continued quietly and in successful practice fourteen years. During this period he took an active interest in political affairs and advocated during his first, called the hard cider campaign, the claims of General Harrison, and no less distinguished himself during that "Tippecanoe and Tyler, too " campaign, in which the persons indicated were successful, and the whigs in 1840, for the first time succeeded in electing their candi- dates. Four years afterward he was elected governor of the State, and the war with Mexico placed him as the governor of Ohio in a very trying position. As a whig he did not per- sonally favor that war, and this feeling was generally enter- tained by the party who made him their leader in the State; but he felt that the question was one not of party but of cordial support of the general government, and his earnest recog-
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nition of this fact, eventually overcame the danger that had followed President Polk's proclamation of war. His term of office (1846-48) was distinguished by good money, free schools, great activity in the construction of railroads and turnpikes, the arts and industry generally were well rewarded, and high prosperity characterized the whole State. In 1847 Governor Bebb purchased five thousand acres of land in Rock River county, Illinois, of which the location was de- lightful and the soil rich. Five hundred acres were wooded, and constituted a natural park, while the remainder was prairie of the best quality, with a stream of water fed by per- petual springs. No man of moderate ambition could desire the possession of a more magnificent portion of the earth's surface. Three years after making this purchase, he removed to it, taking with him fine horses and a number of the choicest breeds of cattle, and entered upon the cultivation of this fine property. Five years afterward he visited Great Britain and the continent of Europe, In the birth-place of his father he found many desirous to immigrate to America, and, encouraging the enterprise, a company was formed, and a tract of one hundred thousand acres purchased for them in East Tennessee, where he agreed to preside over their ar- rangements and the settlement of this land. In 1856 a party of the colonists arrived on the land, and Governor Bebb re- sided with them until the war of the Rebellion began, when he left the State with his family. The emigrants, discouraged by the strong pro-slavery sentiment, scattered and settled in various parts of the Northern States. On the inauguration of President Lincoln, Governor Bebb was appointed examiner in the Pension Department at Washington, and held. this position until 1866, when he returned to his farm in Illinois, and the peaceful pursuit of agriculture. His scale of farming was the cultivation of two thousand acres in a season, while another thousand formed his cattle pasture. He took an active part in the election of General Grant, and the first sick- ness of any consequence he ever experienced was an attack of pneumonia, following an exposed ride from Pecatonica, where he had addressed the electors, to his home. From this he never recovered, and, although he spent the, following winter in Washington, occupied mainly as a listener to the debates in the Senate, he felt his vital forces gradually de- clining. Returning home the next summer, and feeling that he was no longer able to superintend his farm operations, he purchased a residence at Rockford, and there resided until his death.
WORTHINGTON, THOMAS, fourth governor elected by the people of Ohio, was born in then Berkeley, but now Jefferson, county, Virginia, on the Ioth February, 1769. His parents, estimated by the standard of those days, were wealthy, and gave their son an excellent education. At the age of twenty-one, having entered upon the possession of a large inheritance of real property and negro slaves, which he enjoyed until in 1796, attracted thitherward by the treaty of Greenville, he with his predecessor as governor, Edward Tiffin, and a party of men having the same object, and resi- dents of the same county, visited Marietta, Cincinnati, and other then infant settlements north of the Ohio river, and they all decided to locate as their. preference in the Scioto valley. The next year he sold his real property in the county of his birth, and disposing of most of his slaves by manumis- sion, he removed with a few who would not leave him to the ther. village of Chillicothe, purchased there on the banks of
Paint creek a large tract of land, and erected the first frame house in the village. Several of his former slaves having come to him the next year, he hired them and, assigning to each a portion of land, directed them all to go vigorously to work, and cut down the forest. He then built a saw mill, the first ever seen in the valley of the Scioto, and in a short time his laborers were comfortably settled in snug houses suitable to their condition. The next year much of the land was put into crop, and plenty soon crowned the labor so well sup- ported and directed. A man of the wealth and public spirit possessed by Mr. Worthington, necessarily became popular in the new settlement, and offices of trust were quickly offered him. In the course of the following five years he became assistant surveyor of the public lands, a member of the con- vention to frame a constitution for Ohio, and subsequently was elected to represent the new State in the United States Senate. In this body he was influential, and took an active part in the debates on all important questions. In the first
territorial legislature he represented Ross county in 1799, and with all his ability opposed the attempt to change the plan recognized by the ordinance of 1797 to form the States of the Northwestern territory. Both branches of the legislature had voted that the territory lying between the State of Virginia and the Wabash should be formed into two States, with the Scioto and a line north to the lakes, as the dividing boundary on the south and east, but to this scheme Mr. Worthington was unalterably opposed, and so successfully did he maintain his opposition that Congress was induced to set aside the view of the majority of the Northwestern territorial legislature and Governor St. Clair, and pass the enabling act of April 30th, 1802, by which Ohio, with its present boundaries, en- tered in that year the Union as a State. An active member of the convention that formed the constitution of 1802, he was in some degree responsible for the restriction in that instru- ment by which the power of the executive department was so seriously impaired. This mistake, as he afterward acknowl- edged it to be, was the result of his keen sense of the indig- nity visited upon the convention by Governor St. Clair's arbitrary use of his powers as governor of the territory, and dictation to the convention in the address delivered by him at the opening of it. In his two terms of five years each in the United States Senate (1803 to 1808 and 1810 to 1815), among other measures he introduced are found the bills lay- ing out the Cumberland road, so-called, from tide-water to the Ohio river; for the division and sale of the public lands in quarter sections, instead of tracts two miles square; and for quieting land titles, by these means inducing the vast im- migration that soon followed the enactment of these bills into laws. During the interval between his two senatorial terms, he was employed by the government in treating with the In- dians, and was held in high respect by the leader Tecumseh, and others of the hostile tribes. Being elected governor in 1814, he resigned his seat in the United States Senate, and was reelected governor in 1816. During these, his terms of office as chief executive of the State, he did much by his recommendations for the establishment of colleges and pub- lic schools; while the State library owes its origin to a wise but somewhat irregular use he made of the governor's con- tingent fund. In January, 1818, however, the legislature took the State library into their care. Governor Worthington recommended the construction of canals, and in 1822 as a member of the house of assembly was a member of the first board that reported in favor of their construction. Indeed, it
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was while he awaited in New York City a meeting of this board that he died on the 20th June, 1827. During his last . term as governor a serious difficulty arose between Kentucky and Ohio, in the matter of slaves being harbored in Ohio, and aided to escape. To Governor Worthington no subject could be more distasteful. As an earnest lover and believer in universal freedom for mankind, and their right to self- possession, he had early manumitted all of his slaves, in number thirty-six ; but while he detested slavery, as the ex- ecutive of a State living under the constitution of 1789 he felt bound by his oath to administer the laws. Upon his retire- ment from the office of governor, and while living privately, he nevertheless, as mentioned, could not divest himself of the keen interest he took in public improvements, insomuch that he was designated by the National Intelligencer, "the father of the American system of public improvements." In laying the foundation of that prosperity for which Ohio has since be- come celebrated, the credit is due in no higher degree to any man than to Thomas Worthington. His spacious mansion of stone yet overlooks the city of Chillicothe. Built in the style of olden times, it was in his day surrounded with highly cultivated gardens, vineyards and orchards, and the house admired by all was also a hospitable home from which no person was turned empty away. His remains rest in the beautiful cemetery, also overlooking the city, and a marble shaft, with a medallion alto relievo bust on the face of it, in- dicates as well his resting place as the noble features of him whom Chief Justice Chase, in the historical sketch prefixed to his compilation of Ohio's statutes, has justly described as "a gentleman of distinguished ability and great influence."
BARTLEY, THOMAS WELLES, lawyer and jurist, being president of the senate of Ohio in 1844, became by the resignation of Governor Shannon, governor of the State of Ohio, and administered the duties of that office until the in- auguration of his father, Governor Mordecai Bartley, in the closing month of that year. He was born February 11th, 1812, at the home of his parents, Mordecai and Elizabeth ( Welles) Bartley, in Jefferson county, Ohio. His ancestors had emigrated from Northumberland county, England, and settled in Loudon county, Virginia, in 1724, but subsequently removed to Fayette county, Pennsylvania, where his father was born. He was named Welles from his mother's father, Thomas Welles of Brownsville, Pennsylvania. Having re- ceived a liberal education under the care and direction of his father, and graduated from Jefferson College, Pennsylvania, with the degree of bachelor of arts, he studied law in Washing- ton City, and was licensed to practice at Mansfield, Ohio, in 1834. The following year he was by his alma mater honored with the degree of master of arts. Having very soon taken a leading position at the bar, he was elected attorney general of the State, and served as such four years, after which he was appointed United States district attorney, and served in that office four years. Elected subsequently to the legisla- ture, he served one term in the House, and four years in the senate of the general assembly of Ohio. In 1851, he was elected a judge of the supreme court of his native State, and having served two terms, then engaged in practice in Cincin- nati for several years, but the ill health of his family while residents of that city, induced him to remove to Washington City in 1869, where he has been and is at present engaged in the practice of his profession. A courteous gentleman, wise judge and careful attorney, his change of residence has
placed him in a field of operations where local politics do not so largely enter into the business of his profession, as in that from which he very wisely removed.
LOOKER, OTHNIEL, became, by the resignation of Governor Meigs, to take the position of Postmaster-General in the cabinet of President Madison, and in consequence of holding at the time the office of speaker or president of the Ohio senate, in 1814, the fourth governor of Ohio. He was born in the State of New York of humble parentage in 1757, and enlisted as a private in the Revolutionary army raised in that State, serving through the war. In 1784, having re- ceived a grant of land in the then wilderness of the North- west, he crossed the Alleghenies, and locating his grant, built his cabin and commenced his life labor as a hard-work- ing farmer. He devoted himself to the business of a farmer, and on the organization of the State was elected a member of the legislature. Here he availed himself of the advantages such a school afforded, and so rose in public esteem as to be sent to the senate. There he eventually became speaker of that body, and consequently, as we have mentioned, gov- ernor of the State. He served but eight months, returning to his farm respected by all as a man of clear mind, much intelligence, and a peaceful disposition. Strange to say, no records of him are available from which to make a more sat- isfactory sketch. He died unmarried.
WASON, CHARLES, manufacturer, was born at Han- cock, New Hampshire, January 8th, 1816. His father was Reuben Wason, a very worthy and respected citizen, by trade a carpenter and joiner ; he also cultivated a farm, and al- though always in straitened circumstances, managed to bring up a large family of children who have proved worthy sons and daughters of most worthy parents. Charles did not at- tend school, after he was seven years of age, except two months in the winters of his boyhood. At the tender age of ten years he was introduced to those rough and sharp ex- periences that often insure the making of the man. For five years he bravely endured the toils and hardships common to a boy put out to live with a farmer. When fifteen he re- turned home and went to work with his father, learning thor- oughly the carpenter and joiner's trade. After his majority he worked for three or four years at his trade in Lowell, Bos- ton, and Woburn, Massachusetts. From Woburn he went to Cabotville, where he worked on repairing cotton machinery for five years. In 1847 he went to Springfield, and in con- nection with an older brother, who, like himself, had learned the carpenter trade with his father, engaged in car building, in a very small way, however. Their total cash capital did not exceed fifteen hundred dollars. Their shop was so small that the first car built "stuck out of the shed part." He and his brother did all the wood work, making twelve freight cars in that shop during the year. The prospect for rapidly in- creasing business was so encouraging that they erected a more commodious building in the northern part of the then village, near the Western railroad depôt. This shop was thirty by eighty feet. About this time a large joint stock company organized by citizens of Springfield and Worcester, had erected extensive and complete works for the manufac- ture of cars and locomotives. In 1849 a favorable proposi- tion having been made the Wason brothers, they bought out the car department, i. e, the machinery, and leased the shop for five years, and immediately commenced the manufacture
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of all kinds of cars, giving especial attention to passenger cars. Their business rapidly increased; the firm became widely known for the superiority of their manufactures, in style and excellency of workmanship and materials ; orders came in from all parts of the country, and success rewarded their well-directed industry. In the spring of 1852, he sold out to his brother and removed to Cleveland, Ohio. In April, of that year, he began the erection of the extensive car works situated between St. Clair and Lake streets, and now known as the works of the McNairy & Claflen Manufacturing Com- pany. They were completed in less than four months, and on the Ist August, he began building cars to fill a large con- tract with the Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana Railroad Company. At the end of two years, his business rapidly in- creasing, he took in two partners, Messrs. G. W, Morrill, and G. B. Bowers. At the end of one year this partnership was dissolved, he sold out his interest in the car department, but not in the foundry until 1874. In connection with Messrs. S. M. Carpenter and Philo Tilden, he built the Manhattan blast fur- nace, near Toledo, and, in 1865, he formed a cöpartnership with Messrs. Carpenter and Wm. F. Smith, and erected the Fulton Foundry, situated on Merwin street, in Cleveland, mak- ing the manufacture of car wheels a specialty. In 1873 he went with his partners in the Fulton furnace, to Chattanooga, Tennesee, and purchased a car wheel foundry and fourteen acres of land, and, forming a joint stock company, erected complete works for car-building. The name of this corporation was "The Wason Car and Foundry Company," of which he was president. This establishment was fully equipped in every respect. In politics he was a republican, and during the war for the Union, his intense zeal and earnestness in the support of the government found expression in most liberal expenditures of money for recruits. As an instance of his interest, word came to him that a man a few miles away would go to the war if his debts were paid. The next day the man was out of debt, and on his way to the front, where he served his country faithfully, and at the close of the war returned home safely. He was liberal in those public and private charities that commended themselves to his judgment. He was a far-seeing and shrewd business man, safe and sure, of undoubted integrity and business honor, had marked executive ability, and was capable of planning and ex- ecuting large enterprises; and this mental and physical force was united with a naturally modest disposition that shrank from publicity. He was liberal in his religious views. December 7th, 1847, he married Miss Matilda W. Parker, of Boston, Massachusetts. They have had born to them three children, of whom two died in infancy, and the only one surviving is now in business with his father in Cleveland.
STREATOR, WORTHY S., of Cleveland, is a son of Isaac H. Streator, and was born in Hamilton, Madison county, New York, on the 16th of October, 1816. His father soon removed to the then new country of Ohio, and settled on a farm in the town of Streetsboro, in Portage county. On this farm Doctor Streator spent his early boyhood and ac- quired, with a thorough knowledge of farm management, that taste for agricultural pursuits which in his later years he has so successfully indulged in as a pastime and relief from more engrossing business enterprises. He remained on the farm with his father until eighteen years of age, receiving mean- while a sound common school and academical education, and
in 1832 commenced his professional life by entering the office of a physician as a student of medicine. He combined with his medical course general reading bearing on his profession as well as other studies, and did not take his degree of M. D. until 1839, in which year he graduated from the University of Lake Erie, where he had been for some time a student. In that year, also, he was married to Miss Sarah W. Sterling. of Lima, Livingston county, New York, and having removed to the town of Aurora, Portage county, Ohio, commenced the general practice of his profession. During the five years that he practiced medicine in Aurora, he not only attained a very flattering degree of success, but acquired so great a fondness for his calling that he determined on still further extend- ing his knowledge of it. The celebrated physician, Doctor Gross, now of Philadelphia, was then an instructor in the medical college at Louisville, Kentucky, and was deservedly esteemed one of the best teachers of medical science in the country. For the purpose of availing himself of his in- struction, Doctor Streator removed to Louisville, and entered the college. Here he remained for a year, having the ad- vantage not only of Doctor Gross's lectures, but of an exten sive practice in hospitals. He then returned to Ohio, and resumed practice in the town of Ravenna, the county-seat of Portage county, where he speedily won a wide local repu- tation as one of the most skillful and successful practi- tioners in Northern Ohio. In the year 1850 he removed to Cleveland, and, after two years more in medical matters, be- came much interested in the rapid development of railroad building, and turned his attention to that business. His first undertaking in this line was the construction of the Green- ville and Miami Road, which extended from Dayton, Ohio, to the town of Union, on the State boundary line between Ohio and Indiana. Mr. Henry Doolittle was his partner in this enterprise, and, on its successful completion, in 1853, Doctor Streator and Mr. Doolittle took the still heavier con- tract of building that portion of the Atlantic and Great West- ern Railway-now called the New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio-which runs through the State of Ohio, a stretch of road that is two hundred and forty-four miles in length. In 1858 they added to this a contract for the construction of the Pennsylvania . division, ninety-one miles in length, of the same railroad, and in 1859 for the New York division, forty-eight miles in length. Altogether Messrs. Streator & Doolittle had under contract three hundred and seventy-nine miles of the Atlantic and Great Western Road. In August, 1860, Mr. Doolittle died, and Doctor Streator con- tinued the work as surviving partner until January, 1862, when he disposed of the contracts to Mr. James McHenry, of Lon- don, England, and acted for him as superintendent of con- struction, having charge of the entire line of works from Sala- manca, New York, to Dayton, Ohio, until the fall of 1863. His next enterprise was one of the most remarkable of any in the course of his busy life. This was the projection and building of the celebrated Oil Creek Railroad, from Corry to Petroleum Center, Pennsylvania, then the very heart of the oil regions. This line, thirty-seven miles in length, he projected in 1862, and the extraordinary rapidity with which it was built and its phenomenal success after its completion are among the most striking episodes in the history of American railroading. Its cars were crowded with passengers as soon as it reached the vicinity of Titusville, and its resources were found utterly inadequate to accommodate the immense traffic in freight and passengers with which it was deluged. The oil
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