USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume I > Part 22
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78
TRACY, SAMUEL MILES, lawyer, was born in Oxford, Chenango county, New York, in 1796, and died in Ports- mouth, Ohio, December 25th, 1856. He received his educa- tion at Hamilton College, New York, from which institution he graduated in 1815. He then read law under Count Van Derlyn, of Oxford, in his native county, and was admitted
103
BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPÆDIA AND PORTRAIT GALLERY.
to the bar early in 1818. In the fall of that year he came to Ohio, and, locating in Portsmouth, entered upon the prac- tice of his profession, in which he continued for nearly forty years. He served for nearly thirty years as prosecuting attor- ney for Scioto county, and for a long period was a member of the Portsmouth city council, being for a considerable part of the time city solicitor. He also was a member for several years of the Portsmouth board of education. He was assidu- ously devoted to his profession, and achieved in it a fine success. In politics he was a whig. He possessed a strong, vigorous constitution, which he preserved by the strictest regard to regularity in his habits, carefully avoiding excesses of every kind, and attained the age of sixty years with sight and hearing unimpaired. Taciturn in disposition, retiring in manners, and in some respects eccentric, he might have im- pressed a stranger as being somewhat austere; but a further acquaintance with him would reveal his genial, social nature and kindness of heart. He was an active leader in the pro- fessional and social circles of his community, and very greatly esteemed as a citizen. October 13th, 1822, he married Mary Daly, of Portsmouth, but a native of Philadelphia. Of a family of two sons and three daughters, only the latter sur- vive-Mrs. Elizabeth D., widow of the late M. B. Ross, of Portsmouth; Mrs. Mary R., widow of the late George Johnson, of Portsmouth, and Emily, wife of J. C. Guthrie, of Detroit, Michigan.
JOHNSON, GEORGE, lawyer and legislator, was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, August 7th, 1815. He graduated from Jefferson College, Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania, in 1834, read law with Russell Marsh in Steubenville, Ohio, and was admitted to the bar in Portsmouth in 1837. Return- ing to Steubenville, he remained until 1841, when he removed to Portsmouth. In the fall of 1855 he became the law part- ner of Colonel O. F. Moore, with whom he remained associ- ated until his death, on April 14th, 1875. Though never a partisan or office-seeker, he was repeatedly called to fill positions of public trust, and served as mayor of Portsmouth, member of the city council, prosecuting attorney, and repre- sentative in the legislature. He was a bank director for twenty-eight years, and at the time of his death was president of the Portsmouth National Bank. In all duties of public or private life he was a true man. As a friend and neighbor he was kind and consistent, and as a husband and father he was uniformly 'indulgent and affectionate. He was strongly attached to his family, and, notwithstanding the pressing de- mands of his professional duties, he passed much of his time in the sacred precincts of his home. To the poor, with many of whom he had business relations, he was liberal and for- bearing. He spoke evil of none, and when others did so in his presence he invariably discouraged it, and seemed dis- posed to throw the mantle of charity over the faults of his fellow-man. The Portsmouth bar, on the occasion of his death, expressed their "profound respect for his unvarying kindness, amiable deportment, uprightness of character, and purity of professional life." August 24th, 1848, he married Mary R., daughter of Samuel M. Tracy. The fruits of this union were five children, four living; namely, Emma T., Samuel Miles, Albert T., and Tracy B. Johnson.
LUDLOW, ISRAEL, first surveyor of the Northwest Territory, was born at Long Hill Farm, near Morristown, New Jersey, in 1765, and died at Cincinnati, Ohio, in Janu-
ary, 1804. His ancestors were English, and emigrated to New Jersey from Shropshire, England, to escape persecution on the restoration of the Stuarts, the Ludlows having been actively identified with the cause of the parliament and prom- inent in the affairs of the commonwealth. The head of the family at that period, Sir Edmund Ludlow, was one of the judges who passed sentence of death on Charles I, became lieutenant-general of Ireland under Cromwell, and, banished after the restoration, died an exile in Vevay, Switzerland. Israel Ludlow was appointed, in 1787, by Thomas Hutchins, surveyor-general of the United States, who was "assured " of his " ability, diligence, and integrity," to survey for the gov- ernment the boundary of the large tract of land purchased in the southwestern corner of the present State of Ohio, by the New Jersey association, of which Judge John Cleves Symmes was principal purchaser. He accepted the appointment, and received his instructions, with an order for a military escort to protect himself and assistants during their performance of the work. But the military posts on the western frontier had no soldiers to spare, and General Joseph Harmar, then in command of the forces in the Northwest Territory, advised Mr. Ludlow of the impossibility of giving his expedition an escort, at the same time warning him as to the danger of at- tempting the survey, without such protection, among the hostile tribes of the Ohio wilderness. But, being a man of great energy, Mr. Ludlow undertook the task, and, keeping up friendly intercourse with the Indians, they did not molest him or hinder his operations. In 1789, he became one-third partner, with Mathias Denman and Robert Patterson, in the proprietorship of the lands about Fort Washington, and is claimed to have given the present city of Cincinnati its name in honor of the Society of the Cincinnati, composed of officers who had served in the Revolutionary war, of which his father, Cornelius Ludlow, was a member. He began, in the year just mentioned, the survey of the town -a plat of which he placed on record. There was a controversy about the cor- rectness of the town plat, one having been previously made and recorded by another person ; but the community soon became satisfied that the plat prepared and certified by Mr. Ludlow was the correct one. Ludlow Station was established in 1790, near the north line of the original town, a block- house having first been built for protection, the Indians at that date being exceedingly hostile and dangerous. In the summer of 1791, General Arthur St. Clair's army encamped at and about the above-named station, previous to its march into the Indian territory, where it was so utterly routed in November. It was not until 1792 that Mr. Ludlow, then known as Colonel Ludlow, completed his survey of the Miami Purchase ; but, having done so, in May of that year he made a full report of the survey, together with a report of all the expenses incidental thereto, which was accepted by Alexander Hamilton, then Secretary of the Treasury. Col- onel Ludlow was subsequently the founder and sole proprie- tor of Hamilton, Ohio, having surveyed its town plat in 1794. In 1795, in company with Generals St. Clair, Dayton, and Wilkinson, he also founded the present city of Dayton. After General Wayne's treaty with the Indians at Greenville, in the same year, Colonel Ludlow was appointed to survey the boundary line between the United States and the Indian territory. This was a work of great danger, but it was of the highest importance that the boundary should be established ; and, as no military escort could be furnished, he undertook the task, and, with only three backwoodsmen as spies to give
104
BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPÆDIA AND PORTRAIT GALLERY.
warning of danger, he accomplished it. Colonel Ludlow married Charlotte, daughter of General James Chambers, of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, November 10th, 1706.
MCCLAIN, CAPTAIN WILLIAM, steamboatman, was born near Wheeling, Virginia, December 25, 1809. His father, Hugh McClain, enigrated from Ireland at a very early day, and was a soldier under General Washington in the Revolutionary War. He subsequently became one of the early settlers of the Old Dominion. Inheriting from his father an enterprising and somewhat adventurous disposition, young McClain left home when about twelve years of age and began his career as a boatman in service on a coal-boat. When about eighteen years old he had risen to the position of pilot on a steamboat, and not long afterwards became captain. Soon after reaching his majority, in 1832, he built his first boat, the Lady Washington. He subsequently sold this boat and built the Lady Marshall, and still later, the A. M. Phillips, all of these boats being constructed at Wheeling, Virginia, and employed chiefly in the Cincinnati and Wheeling trade. He also built a number of other boats, among them being the packets Simon Kenton and Daniel Boone, which were con- structed in Cincinnati, and ran between that city and Maysville, the Dunkirk and the David White, and the Bostona, Nos. I, 2, and 3, the last of which was engaged in the government service during our late civil war. Most of his boating was done between Portsmouth and Cincinnati, although he navi- gated the waters of the Ohio, Cumberland, and Mississippi rivers, and was extensively known from Pittsburg to New Orleans. On October 26th, 1831, he married Sarah, daughter of Moses Thompson, of Wheeling, Virginia, and early in 1837 removed from Wheeling, Virginia, to Clermont county, Ohio, and located his family on a farm, where they resided until the latter part of 1855, when he removed to Portsmouth, and died in that city September 10th, 1867. Of three chil- dren, his son, Charles McClain, died in infancy; Matilda became Mrs. P. J. Donham, of New Richmond, Clermont county, and Isabella M. is widow of Charles P. Tracy, of Portsmouth, in which place the widow of our subject, Mrs. Captain McClain, now resides. Captain McClain ran the river for over forty years, and was in every respect one of the very best of steamboatmen. He was a man of great caution, and would never incur unnecessary risks. He gave his personal attention to the minute details of the management of his boat, and had special care not only for the safety, but also for the comfort, of his passengers. He was industrious and energetic to a marked degree, and untiring in his efforts to have every thing on board in perfect, systematic order. He was, as some one expressed it, "captain from one end of the boat to the other." He was a man of great force of character, possessed an iron will, was positive and decided in his opin- ion, and plain and outspoken in his sentiments. He was very strong in his likes and dislikes, and left no one in doubt where he stood both as respects his friends and foes. His natural energy of feeling, together with his long contact with the rough world, may have given him an appearance of roughness, yet he possessed as tender a heart as ever beat in a human breast, and was noted for the strength of his attach- ments to his friends and the sacrifices he would make for their benefit. Though not nominally connected with any church, he entertained great respect for sacred things, was scrupulously honorable in his dealings, and among a very extended acquaintance, especially with steamboatmen, was
greatly respected and esteemed. In politics, he was a demo- crat, as were his father and nine brothers, but was never con- cerned in any party strife.
LYTLE, ROBERT T., lawyer and statesman, was born at Williamsburg, Ohio, December 9th, 1804, and died at New Orleans, Louisiana, December 22d, 1839. His grandfather, Colonel William Lytle, held a captain's commission in the old French war of 1750, and afterward a colonelcy in the Revo- lutionary army. His father, general William Lytle, born at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, September Ist, 1770, came to Ohio at the period of its first settlement, and served with distinguished bravery and ability, through the early Indian wars in the Northwest. He was the intimate friend of Henry Clay, and a warm personal friend and adherent of General Andrew Jackson, from whom he received the appointment of surveyor general of the Northwest territory. He died at Cincinnati, on the 17th March, 1831. Robert T. Lytle was his third son, and inherited his genius and lofty spirit. He received a clas- sical education at the old Cincinnati college, toward the erection of which his father was one of the principal con- tributors. He studied law with his uncle, Judge Rowan, at Louisville, but returned to Cincinnati, and there engaged in its practice in 1824. On attaining the constitutional age he was elected to the Legislature of his native State, where he did good service as one of the first supporters of the common school system, and which was really carried by his earnest efforts for its enactment law. In 1834, by a large majority he was elected to represent his district in Congress, in opposition to Colonel N. G. Pendleton. Nominated for a second term, although in advance of his ticket, he was defeated by the Hon. Bellamy Storer. Shortly afterward, he was appointed by President Jackson to the office of surveyor-general of the Northwestern territory, an office previously held by his father. This appointment was followed by that of the legislature of Ohio, major-general of Militia, vice General James Findlay. His natural taste for military life and operations enabled him to enter upon this service with much enthusiasm, and though repeatedly urged to run for the chief office in the gift of the State, he uniformly declined. General Lytle's graces of per- son and language were such that he at once impressed his audience. There was no change of feature into which his countenance could not glide without an apparent effort; there was no modulation, emphasis, or natural compass of sound difficult to his incomparable voice, while the action was at once suited to the word, and the charm of his manner so irre- sistible as frequently to win the most stern dissenters from his opinion, and always extricate him from political animosities. He was, in 1836, solicited to take the seat in the United States Senate then occupied by the Hon. Thomas Ewing, but his health would not permit. Three years afterward, his phy- sician recommended a trip to Cuba, and he reached New Orleans, where, taken suddenly worse, he died, deeply regretted by all who were cognizant of his brilliant life and career. General Robert T. Lytle married at Cincinnati, Ohio, on the 30th November, 1825, Miss Elizabeth Haines, of Eliz- abeth, New Jersey, a lady of rare culture and beauty, who survived him two years. Their children were one son and two daughters. The son, General W. H. Lytle, fell nobly at the head of his brigade in the battle of Chickamauga. One of the daughters became the wife of Dr. N. Foster, and the other that of Samuel J. Broadwell, Esq., lawyer, both of Cincinnati.
=
Vester
1
R.R. Henicky
105
BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPÆDIA AND PORTRAIT GALLERY.
HERRICK, RENSSELAER R., Mayor of Cleveland, was born in Utica, New York, January 29th, 1826. He is from old Puritan stock, the family having come to this country from England in 1629. Many of his ancestors in this coun- try have held prominent positions. His father, Sylvester P., was a successful merchant in Clinton, Vernon, and Utica, dying in 1828, when the subject of our sketch was but two years of age. At the age of ten he set out for the West to seek his fortune. Reaching Cleveland, he obtained employ- ment in the office of the Ohio City Argus, where he remained learning the printer's trade until 1839, when, for four years, he found other employment, and attended school. On reach- ing the age of seventeen he decided to become a carpenter, obtained employment with a prominent builder, and so im- proved his time that at the age of twenty-one he embarked for himself as a builder and contractor. In this he contin- ued until 1870, when he had acquired a competency sufficient to warrant him in retiring from active business. In 1855 he was chosen a member of the Cleveland City Council, and again in 1856, 1857, and 1858. From that time for ten years his own private business was so great as to require his entire time and attention. In 1869, however, the pressure brought to bear on him was so strong that he again became a mem- ber of the Council. In 1873, 1874, 1876, and 1877, he was a "citizens' member" of the Board of Improvements. In 1879 he was elected Mayor of the city, and re-elected in 1881. His official positions have given the highest satisfac- tion. For pureness of purpose and integrity of character and action his record is without a blemish. He has always sought to serve the welfare of his constituents and the city. Of large business experience and capacity, both for finance and general management, with a mind quick to detect any of the covert assaults so frequently attempted upon the treasuries of our municipal governments, he has faithfully and success- fully guarded those of the city of Cleveland, and to-day Cleveland ranks high among the cities of the Union for its economy of government and the wisdom and discretion with which its affairs are conducted. The rapid growth, increase of population, and prosperity of the city of Cleveland, to- gether with the rapid reduction of her indebtedness and the smallness and decrease of her taxation, is something remark- able. This increase of population, manufactures, wealth, and general prosperity must largely be attributed to her mu- nicipal government and low ratio of taxation. While her population and wealth increases, her tax per capita decreases. Such a fact must always be an inducement both to the capi- talist and laboring man in seeking for a city in which to es- tablish himself. From facts and figures before us we can not abstain from making a few quotations. The population of Cleveland in 1796 was comprised of three souls. In 1810 her population was 57; in 1820, 150; in 1830, 1,075 ; 1840, 6,071 ; 1850, 17,600 ; 1860, 43,417 ; 1870, 92,829; 1880, 160, 142 ;
January 1, 1881, 167,413; January 1, 1882, 185,851. In the single month of May, 1882, nearly 8,000 emigrants settled in Cleveland. The increase of her population for the past few years has been phenomenal. In 1877 the valuation was $71,296,122, with a rate of levy for entire expense of 17.85. In 1881 the valuation was $79,647,156, with a rate of levy of 14.05. In 1881 her entire indebtedness was $2,196,417.73 less than in 1879. The bonded debt in 1879 was $61.89 per cap- ita. January 1, 1882, it was but $38 per capita. Her varied · moneyed resources for 1881 were $3,862,278.09, her disburse- ments $2,044,539.23, leaving a balance on hand, January I,
1882, of $1,817,738.86, and every fund in credit. Such a showing is one of which any city may feel justly proud. The high rate of taxation and increase of the municipal debt was the issue of the election on Mr. Herrick's first nomination, and that he has faithfully performed his duty the above figures indicate. Neither has Cleveland lacked in enterprise. She has merely not been extravagant, and has conducted her affairs honestly and intelligently. As a city of magnitude, great commercial interests, and importance, her future is assured. Her healthfulness as a place of residence is shown in the lowness of her death rate, the national report showing it to be but 23.5 per thousand in 1881. Mayor Herrick makes his official position his life-work, and to it he devotes his en- tire time, thoughts, and energies. He has promulgated and introduced many important changes and characteristics, one of which, and of great importance, is the annual census of the city by the police department. This is a feature, we be- lieve, peculiar to Cleveland, and inaugurated by Mr. Herrick. Its cost is nothing, and its advantages many. It not only gives an annual and correct census, but is also of great aid to the police department ; for in that report are contained many matters of importance to them, to aid them in the pre- vention and detection of crime. In politics Mr. Herrick is a Republican. He is vice-president of the Society for Savings, one of Cleveland's large banking institutions, and has served on its finance committees for several years. He arrived in Cleveland the year of its incorporation as a city, and many of its buildings are of his erection. He is a man who has been faithful to his trust, and equal to the occasion in what- ever position he has been found or called upon to fill.
TOMPKINS, CYDNOR BAILEY, lawyer and ex-mem- ber of Congress, was born in Belmont county, Ohio, on the 8th of December, 1810, and died July 23d, 1862. His father, Ashael Tompkins, was born in Loudon county, Virginia, and was married to Miss Ann Hoge, of Fauquier county, in the same State. There were nine children born of this union, five sons and four daughters. The subject of this sketch acquired the most meager elements of an education in the district schools of Belmont county. He early manifested an inclination for educational pursuits, which disposed his par- ents to make more suitable provision for his mental culture. He was accordingly sent to the Ohio University, at Athens, where he remained but a short time, owing to limited means. While a student at college he was often compelled to walk to and from home, a distance of thirty miles, through the im- mense forests and over the rugged hills which abounded in the then unimproved country comprised in the counties of Washington and Athens. Under such circumstances and dis- advantages Mr. Tompkins early became imbued with an ambition to rise in the world. He became attracted to the law, a profession to which his great mental vigor and declam- atory powers eminently fitted him. Entering the office of Lawyer James, of Zanesville, he prepared for the bar under the tuition of that gentleman, and was admitted to the prac- tice of his profession in 1836. As indicative of the great affection and anxiety of his mother regarding his future, it is related that she rode a distance of seventy miles on horse- back, over the precipitous hills of southern Ohio, to witness his examination. It was creditably passed. He at once com- menced practice, locating at McConnellsville, where he built up a reputation as a sound lawyer and powerful advocate. He was soon brought into great prominence as a stump speaker,
106
BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPÆDIA AND PORTRAIT GALLERY.
and during the exciting period just preceding the war he became widely known as an eloquent and effective orator. Before the republican party came into existence he was a whig; but, on the organization of the former party, he identified himself with its interests, and was very pronounced in his denunciation of the institution of slavery. In 1846 he was elected to the office of prosecuting attorney of Morgan county, a position which he filled very acceptably for one term. In 1857 the appreciation of the people was given expression to by electing him to Congress from the fifteenth district, serving two terms. He was tendered a third term, which he positively declined, preferring to retire to private life and to the practice of his profession, to which he was earnestly devoted. As a lawyer none stood higher in the community, nor, indeed, in southern Ohio. He achieved especial distinction as an advocate by reason of his eloquence and influence over juries. One of the greatest efforts of his life was made before a jury in an important case shortly before his death. He was very fortunate in his social and business relations, enjoying the esteem and confidence of all his friends and business acquaintances. He was married to Mary Ann Fouts, January 29, 1839, by whom he had three children, two sons and one daughter. The mother and two children are dead. Emmett Tompkins is the only living rep- resentative of his father's family. He inherits the mental vigor and fine physique of his father, and is following in his footsteps ; a promising young lawyer who, at the early age of twenty-six, was elected to the office of prosecuting attorney of Athens county, and is now filling his second term. He has also been mayor of Athens and city solicitor, being elected to the latter office at the early age of twenty-two, and to the former two years later.
BENNITT, JOHN, M. D., Dean of the Cleveland Med- ical College, was born March 24th, 1830, at Pultney, Steu- ben county, New York, as the twentieth child of Daniel Bennitt, who was the father of a family of twenty-two chil- dren, eleven sons and eleven daughters. In 1796 his father removed from Orange county to Pultney, taking with him his newly-married wife, and entered with a stout heart and strong arm upon the severe labors and hardships incident to a pioneer life. He built his log house in the depths of the primeval forests, disturbing the home of the bears and panthers. In 1837, when the subject of our sketch was seven years old, his father removed to Steuben county, Indi- ana, then a frontier settlement. Here he attended the common district school till he was fifteen years old. Then he entered the La Grange Collegiate Institute, taking the classical course, and at the same time teaching a common district school three months each winter. On the completion of the two years' course, being then seventeen, he began the study of medicine with Dr. Marsh, of Orland, Indiana, with whom he continued two and a half years, in the mean time attending a course of lectures at the Cleveland Medical College. In July, 1849, he left Orland, and continued his studies with Dr. S. D. Rich- ardson, of Centreville, Michigan, attended a second course at Cleveland, and graduated in March, 1850, receiving the degree of doctor of medicine. Immediately on his graduation he returned to Centreville, and began the practice of medi- cine, in partnership with Dr. Richardson. During this con- nection, which continued five years, he spent some months in New York City, perfecting himself in his profession, attend- ing hospitals and lectures of the more eminent professors of
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.