USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume I > Part 26
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Thomas Quayle
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endeared himself to a large circle of friends who speak of him in words of the warmest praise. He has held many benevolent and educational trusts; has been a trustee of Marietta and Oberlin Colleges, of Colunibus Medical College, and Central College, of Wilberforce University, the Ohio Blind Asylum, and the Ohio Institution for the education of the Deaf and Dumb. Mr. Sessions has always been a man of great business energy and constant activity. He has several times in life been at the head of important industrial enterprises, and has always acquitted himself with credit. He is a pro- gressive business man ; has always given aid to every move- ment calculated to enhance the moral interests of his city and State. He is a man of varied and extensive information, a good conversationalist, polite and courteous in his bearing, and a ready and versatile writer. He is the author of a well-written book of nearly three hundred pages, entitled "On the Wing Through Europe." This admirable little volume describes scenes, people, and incidents, the result of the author's own observation while on a recent trip through the continent, written in a pleasing and attractive manner. The press of the country, and the critics in general, have given this work their warmest approbation, which its value justly merits. Among the numerous compliments bestowed upon this volume we note the following from Harper's Monthly, for October, 1880: "'On the Wing Through Europe,' by F. C. Sessions, Columbus, Ohio, is the title of just such a journal of a flying tour of Europe during the year of the Paris Exposition as we might expect from almost any one of our clear-headed and sensible men of business writing for the entertainment of friends at home. Lively, concise, straight-forward, touching lightly, but intelligently, upon a multiplicity of topics, without falling into sentimentality on the one hand or lapsing into too prosaic literature on the other, it is an agreeable, unaf- fected record of travel. Its author's brief description of places of transatlantic life, manners, customs, and scenes, and of memorable places and buildings, are distinguished by the business man's faculty for close and sharp observation of men and things, and of arriving at natural and just conclusions concerning them." We also subjoin an extract from an autograph letter of ex-President Hayes to Mr. Sessions, under date of July 21st, 1880: "They" (referring to Mr. S.'s notes of travel in Europe) "strike me as altogether worthy of the beautiful dress in which they now appear." August 18th, 1847, Mr. Sessions was married to Miss Mary Johnson, daughter of Orange Johnson, Esq., of Worthington, Ohio, a most intelligent and estimable lady.
CHASE, PHILANDER, D. D., Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Ohio, from February 11th, 1819, to September 9th, 1831, and subsequently of Illinois, was born at Cornish, New Hampshire, December 14th, 1775, and died at Peoria, Illi- nois, September 20th, 1852. His American progenitor, Aquila Chase, emigrated from Cornwall, England, in 1640, and settled in Newbury, Massachusetts. The father of our subject, grandson of Aquila, removed to a township on the Connecticut river, above what was then called "Fort, No. 4," and founded the town of Cornish, New Hampshire. After receiving his preliminary education, Philander entered Dart- mouth College and graduated from the same in 1796. Hav- ing determined to enter the ministry, he took a course of study in theology, was ordained deacon May Ioth, 1798, and priest November 10th, 1799. For several years subsequently,
he engaged in missionary labors in western New York, and in 1805, went to New Orleans and took an active part in the organization there of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Hav- ing returned North in 1811, he officiated as rector of Christ Church, at Hartford, Connecticut, until 1817, and February IIth, 1819, was consecrated Bishop of Ohio, whither he went and engaged in the organization of his diocese. Knowing the value to it of a college and theological seminary, in 1823 he went to England for the purpose of soliciting aid to estab- lish Kenyon College and Theological Seminary, his visit being very successful, and the work of building up these institu- tions was prosecuted for several years, before the difficulties with his clergy, growing out of his disposition of the funds he had collected, and other matters, culminated in his resigna- tion of the diocese September 9th, 1831, and removal to Michigan. March 8th, 1835, he was elected to the diocese of Illinois, and thereupon made a second visit to England on behalf of education in that State. In 1838 he returned with sufficient funds to found Jubilee College at Robin's Nest, Peoria, Illinois. Though not especially distinguished for learning, he possessed great diplomatic talents, intuitive knowledge of human nature, and shrewdness, qualities more effective in the business in which he engaged than are great talents and scholastic acquirements. He wrote and published in aid of the operations in which he engaged respectively for Ohio and Illinois, "Star of Kenyon College " in 1826; " De- fence of Kenyon College " in 1828; and "Plea for the West" in 1835. A serious injury, caused by being thrown from his carriage, hastened his decease, and which occurred a few days after the accident. His life was one of useful enterprise and activity.
TRIMBLE, ALLEN, the seventh governor elected by the people of Ohio, was born in Augusta county, Virginia, No- vember 24th, 1783, and died at his homestead in Hillsboro', Highland county, Ohio, February 3d, 1870. His ancestors were Scotch-Irish on both sides, and had settled in the valley of Virginia from an early day. Here exposed to the attacks of Indians, John Trimble, the grandfather of Allen, was killed defending his home and family, and James, his only son, then a lad of fifteen, taken prisoner with others and hurried to the Indian encampment on the west side of the Allegheny mountains, where they were followed by a party under Col- onel Moffit, a stepson of John Trimble, the Indians surprised, and the prisoners rescued. When twenty-one years of age, James Trimble participated in the decisive battle of Point Pleasant, fought by the valley troops under General Lewis in 1774 with the combined Indian forces under their chief Corn- stalk. He also, during the Revolutionary war, commanded a company of border militia, whose engagement was to pro- tect the border against British and Indians. In 1780, he married Jane, a daughter of James Allen, whose brothers perished on the battle field, the one at Grant's defeat near Fort Duquesne, and the other at Point Pleasant under Lewis. In 1784, Captain James Trimble, having previously located in Kentucky the land warrants he received for military ser- vice, formed with his young family part of a company of over five hundred men, women and children, who, under com- mand of General Knox, of Revolutionary service, traversed the wilderness on horseback from Virginia to the westein part of Kentucky, depending upon their rifles for supplies of food and defense against the Indians. Our subject, as an
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infant of eleven months old, was carried during this perilous journey in his mother's arms. Captain Trimble had located his land at McConnell's station, now Lexington, Kentucky, and there he resided until his death in 1804. In 1802, guided by his moral and religious convictions, he resolved to manu- mit his slaves, and make his home in the territory northwest of the Ohio river, and preparatory to doing this, he with his son Allen visited Ohio, and selected lands in the Scioto and Paint creek valleys, and one tract of twelve hundred acres on Clear creek, in Highland county. On the latter having de- termined to locate his family, in April, 1804, with a sufficient working force he built on it a comfortable double cabin, after the manner of those days, cleared the land and planted an orchard of five or six acres, the trees for which were carried on horseback from his Kentucky home, and which his son Allen managed during his absence. The following October, Captain Trimble suddenly dying, left these arrangements all, except the manumission of his slaves, attended to during his life-time, to be carried out by his son, then approaching his twenty-first birthday, who thus became the responsible head of the family. Having received a good English and thorough business education, inherited a disposition self-reliant and courageous, and influenced by a strong sense of duty to a mother and younger brother and sisters, he was very well fitted for the delicate trust; and, with that energy that dis- tinguished him in after life, he proceeded to settle the dispo- sition of his father's estate in Kentucky, and in October, 1805, took possession of the residence prepared by his father in Ohio. Four years afterward he was appointed clerk of the court of common pleas and county recorder of Highland county, positions which he occupied seven years. These ap- pointments caused him to change his residence to Hillsboro', the county seat, and where he made his home until his death. In the war of 1812, he supplied a substitute for the perform- ance of his civil duties, and, as colonel of one of the regiments recruited for thirty days' service under General Harrison, went with his regiment to the relief of the garrison at Fort Wayne, and performed the duties required of him there in manner to elicit the complimentary approval of the com- manding general. In 1813, at the call of Governor Meigs he marched a regiment of volunteers to Upper Sandusky, but for want of necessary supplies, General Harrison was com- pelled to dismiss this patriotic force to their homes. In 1816, our subject was elected by a large majority to represent High- land county in the Ohio legislature, and the next year was elected to the senate from the district formed by Highland and Fayette counties. To this seat he was returned four suc- cessive terms of two years each, by large majorities. At the session of 1818 he was elected speaker of the senate over General Robert Lucas, the former speaker, and was by almost common consent kept in that position until elected to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of his brother, Colonel William A. Trimble. At the October election of 1826, he was by an unusually large majority elected governor of Ohio over his competitors, John Bigger, John W. Campbell, and Benjamin Tappan-their united vote being but one-sixth of the vote polled for Governor Trimble. The liberal and enlightened views of public policy which had marked his career as a legislator, also characterized him, and were eagerly pressed upon the legislature by him, as chief executive. At the session of 1826, he was by the legislature authorized to select the half million acres of land granted by Congress to the State for canal purposes, and having asso-
ciated with himself Mr. Louis Davis, of Cincinnati, an early pioneer, spent several weeks of the summer of 1827 in the Maumee and Sandusky valleys, and received at its subse- quent session the thanks of the legislature for the satisfactory manner in which he had performed his important trust. In 1828, General Jackson's popularity was in excess of all com- petitors for the Presidency, while Governor Trimble had been from his first appearance on the field an ardent supporter of Henry Clay. Supported by the whig party, after the most severe contest known to that time in the State, not only Gov- ernor Trimble was elected, but a majority of both branches of the legislature, while the State,in the November election following, was carried triumphantly for Jackson with several thousand majority. Their success in the State election in- creased the previous partiality of the whigs for their governor, attributing as they did that success to his popularity. His administration was wise and economical; he was reelected in 1828, and by his wisdom and prudence maintained the whig party in a majority until the year 1832, when with Jack- son's second election, and the retirement of Governor Trim- ble from political life, the democratic party again got the majority in the State. Though but forty-seven years old when he thus retired, he had been for thirteen years as repre- sentative, senator, speaker of the senate, United States sena- tor, and governor of the State, in the most prominent official positions, and thus with gratified ambition he could thence- forth devote himself to the pursuit of agriculture, to which from boyhood he had been trained, and which always afforded him pleasure. To aid in building up this important interest of Ohio, he gave time, influence and money, and witnessed, during his long subsequent life of forty years, the result of his efforts made in connection with others like him- self, enlightened friends of this great interest. From deep conviction of his duty as a responsible and free agent he had, after earnest consideration of the subject and the force of his example, attached himself in 1828 to the Methodist Episcopal church amid circumstances of peculiar and extraordinary in- terest, that at the time attracted much attention in the locality ; and his subsequent conduct as a consistent member of that denomination was influential for good, while his death, held in holy and tender remembrance by his surviving friends and relatives, was the death of the righteous. The year after he settled in Ohio, Governor Trimble married Miss Mar- garet McDowell. This union lasted but three years, when Mrs. Trimble died, after giving birth to two children. Soon after he married Miss Rachel Woodrow, who for sixty years subsequently shared his joys and sorrows, and eight months after his death followed him to the spirit land. She bore her husband sons and daughters.
BARTLEY, MORDECAI, thirteenth governor elected by the people of Ohio, was born in Fayette county, Pennsyl- vania, December 16th, 1783. Until his majority his life was spent upon his father's farm in that locality. In 1804 he married Miss Welles, and five years afterward removed to Jefferson county, Ohio, where upon the bank of that river, near the mouth of Cross creek, he purchased a farm, and engaged in the business of agriculture. Here his peaceful labors were interrupted by the declaration of the war of 1812, when in a few weeks he enlisted a company of volunteers who elected him their captain, and took the field under Gen- eral Harrison. At the close of the war he removed to the almost unbroken wilderness of Richland county, where
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Mansfield, of the present, was the only settlement in it. West of that place he secured a sufficiently large space to satisfy him, and there, with his axe, he opened a clearing in the for- est, and erected his home. Upon this farm he worked dili- gently and successfully for twenty uneventful years, and then, removing to Mansfield, the county seat, he there, with the savings of his long years of farm labor, entered into mer- cantile business. He early developed character that won the confidence of those who knew him best, for in 1817 he was elected to the State senate, and appointed by the State legis- lature to the then important position of Register of the land office. This gave him charge of the Virginia military district school lands. In 1823 he was elected to Congress, and served four terms, when he declined reelection. In Congress he was the first to propose the conversion of the land grants of Ohio into a permanent fund for the support of common schools, and secured an appropriation for the improvement of the harbors of Cleveland, Sandusky City, Huron, and Vermillion. In 1844, having retired from Congress, and en- gaged in mercantile and agricultural business, he was elected governor of Ohio on the whig ticket, and both parties have testified to the ability of his administration, and his unselfish devotion to the public interests. In 1846 the war with Mexico was strongly opposed by the anti-slavery people of Ohio, they regarding its proclamation in the interests of slavery exten- sion, and, in response to the call for troops, they were not in favor of Ohio filling her quota. But Governor Bartley main- tained that Ohio, in common with every other State, was constitutionally bound to respect the requisitions of the Na- tional government. He, therefore, adopted the proper meas- ures, and the necessary number of volunteers were enlisted, and transferred to the authorities under his personal super- vision. The messages he wrote during his administration were papers of ability, and plainly made apparent his thor- ough knowledge of the rather complex system of United States government. He declined a second nomination though strongly urged to accept, and retiring to his home at Mansfield, passed the evening of his life in the bosom of his family, dividing his attention between the practice of his pro- fession as a lawyer and in the management of his farm near that city. He died October 10th, 1870.
PUTNAM, RUFUS, soldier, statesman and pioneer, was born at Sutton, Massachusetts, April 9th, 1738, and died at Marietta, Ohio, May 4th, 1824. His father, Elisha Putnam, was a useful and influential citizen, while his cousin, the famous Israel Putnam, a general officer in the Revolutionary army, our subject was often mistaken for, especially in later life, after he became a general officer himself. His father died when he was but seven years old, and he had scarcely any opportunities for education. This was a source of great regret to him during his whole life, for he was called to fill important offices of trust and influence, and during the war of the Revolution and subsequently he was in correspond- ence with generals of the army and the most eminent civil- ians. At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to a mill- wright, but received none of those opportunities for learning which were often furnished by masters to their apprentices. " I was zealous to obtain knowledge," he writes, "but having no guide, I knew not where to begin, nor what course to pur- sue." In later years he always urged his children and others not to neglect the education of any under their care. In March, 1757, in his nineteenth year, he entered the provincial
service, and thus took part in the war of England against France. He was in the army most of the time for four years, his several periods of service being about a year each. He endured many hardships, and proved himself a faithful and excellent soldier. In his third campaign he was orderly-ser- geant until he was detailed, against his will, to erect a saw- mill near Lake George. He afterward was employed at times as a mechanic in building block-houses and fortifica- tions. Before his fourth campaign he received a commission as ensign, corresponding to our second lieutenant. This bears date March 12th, 1760, in the reign of George 1I, and is signed by Governor Pownal, of the colony of Massachu- setts Bay. (This commission is in the library of Marietta College, as are some seventeen others, extending from 1760 to 1796, when he received from President Washington a com- mission as surveyor-general of the United States.) In March, 1761, he returned to his home in New Braintree, and pur- sued his business as a mill-wright for seven or eight years. He was then engaged in practical surveying till the war of the Revolution, having learned the art from Colonel Timothy Dwight, of Northampton, the father of President Dwight, of Yale College. He had been in April, 1761, united in marriage with Miss Elizabeth Ayers, of Brookfield, a lady who died in November following. In January, 1765, he married Miss Persis Rice, of Westborough, Massachusetts, a lady, of great force of character and much intelligence. An industrious woman, she managed his property during the Revolutionary war, and governed her household while he was engaged as an officer in the field, and unable, consequently, to attend to his home duties as a husband and father. He lived with her fifty-five years in great harmony and the enjoyment of much happiness. Having been selected in 1772 as one of several officers who had served in the French war, to explore the lands in the South granted to the Provincial troops, he pro- ceeded with his cousin Israel, Captain Enos, and Thaddeus Lyman to perform that duty ; but, after the party had made surveys above New Orleans, in what is now the State of Mississippi, Governor Chester received orders from the king, George III, prohibiting further grants by him, and much dis- appointment to parties who were about to avail themselves of the benefit of these grants was the result. When, three years afterward, the storm burst that had been culminating during these years, he at once offered his services to his country, and was appointed lieutenant-colonel of Colonel David Brewer's regiment, stationed at Roxbury as a regiment of General Thomas's division of the Provincial army, after the battle of Lexington. Though he disclaimed any knowl- edge of engineering, the fact that he had worked as a me- chanic under British engineers in the French war having become known to the commanding general of the Revolu- tionary army, then at Cambridge, he was directed to plan and construct the fortifications around Boston. His plans met the entire approval of General Washington, while General Lee spoke after their erection in the strongest terms of the advantage of those constructed at Jewell's Point. All the works at Roxbury, Dorchester and Brookline were constructed under Colonel Putnam's direction, and also the fort at Cobb's Point. It will be remembered that winter overtook those employed in these operations, and by the time it became necessary, in the opinion of the commanding general, to fortify Dorchester Heights, as the high ground that projected itself (now called City Point) between South Boston and Dorchester Bay, was then called, midwinter prevented any
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of the usual style of operation for that purpose. Colonel Putnam being directed to consider the manner, in view of this fact, the height could be fortified, borrowed a work on engineering, and after for a short time studying its rules and instructions, decided upon a plan of operations which was at once endorsed by Colonel Gridley, who had constructed the works at Cambridge, and Colonel Knox, of the artillery. They were to construct with stout timbers ten feet long, into which were framed upright posts of the same, five feet high and five feet apart, buttresses to be placed in parallel lines with embrasures for guns between, and then these buttress frames filled in with bundles of fascines strongly picketed together. In this manner heavy breastworks of almost solid wood, and moveable when necessary, would receive the shot from the British ships of Lord Howe. On the night of the 4th March, 1775, the works were erected and placed, and on the morning of the 5th what appeared to the British naval and military commanders formidable defensive works on that ground beyond all other that commanded the harbor, surprised and mortified them. The military commander was so exasperated that he decided on sending his troops at once and carrying those works by storm; but, on second thought, he saw the folly of such an attempt, and at once sent word to General Washington that he would evacuate the city and harbor if his shipping were not molested while his men and stores were being placed on shipboard. General Washington consented, and the evacuation was accomplished without the shedding of blood. Colonel Putnam was then by the com- manding general ordered to New York, to call at Providence on his way, examine the defenses of that town and aid Gov- ernor Cook with his advice in the construction of additional defenses. He also erected additional defenses at Newport, and, April 6th, met General Washington at Providence in council. His integrity, uprightness, patriotism, and intelli- gently successful operations had won for him the earnest friendship of his commanding general, and which was evinced subsequently during his whole life; and, while engaged at New York Colonel Putnam received the following letter : "NEW YORK, August IIth, 1776 .- Sir: I have the pleasure to inform you that Congress has appointed you an engineer, with the rank of colonel, and pay of $60 a month. I beg of you to hasten the sinking of vessels and other obstructions in the river at Fort Washington as fast as it is possible. Advise General Putnam constantly of the kind of vessels you want and other things, that no delay that can possibly be avoided may happen. I am, sir, your assured friend and servant, G. WASHINGTON." This appointment was wholly unexpected, as was his recognition by Congress in this hon- orable manner, and so far out of that customary as to create for him a position until then unknown to the Continental army. Nevertheless, as he preferred service at the head of a regiment in the field, he applied, on the 8th of the follow- ing December, to raise such a regiment, and the applica- tion was by the commanding general thus acknowledged: "BUCKS COUNTY, near Cogell's Ferry, December 17th, 1776. Dear Sir: Your letter of the 8th from Peekskill came duly to hand. Your acceptance of a regiment to be raised on Continental establishment by the State of Massachusetts Bay is quite agreeable to me, and I sincerely wish you success in recruiting and much honor in commanding it. Your profes- sions of attachment are extremely gratifying to, dear sir, your most obedient servant GEO. WASHINGTON." It was with the belief that the French engineers he had then engaged
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