USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume I > Part 31
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cellor of the university, and, as such, his signature appears upon the doctor's diploma. He immediately located in Toledo, Ohio, then but a small village, and entered upon the practice of medicine. Here his life work began and probably will end. Thirty-two years of his professional career, a long, useful, and honored one, are already spent. The same summer, and shortly after Dr. Jones located in Toledo, a cholera epidemic broke out in the village and vicinity, which gave him and the other resident physicians all the practice they were able to attend to. It was not long before he took a place in the foremost ranks of the old practitioners. The many cases that came under his charge were managed with such success, that a reputation was there and then established, that has abided with him ever since. Dr. Jones was the first surgeon to perform the oper- ation of lithotomy in his part of the State, since which he has performed a number of similar operations. The number of stones that he has removed from the bladder, all of which he has preserved in his collection of such specimens, is surprising. Some were of the most remarkable size, so as to require crushing for removal. During the progress of Toledo from a town of 2,500 to a city of nearly 60,000 popu- lation, with its catalogue of consequent accidents, Dr. Jones has been called upon to perform a great number of surgical operations of every character and degree of difficulty. He has a reputation of being a very skillful surgeon. Probably no one in Northwestern Ohio has had a longer or more varied experience, or is more widely and favorably known in his profession than Dr. W. W. Jones. He is an active member of the American Medical Association and the Ohio State Medical Society, of which he was president in 1875, having been a member since 1849, the year of its permanent organization, and being one of three of the oldest of its living members. He is also ex-president of the Alumni Association of the University of Buffalo, an honorary member of the Michigan State Medical Society, Detroit Academy of Medi- cine, and Detroit Medical Society ; also a member of the Detroit Library Association, the oldest living member of the Lucas County Medical Society, organized in 1851 ; a member of the Northwestern Ohio Medical Society, Southern Michi- gan Medical Society, and Northern Indiana Medical Society. He is also consulting surgeon for the St. Vincent Hospital, Toledo, Ohio, and corresponding member of several scientific societies. He is also a liberal and able contributor to vari- ous medical journals throughout the country. In 1840, Dr. Jones became a Mason, the office of high priest being the highest he has ever held in that order. While he has borne a very prominent part in his profession, he has also been one of Toledo's most public spirited citizens. Of whatever has been of public good and for the honor of his city he has always been a zealous supporter, and whatever enterprises promised for the growth and progress of Toledo have always found in Dr. Jones a most liberal contributor of time and money. He is always willing and ready to bear his part in any thing and every thing- calculated to promote the public welfare. In 1857 he was elected a member and president of the common council. In 1871 he was elected mayor of Toledo, and re-elected in 1873. In 1877 he was again called to that office by his fellow-citizens, thus acting as the city's executive for three terms, with the reputation of having been one of the most efficient in her history. He has been a mem- ber of the board of health of Toledo nearly ever since its organization in 1866. He has repeatedly been urged by his
Mr. Jones m. V.
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floods MED.
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friends and party as a candidate for numerous political offices, State and national, but has invariably declined the honor, preferring professional to political honors. In politics he is an ardent democrat. On February 15th, 1851, Dr. Jones mar- ried Adeline Knaggs, daughter of John Knaggs, an early pioneer, born at Detroit, Michigan, whose father was Indian agent at Detroit during the war of 1812. At Hull's surrender he was taken prisoner and kept at Quebec till the close of the war. Five children have been born to Dr. and Mrs. Jones, three sons and two daughters, all of whom are still living.
LUCAS, ROBERT, the ninth governor elected by the people of Ohio, was born at Shepherdstown, Jefferson county, Virginia, April Ist, 1781, and died at his home in Iowa City, Iowa, February 7th, 1853. His father was a descendant of William Penn ; his mother was of Scotch parentage. Having become dissatisfied with the institution of slavery, Mr. Lucas manumitted his adult slaves, and made humane provision for them all. He then removed to Chillicothe, Ohio, as one of its earlier settlers. Being a man of means, he hired a tutor for his children, a Scotch schoolmaster, who taught Robert mathematics and surveying, and as a skillful surveyor he obtained remunerative employment before attaining his majority. When twenty-three years old he was appointed county surveyor of Scioto county, his elder brother, Joseph, being at that time associate judge of the court of common pleas. When twenty-five years old, Robert received the commission of justice of the peace for Union township, Scioto county. In 1810, he married Miss Elizabeth Brown, who died two years after, leaving an infant daughter, and in 1816 he married Miss Sumner, who with her parents emigrated from New England but a year or two previously. In those days every able-bodied man was a soldier, necessarily, and Robert Lucas passed through all the military grades to that of major-general of the Ohio militia. He accompanied Hull's army in their invasion of Canada east of Detroit, and took so active a part in all the movements there that many of the officers of that army, dissatisfied with General Hull, and inspired with confidence in the military ability of Gen- eral Lucas, indiscreetly urged him to take the command, which he very properly refused to do. Had he done so, however, the story of Hull's shameful surrender would doubt- less never have to be told. From this surrender our subject made his escape, by putting his sword into his brother's trunk, exchanging his uniform for a citizen's coat, and walk- ing into the town ahead of the British troops, where, after taking note of all that there transpired, he embarked on board a small vessel and reached Cleveland in safety. He was commissioned as a captain in the regular army, and rose to the rank of colonel in that service, when other duties called for his retirement to civil life. In 1816 he was elected a member of the Ohio legislature, and for nineteen consecutive years served in either house or senate. In 1820 and subse- quently in 1828, he was chosen as one of the Presidential electors of Ohio, and in 1832 elevated to the distinguished honor of chairman of the Democratic National convention in Baltimore, that nominated General Jackson for his second term as President of the United States. Having thus be- come, in his fiftieth year, one of the most prominent men in the State, and his name and fame generally known through- out Ohio, he was in 1832 elected governor, and reëlected in 1834. During the latter term the difficulty between Ohio and Michigan, that threatened to lead to civil war, was amicably
settled. Declining a third nomination, he was subsequently appointed by President Van Buren territorial governor of Iowa, and to this office were added the responsible duties of superintendent of Indian affairs. In 1838 a journey through the pathless wilderness to what is now the fertile State of Iowa occupied weeks, and exposed the traveler to peril and hardship. Accompanied by two companions, Jesse Williams as his clerk of the Indian department, and Theodore S. Parvin as his private secretary, Governor Lucas, leaving his family behind him at his home in Piketon, Ohio, departed for his destination, Burlington, Iowa, then the temporary seat of government, on the 25th July, and arrived there on the 16th August. His subsequent history was troubled and eventful, as he was involved in many and serious political difficulties, through all of which he maintained his position without sacri- ficing his self-respect through the term of his official service. His death was peaceful and rendered happy by the presence of all the members of his family save one. His remains now repose in the cemetery adjoining Iowa City, and a marble shaft with a suitable inscription marks his grave. To him Iowa is much indebted for her prosperity. He zealously ad- vocated the common school system, one of the crowning advantages enjoyed by her people at large, and arranged for its support in a proper manner by the appropriation of public lands. No gambler or drunkard could receive an appoint- ment from him, and through his influence, as it has been generally acknowledged, Iowa prohibited the sale of intoxi- cating liquors.
WOODS, JOSEPH THATCHER, surgeon and physi- cian, of Toledo, Ohio, was born in Columbiana county, Ohio, March 16th, 1835. His father, Amos Woods, was a native of Pennsylvania, and the son of a German emigrant. His mother, Rebecca Woods (whose maiden name was Thatcher), was also a native of Pennsylvania, though of English line- age. The original family of Thatchers, from which she was descended, were passengers on the famous Mayflower. The parents of Dr. Woods's father came to Ohio in 1804, when the latter was but two years old, settling in Columbiana county, where Amos was reared. By practicing the most rigid economy, which in those pioneer days was an absolute necessity, he found himself, in 1835, possessed of about five hundred dollars, the results of his and his wife's hard earn- ings, and with this he bought one hundred and twenty acres of wild, unimproved land in Portage county, Ohio. This forest, which in time was transformed into fields of waving grain, was the subsequent home of the family, his father dying there in 1879, at the age of seventy-seven. His mother is still living at the age of seventy-five. The early experiences of Mr. Woods were simply those incident to farm life in pioneer days. His educational and social advantages were, of course, very meager. His disadvantages were many and not easy to be surmounted. With the exception of one term spent at a select school at Salem, Ohio, he enjoyed the privileges of no higher instruction than that furnished by the pioneer country schools. His other education, literary or scientific, of which he has possessed himself of a goodly store, has been gained by personal study in odd hours, and by observation and experience. Having a natural taste for reading, he devoured all the books within his reach, em- ploying in this way all his spare time. He worked on the farm until his health failed, having been frail from child- hood to maturity. When no longer able to perform farm
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labor he began the study of medicine. At home, under the direction of Dr. James Furgeson, of New Baltimore, and Dr. J. Price, of Randolph, Ohio, he devoted more than five years to professional study. In the winter of 1852 he taught school, earning by this a small sum of money, which he saved, and by laboring the following summer he was enabled, in the fall of 1853, to enter the medical department of the Univer- sity of Michigan. Here he attended two terms, receiving his degree in 1855. Dr. Woods immediately located at Will- iamstown, Hancock county, Ohio, where he practiced suc- cessfully till the spring of 1862, when, in response to the call of the governor, setting forth that surgeons were greatly needed, he at once decided to enter the army. He was only twenty-seven years of age, and had but a few years' profes- sional experience, but his reputation may be judged from his appointment as full surgeon of the 99th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He was with the army continuously at the front for three years, serving as chief medical officer of his regi- ment, and at various times of his brigade and division, hav- ing been several times placed in charge of posts. He was also permanently detailed as operating surgeon in his divis- ion, and was with General Sherman in his march to Atlanta. During the three years of his service his experience with dis- ease and the wounded was large and of great benefit to him in his subsequent professional career. After his return from the war he spent two years in Findlay, Ohio, and in 1868 removed to Toledo, where he has since resided, engaged ex- clusively in his profession. In 1867, while still at Findlay, Dr. Woods was made professor of physiology and histology in the Cleveland Medical College, a position he filled for six years, gaining the reputation of an efficient instructor in that department of medical science. In 1875 he was appointed chief surgeon of the Wabash Railroad by order of General J. D. Cox, receiver of the company. This position he still retains. He is also surgeon of the 16th regiment of Ohio National Guards and of Forsyth Post Grand Army of the Republic. For one year Dr. Woods was medical director of the department of the Ohio Grand Army of the Repub- lic, with the rank of colonel. His rank as surgeon is among the foremost, and as a practitioner he is among the most successful. His skill in surgery and his knowl- edge of its needs is well attested by his noted invention, "Woods's Hammock Splint," a surgical instrument that has given him no little celebrity as an inventor. The appa- ratus is designed for use in case of a fracture of the leg or thigh, and was the result of an effort on the part of the doctor to make a satisfactory instrument for his own use. The invention was exhibited at the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia, and the certificate of award was given Dr. Woods by the judges, who pronounced it, "taken as a whole, unqualifiedly the most perfect instrument yet de- signed." Dr. Woods has also gained a local reputation as a writer, and in two books of which he is author he has ex- hibited a talent in that direction of no mean order. In these two works, the "Services of the 96th Ohio Volunteers" and "Steedman and his Men at Chickamauga," he has shown a power of description and narration that would be- come writers of greater celebrity. He has a manner of expressing himself that is both highly original and interest- ing ; the style of composition is scholarly and pleasant. Dr. Woods is a member of the Toledo Medical Society, the Northwestern Ohio Medical Association, the Ohio State Med- ical Society, and the National Medical Association, and is a
liberal contributor to various medical journals throughout the country. He has been a member of the Odd-fellows since 1864, and is also a member of the Knights of Pythias, Ma- sons, and Grand Army of the Republic. Dr. Woods is of large stature and symmetrical figure, and has a pair of broad, heavy shoulders, with a large and well-shaped head placed upon them. He is a man of strong convictions, genial and humorous nature, and of unswerving constancy to his friends. In politics he has always been a staunch republi- can, zealous and patriotic.
WOOD, REUBEN, the sixteenth governor elected by the people of Ohio, was born in Middletown, Rutland county, Vermont, in 1792, and died near Cleveland, Ohio, October Ist, 1864. His father was a clergyman and chaplain in the Revolutionary army. The whole family was distinguished for its devotion to the patriot cause. His intelligent father was able to confer upon his son unusual advantages for the cultivation of the mind. He obtained a good English and classical education in Upper Canada, and entered upon the study of the law. The Hon. Marshall S. Bidwell, of New York, was one of his classmates. In 1812 he was drafted by the Canadian authorities to serve in the war against. the United States. Determined not to fight against his native flag, one stormy night he escaped, accompanied by Bill John- son, afterward an American spy, and known in the Patriot war of 1839, as the hero of the Thousand Isles. They took a birch bark canoe, and set out to cross the ocean-like Lake Ontario. A gale of wind swept the lake. The rain fell in torrents. Pitch darkness enveloped them. They were in imminent danger of being swallowed up by the waves, when they took refuge on a small island. Here the storm im- prisoned them for three days. They suffered severely for food and from exposure. As deserters from the British army, if captured, their lives would be in danger. At last, in a deplorable condition they reached Sackett's harbor, on the New York shore of the lake. As they entered the harbor in their frail canoe, they were arrested as spies by the patrol boats of a small American fleet there. For four days they were held as captives on board of one of the ships. An uncle of Mr. Wood, residing in the neighborhood, hearing of his arrest, gave assurance of the patriotism of the two young men, and secured their release. Reuben Wood went to Woodville, New York, whither his family had gone, and raised a company, of which he was chosen captain. As they were marching rapidly to repel a threatened invasion on the North- ern frontier, the battle of Lake Champlain took place, in which the British were defeated. The volunteers conse- quently returned to Woodville, and were disbanded. He then entered the law office of General Jonas Clark, a distin- guished attorney of that day, at Middletown, Vermont. In 1818, two years after his marriage, he emigrated to Cleve- land, Ohio, then farther from the New England States than Oregon is now. As he stepped ashore at the mouth of the Cuyahoga river, he found a small straggling hamlet. The clearing opened upon the river banks scarcely encroached upon the boundless forest. But a few years before, savages wandered through these woods, and birch canoes glided over these silent waters. It was necessary for him to apply to the supreme court, then in session at Ravenna, for authority to practice in the Ohio courts. His finances were such that he took this journey on foot. His wife and infant daughter soon joined him at Cleveland, taking the steamer "Walk-in-the-
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Water" from Buffalo. This steamer was the first on Lake Erie. When he thus finally took up his residence in Ohio, his worldly possessions consisted of his wife, his daughter, and a silver quarter of a dollar. His ability, industry, and virtues soon brought him into notice, and gave him constantly in- creasing practice. In the year 1825 he was elected to the senate of Ohio, and filled that office for three consecutive terms of two years each. He was soon appointed presiding judge of the court of common pleas of his district, and was subsequently promoted to the bench of the supreme court, serving as Chief Justice the latter portion of the term. His service on the Supreme bench was fourteen years. In this position he exerted a powerful influence in shaping and ele- vating the judiciary of the State. In the various official posi- tions he filled, the breath of suspicion was never lisped against him. In his long career of public life he maintained a character above reproach. Even the heat and injustice of party conflict never left its mark upon his character. His warm, personal, private friendships were never chilled by the bitterest political excitements. As a candidate for the suf- frages of his fellow-citizens, he was popular with his party. His tall, erect form, and commanding mien won for him the title of the "Old Cuyahoga Chief." Thus, when in October, 1850, he was nominated for governor by the democratic party, though the dominant party had been whig for a num- ber of years, he was elected by a majority of 11,000. Al- though the canvass was a very spirited one, not a line of abuse or any blemish on his private character was ever hinted at by any paper in the State. Indeed, such was his personal popularity that many whigs, personal friends, were found electioneering or voting for him. He took his seat as gov- ernor for his first term in 1851. The passage by Congress of the odious fugitive slave law had filled the country with bit- terness and dissension. Governor Wood, in his inaugural, expressed his abhorrence of slavery, while at the same time he counseled obedience to the law. "I must not," he wrote, "by any means be understood as attempting to defend the propriety and expediency of the law. It is unacceptable to a large majority of the people of the North. It has crowded northern feeling to its utmost tension. Public disapprobation will continue to hamper its execution and agitate its early repeal. But with all these objections to the propriety of the law, violence is not to be thought of for a moment. There is a constitutional and legal remedy, which will not overthrow that stately edifice of freedom erected by our ancestors on the ruins of colonial oppression, and which has hitherto been fully protected by the majesty and supremacy of law. The remedy is amendment or repeal." During his administration Ohio was in a state of great prosperity. A new constitution went into effect in March, 1851, thus vacating the office of governor. He was renominated by the democratic party, and reëlected by a majority of 26,000. His second term be- gan in 1852. At the assembling of the great democratic con- vention at Baltimore, in 1852, to nominate a candidate for the Presidency, the division in the party was such that forty or fifty unavailing ballots were taken. The Virginia delega- tion then offered to the Ohio delegation to give the entire vote of Virginia to Governor Wood if Ohio would bring him for- ward .. The hostility of one man prevented this arrangement. The same offer was then accepted by the New Hampshire delegation, and Franklin Pierce became President of the United States. He had devoted himself so engrossingly to public affairs that he had neglected his private interests, so
that when the office of consul at Valparaiso, South America, then said to be one of the richest offices in the gift of the gov- ernment, was offered to him, he accepted it. In 1853, re- signing the chair of the chief executive, he embarked with his family for that far distant land. He addressed an affec- tionate letter of farewell to the people of Ohio, and thousands regretted his departure. Not finding the office as remunera- tive as he expected, he resigned, and soon returned to his native land. For a short time he resumed the practice of law, and then devoted the remainder of his years to the cul- tivation of his splendid farm, called Evergreen Place, about eight miles west of Cleveland. It was a beautiful home which he had spent many years in adorning, and which was rendered doubly attractive by his generous and true hospital- ity. He continued to watch with lively interest the progress of public affairs, and foresaw the inevitable conflict between freedom and slavery. A strong Union man, he supported with all his power the efforts of the government in the war of Secession. Although he had passed the allotted three-score years and ten, he had accepted an invitation to preside at a Union meeting to be held in Cleveland, Ohio, October 5th, 1864. The Thursday previous he visited the city, and re- turning home that night he was the next morning violently attacked with bilious colic. For thirty-six hours he suffered great pain, but retained entire consciousness. At 3 o'clock Saturday afternoon, October Ist, 1864, he died, surrounded by his family, and his remains were buried in Woodland cemetery, Cleveland. He left a widow and one daughter.
VALLANDIGHAM, CLEMENT L., lawyer and states- man, was born in New Lisbon, Columbiana county, Ohio, July 29th, 1820. His paternal ancestors were Huguenots, those on his mother's side Scotch-Irish. From his father, a pioneer preacher to New Lisbon in 1807, our subject received his early education. After a year in Jefferson College, Can- nonsburg, Pennsylvania, he served with great acceptance for two years as principal of Union Academy, Snow Hill, Mary- land, and then returned to the same college to complete his course of study. When within a few months of his gradua- tion, he fell into a controversy with the president on Consti- tutional law, in which the latter used such offensive language that young Vallandigham demanded and received an im- mediate and honorable dismission. Some years afterwards President Brown offered him a diploma, but he declined to accept it. After leaving college he read law, and was admit- ted to the bar in Columbus, in December 1842, and began practice in his native town. In 1845, he was elected to the State legislature, without opposition, having just attained his constitutional age, and was reëlected in 1846. Here he gained a high reputation as a speaker and debater as well as an honorable partisan. On August 27th, 1846, he married Louisa A. McMahon, sister of the Hon. John V. L. McMahon of Baltimore, Maryland. Having imbibed his political prin- ciples from Jefferson and other fathers of the Republic, he started in life as a democrat, although nearly all his friends were whigs. In 1847, he settled in Dayton, where he formed a law partnership with the late Thomas J. S. Smith, and also for two years conducted the Western Empire newspaper of that city. In 1852 he was the democratic candidate for Con- gress, but failed of an election by 147 votes; also in 1854, but the know-nothing ticket swept the field. In 1856 he was again placed upon the ticket, and though defeated at the polls by nineteen majority, was upon contest, admitted to his
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