USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume I > Part 37
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move to the West and engage in other enterprises. So in 1861, having just passed his majority, he went to Illinois, and assumed the management of his father's extensive farming interests in that State. The same year, however, and shortly after his arrival there, he connected himself with Mr. George Milmine (his present partner), and engaged in the grain trade at Bement, Illinois, which was carried on in connection with his other business. Success attended all his efforts, so that during the following year he established a bank in the same place, which is to-day the principal one in that county. About this time a branch interest in the grain trade was es- tablished in Toledo, Ohio, to which place, in 1865, he and his partner removed, and there established the firm of Mil- mine & Bodman, which has during the seventeen years of its existence had an extraordinary success, and is to-day, without doubt, the largest of its kind in the State. During the existence of the old Board of Trade of Toledo Mr. Bod- man was a member, and for several terms director and vice- president. Since the organization of the Produce Exchange, which succeeded the old board, he has been one of the most prominent of its members, having been for several terms director, and during 1881 its president. It was largely due to Mr. Bodman's influence and practical enterprise that the large Produce Exchange block was built, which was erected and is now owned by the Exchange. The interests of Mil. mine & Bodman are not confined to Toledo alone, they having other and larger branches in Eastern cities. In 1876 a house was established in Baltimore, Maryland, which is carrying on a business second to none in the United States. They have also been since 1867 largely interested in the firm of Frank- lin Edson & Co., of New York City. So extensive have the operations of the firm become that a direct telegraph wire between these three cities is leased by them privately for the purpose of facilitating the management of their business. There is probably no firm in the United States whose affairs are conducted upon a more systematic plan, which is largely due to Mr. Bodman's clear and comprehensive understanding of commercial laws and the wants of trade. His early edu- cation and discipline, acquired under the direction of his father, was of that character which induces thoughtfulness, exactness, and integrity; and having had from a boy the management of large interests, he has acquired the power of solving promptly and correctly the difficult and per- plexing problems which are ever arising in the complicated affairs of business and commerce. Shortly after locating in Toledo Mr. Bodman became interested in several of the leading banks of that place. In 1872 he was elected presi- dent of the Northern National Bank, having been for many years previous a large stockholder. In 1876 he was obliged to resign the presidency in consequence of the additional duties which devolved upon him in the establishing during that year of the house in Baltimore, which came under his more immediate charge. He has continued as director of the bank ever since, however, and has contributed largely to its prosperity. He has also been a stockholder and director in the First National Bank for many years. Besides these, he is the largest stockholder in his father's bank at Northampton, Mas- sachusetts, and likewise largely interested in banks in New York and other Eastern cities. Mr. Bodman is also a large real estate owner, and is a stockholder in the extensive Wa- bash elevators of Toledo. Among business men he is rec- ognized as one of the best financiers in the country. Al though the chief portion of his time is devoted to other
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interests, yet his tastes and qualifications for banking, which were early acquired, render it one more consonant with the qualities of his mind. In all business affairs he loves to see system and thoroughness in every department. He is quick in thought and action, and whenever an advantageous oppor- tunity presents itself it is readily grasped and quickly acted upon. Mr. Bodman is a man of great industry and energy, and when a thing is undertaken by him it is generally car- ried to a successful issue. Naturally independent in opinion and self-reliant in action, when a stand is taken by him upon a subject it is adhered to with a tenacity that challenges ad- miration. He is of a retiring yet genial disposition, and of refined and cultivated tastes, and surrounds himself with every thing to make life worth living for. Although one of Toledo's public benefactors as a bountiful giver to every worthy object and enterprise, yet it is all done quietly and unostentatiously. In politics he has little interest, and, although he has been a democrat all his life, he is not in sympathy with the system of politics as carried on by either party, and votes as fre- quently for republicans as democrats. Mr. Bodman has been a Mason since 1863, and a Knight Templar since 1870. While he is not a member of any church, he is quite a churchman, and was for many years an active trustee of Westminster Church, Toledo. He was married, January 10, 1878, to Miss Ida M., daughter of P. F. Berdan, extensive wholesale merchant of Toledo, after which six months were spent by them on a tour through the different European countries. One child, Herbert L., has been born of the union.
MEDILL, WILLIAM, seventeenth governor elected by the people of Ohio, was born in Newcastle county, Dela- ware, in 1801, and died at his residence in Lancaster, Ohio, September 2d, 1865. A graduate of Delaware college in 1825, he studied law under Judge Black of Newcastle, Dela- ware, in 1830, removed to Lancaster, Ohio, entered the law office of Hon. Philemon Beecher, and was regularly admitted to practice in the supreme court, and the several courts of the State, in 1832. In 1835 he was elected to represent Fair- field county in the Ohio legislature, and served in the lower house several years, being twice elected speaker of that body, and serving as such with distinguished ability. In 1838 he was by the district comprising Fairfield, Perry, Morgan, and Hocking counties, elected to Congress, reëlected in 1840, and served in that body to the satisfaction of his constituents. In 1845 he was, by President Polk, appointed second assist- ant postmaster-general, the duties of which he performed with marked ability. The same year he was also appointed commissioner of Indian affairs, and characterized his admin- istration of that department by reforms long demanded, and exhibiting a proper spirit of justice toward the Indians, whose guardian for the time being he was. He held these offices during the period of President Polk's administration, and at its close resigning both, returned to his home in Ohio, and resumed the practice of the law. Elected in 1849 a member of the convention to form a new constitution for the State of Ohio, he was by his fellow delegates elected president of that body of the State's most able and distinguished men, and thus his ability as a presiding officer recognized. In 1851 he was elected lieutenant-governor, and in 1853 elected govern- or, the first under the new constitution he was so largely in- strumental in preparing and establishing. In 1857, he was by President Buchanan, appointed first comptroller of the United States Treasury, an office that he held until 4th March,
1861. Then he retired again to his home in Lancaster, and subsequently held no public office. Governor Medill was a man of great administrative ability. Eminently a true pat- riot, a citizen of spotless reputation, a trusty and faithful friend, an able and uncorruptible public servant, and a cour- teous christian gentleman, his life both private and public being ever pure and unsullied.
PERKINS, JOSEPH, capitalist, was born in Warren, Trumbull county, Ohio, July 5th, 1819, and living November, 1882, at Cleveland, Ohio. He is the son of Simon Perkins, a portrait and sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this work. He was educated at Marietta College, Ohio, where he grad- uated at the age of twenty years. On leaving college he entered his father's office, and after his father's death was concerned in the settlement of the estate until 1852, when he removed to Cleveland, and at once identified himself with the business projects and enterprises of the city. At the organization of the Bank of Commerce he was elected presi- dent, and retained the position until the reorganization of that institution as the Second National bank, when he was again elected president, and held the office until he resigned in 1872. He was actively interested in the affairs of the Cleve- land and Mahoning Railroad, which owes its existence mainly to his brother Jacob; became a director, and on the death of Governor Tod was chosen president, a position which he retained until the road was transferred by sale to the Atlantic and Great Western Railway Company. He was also for many years closely identified with the management of the Society for Savings, of Cleveland; and as chairman of the building committee of that institution, and also of the build- ing committee of the national bank building, was the first to propose and secure the erection of the first fire-proof build- ings in Cleveland. He served as trustee of the Western Reserve College, at Hudson, for twenty years, taking a prom- inent part in the management of its affairs. As a member of the board of State Charities he contributed greatly to its efficiency by the thoroughness with which the work of inves- tigating the condition of the prisons and charitable institu- tions of the State was performed. He devised and urged the adoption of the new and improved methods of con- struction of jails, now being generally adopted, and known as the "Ohio jail plan." The Woman's Retreat was deeply indebted to his energy and liberality for its existence and success. Among the enterprises of a public character with which he was identified the Lake View Cemetery, of which he is now president, was not the least important. This ceme- tery is one of the finest and most attractive in the State. He was for nearly forty years connected with the Presbyterian church, in which he remained an active and influential worker, took a deep interest in Sabbath-school work, and has been for nearly thirty years superintendent. In all religious, benevolent, and moral enterprises he took a strong and generally very active interest. He had very positive convictions on the subject of temperance, and manifested his sympathies during the crusade of 1874 by acting as chair- man of the committee under whose council the crusade against the liquor traffic was undertaken and conducted. During the war of secession he contributed liberally to the support of the national cause. On October 19th, 1844, he married Miss Martha E. Steele, of Marietta, Ohio, who died December 20th, 1880. Three sons, Douglas, Joseph, and Lewis survive her.
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HOLMES, JAMES TAYLOR, attorney-at-law, Colum- bus, Ohio, was born in Short Creek township, Harrison county, Ohio, November 25th, 1837. He is a son of Asa and Mary (McCoy) Holmes, natives of Ohio. His mother was a daughter of Thomas and Hannah McCoy, who came from one of the western counties of Pennsylvania into Harrison county, just after the war of 1812. His paternal grandfather, Colonel Joseph Holmes, was a native of Virginia, having re- sided near Wellsburg, in that State. In 1797, he settled near Mount Pleasant, in what is now Jefferson county, Ohio. His father, Abraham Holmes, had removed with his family from the vicinity of Cumberland, Maryland, to Western Virginia, at the close of the war of the Revolution. In the decade that followed the peace of 1782 Colonel Joseph Holmes took an active part in the conflicts with the Indians along the border from Fort Duquesne to the mouth of Grave Creek, on the Ohio River. In 1799 he moved from Mount Pleasant to the head-waters of Short Creek, and began life in the wil- derness by erecting a log-cabin as a residence. The site was near a beautiful spring, and now constitutes the old home- stead, where his son, Asa Holmes, still resides. The farm was patented to him by the government, and has been trans- ferred but once in eighty years-from father to son in 1845. On this farm, in 1870, almost a centenarian, Colonel Joseph Holmes passed away. His wife's maiden name was Sarah McNabb. Their married life extended over a period of sixty years, the husband surviving his wife by nine years. He was a captain in the war of 1812, and in the service with his command at one of the forts in Northwestern Ohio when peace was declared between the contending foes. He was subsequently elected to various offices in his county, and in 1831 was chosen to represent his district in the senate of Ohio, in which position he served for two years. The early education of the subject of this biography began in the public schools of Harrison county, and continued till he had reached his seventeenth year. He made the very best- use of these scholastic advantages, making extraordinary progress in mathematics. In 1855, with no other preparation than these schools afforded, he left the farm, and entered Franklin College, at New Athens, Ohio, where in three years he com- pleted the classical course of study in that institution. He was engaged as essayist in the contest between the literary societies of the college at the middle of the third college year, and, having been chosen to represent his literary soci- ety in debate in the contest which was to take place in the fourth year, he declined a diploma at that time, and was elected tutor, and assigned six classes during the last year. During his tutorage he devoted all the time possible to the study of Hebrew and mental and moral science, in which he desired a more thorough preparation. The question for dis- cussion in the last contest was, "Should the President of the United States be elected by a direct vote of the people ?" It is probably more largely due to the part he took in this debate than to any other cause that he was led to adopt the profession of law as a life-time calling. He has always been passionately fond of books, but made no choice of a profession down to the date of his graduation, in 1859, though entertaining a desire for the law, which was strengthened by the debate be- fore referred to. In December, 1859, soon after his gradua- tion, he was elected president of Richmond College, Jefferson county, Ohio, and immediately entered upon the discharge of his duties. The institution enjoyed more than ordinary prosperity under his management till frustrated by the war
of the Rebellion. In July, 1862, he was elected to the chair of Mathematics in the Iowa Wesleyan University, at Mount Pleasant, Iowa, an institution of considerable celebrity, and which had at the time five or six hundred students; but the cause of the Union having enlisted the attention and service of many of his fellow-students and professors, he declined the proffered professorship in the Iowa College, and on the IIth day of August following was commissioned second lieutenant by Governor Tod, for service in the Ohio volunteer infantry. In four days he had recruited one hundred and ten men for the service, and by them was unanimously chosen the captain of their company (G), and, being com- missioned as such, was, on the 22d day of August, 1862, mustered into the 52d Ohio Volunteer Infantry, under com- mand of Colonel Dan McCook. The first camp of the troops was at Lexington, Kentucky, which was followed on the 3Ist of the month by a forced march of thirty miles through a rain storm. This and the preceding hard labor and loss of sleep threw Captain Holmes into a severe fever, during which time he was unconscious for thirty hours. At the end of that time it was found that in the confusion and hurry of the retreat toward Louisville he was overlooked, and left to become a prisoner in the hands of General Kirby Smith's forces in Kentucky. Upon the return of conscious- ness the first scene that greeted his eyes was that of General John Morgan riding at the head of his troops through the streets of Lexington in a most arrogant manner, and being loudly applauded by his old friends and neighbors. He was paroled and sent to Camp Chase, where he arrived Septem- ber 8th, remaining there and at Camp Lew Wallace till De- cember 16th, 1862, when he was officially notified of his ex- change. On the return to the field, January Ist, 1863, he took command, at Louisville, of the steamer J. H. Baldwin, with its guard of fifty-one men. This boat was one of a fleet of steamers under convoy of two gunboats, destined for Nashville, carrying supplies to General Rosecrans. They reached Nashville January Ioth, and from that date until June, 1865, the fortune of Captain Holmes was to be unin- terruptedly with his regiment, which belonged to the reserve, and later to the 14th corps of the Army of the Cumberland, and finally of the Army of Ohio. It participated in the bat- tles of Chickamauga, Wauhatchie Valley, Mission Ridge ; the march to the relief of Knoxville; the Atlanta campaign, during which time it was under fire more than a hundred days; the return by rail into Northern Alabama to intercept General Forrest; the march from Chattanooga to the sea ; and the march from Savannah, including the battles of Averysboro and Bentonville, and on to Goldsboro, North Carolina. From the last named place the force had reached Raleigh, on the march to the rear of Richmond, Virginia, when Lee surrendered, and from thence by easy movements to Washington City. Promoted to major of the regiment in May, 1863, he commanded the 52d Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in all, sixteen months, and was commissioned lieutenant- colonel by the Governor of Ohio, and breveted to that rank by the President of the United States, "from the 13th day of March, 1865." Having participated in the review of May 24th and 25th, 1865, at Washington, his command reached Columbus, Ohio, on the 8th day of June next following, be- ing the first regiment to arrive at that place after the close of the war. Colonel Holmes was induced by various reasons to locate in Columbus, the permanency of such location, however, to be contingent on the prospect of a profitable
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business in the practice of the law, which he had decided to follow in the future. He began the study of this profession in the office of Francis Collins, Esq., in the summer of 1865, and was admitted to the bar May 8th, 1867. On his return from a trip across the plains, at the beginning of 1868, he entered regularly upon the practice of the law, which has continued to the present time with the most gratifying results. Colonel Holmes is orthodox in religion, having always been identified with the Methodist Church, though never a mem- ber of it. He has never been a partisan in politics, or spe- cially identified with any political party. He has been so completely occupied in his profession and the pursuit of let- ters as to have little or no time to devote to political contests. He has felt it a duty to keep himself informed on political issues and current politics, with a view solely to the discharge of his prerogative as a free and independent suffragist. De- cember 28th, 1871, he was married to Miss Lucy K. Bates, daughter of Judge James L. Bates, and an intelligent and refined lady. Her father occupied the common pleas bench in the 5th judicial district of this State for fifteen years next preceding February, 1866. She is also a granddaughter of the Hon. Alfred Kelley, late of Columbus, who was widely known in connection with the construction of the public works of the State and the earlier railroad enterprises of the country. A brother attorney, in speaking of Colonel Holmes, said : "As a lawyer, he has gained a high rank in his pro- fession, and is greatly esteemed by the bench and his pro- fessional associates. He is especially noted for his untiring industry, and for his fidelity to his clients. When he under- takes a cause he permits nothing to interfere with the dis- charge of his duty to his client, and all of his energy is de- voted to the case. His papers are always carefully and neatly drawn. His cases are presented to court and jury in a skillful manner. In personal habits Colonel Holmes is very domestic, devoting all of his leisure hours to his family. He is seldom absent from them, unless called away by the requirements of his profession."
TIFFIN, EDWARD, the first governor elected by the people of Ohio, was born in the city of Carlisle, England, on the 19th of June, 1766, and died at Chillicothe, Ohio, on the 9th of August, 1829. His parents being in mod- erate circumstances, his uncle, Edward Parker, whose name he bore, assumed the care of his education, and had him fitted for the study of medicine, which he entered upon at an early age, but before he had completed the course he embarked with his parents and family, and arrived in New York when barely eighteen years old. From there he went to Philadelphia and attended the medical lectures of the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania, and afterwards rejoined his father's family who had settled in Charlestown, Berkeley county, Virginia, and began the practice of his profession in the twentieth year of his age. In such practice his thorough training brought him speedily into notice, and his buoyancy of spirit, handsome person, and elegant manners made him a favorite with the fashionable people of the county. Here he married, in 1789, Mary, daughter of Colonel Robert Worthington, and sister of Thomas Worthington who, in 1814, was elected governor of Ohio. She was a woman of fine culture, and with whom he lived happily for nearly twenty years. In 1796 the then territory shortly to become a state offered attractions to Dr. Tiffin, and in company with those who subsequently like himself attained the first position in
the gift of that territory's citizens, Worthington and Lucas, and taking with him his manumitted slaves, he journeyed to and crossed the Ohio river, and passing up the Scioto, settled at Chillicothe, subsequently the state capital. In common with the whole territory called the Northwest, of which that of Ohio was a part, the vicinity of Chillicothe was then the domain of savages and wild beasts. Dr. Tiffin selected a four acre lot at the upper end of the town plat, and built on it the first house that was graced with a shingle roof. Here he continued in the practice of his profession, answering day and night, to the utmost of his ability, all professional calls; enduring often much suffering from the inclemency of the weather in long `and fatiguing horseback rides over the Indian traces, so called, and bridle paths between the different settlements, besides being drenched in crossing swollen streams and dangerous fords; and this with the knowledge that in many cases the patient was too poor to make him any remuneration. The fall of 1799 found him thus engaged, and the people, who never made any mistake in those days as to their best men, selected Worthington, Tiffin, Findlay and Langham to represent Ross county in the territorial legislature, convened on the 18th of September, 1799, at Cincinnati, then a scattered collection of the plainest of frame houses and log cabins, lying under the protection of Fort Washington. Of this gath- ering Dr. Tiffin was unanimously elected speaker, and retained that position to the close of the territorial govern- ment. But he frequently took part in the debates, his impas- sioned manner of speaking forming a strong contrast to the cool and unimpassioned style of Judge Sibley, subsequently of Detroit, and which in after life both gentlemen mentioned, each complimenting the other on that he himself did not possess. In 1802 the election for delegates to frame a con- stitution returned Tiffin, Worthington and Massie for Ross county, and Dr. Tiffin was chosen president of the conven- tion, which met at Chillicothe. In this position his intelli- gence and fairness, readiness of decision, and withal, manners the most courteous, so recommended him to that body of the leading men of the territory that, at the conclusion of their proceedings, he was presented as their candidate for governor, and in January, 1803, elected without opposition, receiving in all 4,565 votes. He was unanimously reelected in 1805, receiving 4,783 votes, and he declined to be a can- didate for a third term. Two years after he removed to Chillicothe, as has been discovered among the papers of Gen- eral St. Clair, Dr. Tiffin presented the following letter of introduction to the then governor of the Northwestern terri- tory, resident in Fort Washington, and which we here insert, as indicative as well of Dr. Tiffin's general attainments, as of the high estimate of his character, entertained by the writer of this letter. "JANUARY 4, 1798 .- GOVERNOR ST. CLAIR, Sir : Mr. Edward Tiffin solicits an appointment in the territory northwest of the Ohio. The fairness of his character in pri- vate and public life, together with a knowledge of law result- ing from close application for a considerable time will, I hope, justify the liberty I now take in recommending him to your attention ; regarding with due attention the delicacy, as well as importance of the character in which I act. I am sure you will do me justice to believe that nothing but a knowledge of the gentleman's merits, founded upon a long acquaintance, could have induced me to trouble you upon this occasion. With sincere wishes for your happiness and welfare, I am, &c., GEORGE WASHINGTON." We can only remark upon this, that it was fortunate for the then young state that Gover-
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