USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume I > Part 39
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
of European laborers. No man did more in his day for the triumph of the Republican party. In 1879, in his seventy- eighth year, he published his "Personal Memoirs," social, political, and literary, extending over the years 1803 to 1843, a work of great public interest. Mr. Mansfield was known and esteemed by a wide circle of friends. He was simple in his habits, easy of approach, and cheerful and sympathetic in his intercourse with men. In religion he was broad and charitable. He was honored by the most prominent literary corporations of the country with the degrees of bachelor of arts, master of arts, and doctor of laws. His death occurred at his residence in Morrow, October 27th, 1880.
DAMARIN, CHARLES A. M., wholesale grocer and general business man, was born in France, April 10th, 1797, and died in Portsmouth, Ohio, April 25th, 1860. His parents were A. M. Damarin and Mary Le Brun, and he was the oldest in a family of three children. He received a very lib- eral education in his native country ; and when sixteen years of age, in company with his father and a younger brother, came to America, and located in Gallipolis, Ohio, in 1813. There he found employment as a clerk in the store of a Mr. Burean, and subsequently became associated with that gen- tleman as a partner in the business. In 1830 he paid a visit to his native country, but soon returned to America, bringing with him his mother and a sister. About the year 1831 he removed to Cincinnati, and engaged in merchandising on his own account. In 1833 he came to Portsmouth, attracted thither by the advantages of the Ohio Canal, which at that time was the great thoroughfare of traffic through the State. There he embarked in the grocery trade, which gradually grew to the proportions of an extensive wholesale business, Portsmouth at that time being a distributing point for all arti- cles in this line for the interior of the State. For many years Mr. Damarin had by far the largest trade of any merchant in Southern Ohio, outside of Cincinnati. Aside from his large mercantile interests, he became very prominently identified with the foundation of the most important industries of Ports- mouth and vicinity. He was one of the prime movers in the erection of the Scioto Rolling-mill, now known as the Burgess Iron and Steel Works. In 1853 he became one of the orig- inal and principal stockholders and directors in the Hamden furnace, in Vinton county, Ohio, and was likewise a leading spirit in the building of the Scioto Valley Railway, now owned by the Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad Company. He was also interested in the old Commercial Bank of Scioto, and held the office of president of the Portsmouth Insurance Company. The business of his house, since his decease, has been successfully carried on under the firm name of Damarin & Company, of which his nephew, L. C. Damarin, Esq., and his son, Augustus M. Damarin, have been the active mana- gers. Mr. L. C. Damarin was reared from childhood and educated by Charles A. M. Damarin as his own son, the fa- ther of the former having died of yellow fever in New Orleans in 1837, at which time he was a leading merchant of that city. Under the judicious management of Messrs. Damarin & Company, the facilities for the business have been greatly increased, and the house is now the leading establishment of its kind in its section of the State. In 1835 Charles A. M. Damarin married Harriet C. Offnere, daughter of Jacob Off- nere, one of the earliest settlers of Portsmouth. The results of this union were four sons and three daughters. Frederick, Charles Jacob, and Charles Offnere Damarin are deceased.
Jm/Bowler
163
BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPÆDIA AND PORTRAIT GALLERY.
Those surviving are Augustus M. Damarin, Mary E. Dam- arin, and Harriet H., wife of George Scudder, of Trenton, New Jersey-all partners in the firm of Damarin & Company. Mr. Damarin, in honor of whose memory we give place to this biographical sketch, was one of the marked men of his day. He possessed a strong will, with great powers of endur- ance, both of mind and body. As a business man, his abil- ities were superior, while his character for sterling integrity was universally acknowledged, and his word was everywhere as good as his bond. He was enterprising and public-spirited, and ever ready to lend a helping hand for the advancement of the interests of his adopted city, as well as for the amelio- ration of the condition of his needy fellow-citizens. Starting in the world with nothing, by industry and honest dealing he amassed a handsome competency. He was very widely known throughout the State, and universally respected; while in his family circle he was especially beloved as a kind fa- ther and affectionate husband. In politics, he was a whig.
JONES, ANDREW BARRY, physician and surgeon, was born in Hillsboro, Highland county, Ohio, April 30th, 1829, and died in Portsmouth, Ohio, October 15th, 1876. His parents, Robert and Ruth Jones, removed from Virginia to Ohio in 1828. His literary education was obtained in the schools of his native place. Choosing medicine for a pro- fession, he graduated with the highest honors of his class from the Cleveland Medical College, in March, 1850, and immediately began practice in Jacksonville, Adams county, Ohio, where a year previous he had been professionally en- gaged, with great success, amid the ravages of the cliolera. On October 21st, 1851, he married Maria J., daughter of James Dunbar, of Adams county, Ohio. In April, 1852, he removed to Portsmouth, where he was actively engaged in a successful practice to the time of his death. His love of anatomy, and his proficiency in that branch, led him to pre- fer surgery, in which he acquired a high reputation. His engagements in this branch extended far beyond the confines of an ordinary practitioner, and he was frequently called into consultation in other States. He was one of the founders of the Scioto County Medical Society, and for many years its president ; also a prominent member of the Ohio Valley Medical Society, of the Ohio State Medical Association, and its president for one year; and likewise an honorary member of the California State Medical Society, and a member of the National Medical Association. By appointment of Governor Allen, he held for a while a place on the board of trustees of the Southeastern Ohio Insane Asylum, at Athens. Though well qualified as a writer, an over-busy life precluded the ex- ercise of his powers in this direction. No member of the profession was more loyal to the code of ethics than was he. His attentions to the poor and those who were unable to pay were as assiduous and faithful as those he paid to the rich ; and he would seldom make any entry upon his books for services rendered to the former. But his charity and benev- olence did not end with his many gratuitous professional calls ; for the poor never applied to him for assistance and came away empty-handed, while many were the instances where food and other substantial reliefs were sent by him to the families of the destitute. He took with him to the bed- side of the afflicted not only the scientific knowledge of his profession, but a heart full of Christian sympathy, a soothing voice, hope-breathing sentiments, and the sunlight of an en- couraging cheerfulness. Although not a politician or partisan,
he was an earnest and conscientious thinker, and was a del- egate to the State Democratic Convention of Cincinnati in 1876, and was a supporter of Tilden for the Presidency. He was a remarkable example of filial devotion to his parents, · whom he cared for until their death with the same tenderness and love which they had bestowed upon him in his youth. He was a courtly, genial friend, a good citizen, and an affec- tionate husband. He was a member of All Saints Episcopal Church, Portsmouth, and a devoted student of the Bible.
' BOWLER, WILLIAM, manufacturer and capitalist, Cleveland, was born in Carlisle, Schoharie county, New York, March 22, 1822. He is the son of George I. Bowler, who was a prominent farmer of Rhode Island, born in 1781, and died in 1868, at the advanced age of eighty-seven years, and Susan (Barber) Bowler, a native of Stonington, Connecticut. His earliest education was received in the common schools of Carlisle. In May, 1833, his parents emigrated with their family to the Western Reserve, Ohio, and settled in Geauga county, he at the time being eleven years of age. There he continued his education, and for the purpose of making it more complete attended a select-school until the age of twenty. Becoming a good scholar, and wishing to benefit others, he conferred on his neighbors the advantages he himself was acquiring by teaching school during the winter season. This he did for some six or seven winters, and Mr. Bowler to-day numbers among some of the most prominent business men of Cleveland and its vicinity many of his old-time scholars. After leaving school he devoted a short time to learning the business of a currier and tanner ; but this was not congenial to his tastes, and he soon abandoned it for the more pleasing avocation of farming. He purchased a farm, and devoted himself to it for some five or six years. At the expiration of that time he entertained a desire for a wider scope, a broader field in life, than the limits of a farm and its duties would admit. To that end, in March, 1851, he removed to Cleve- land. A position as book-keeper in the ship-yard of Quayle & Martin being offered him he accepted it. He subsequently held a similar position with the firm of Myers & Uhl. In politics he was a republican (and so continues), ardent and active, holding it to be the duty of all to be interested in every thing pertaining to the government, whether local or national. His zeal, general business qualities, and integrity speedily marked him as a man highly fitted for a position of trust, and in 1861, on the accession of Lincoln to the Presidency, he was appointed inspector and deputy collector of customs for the port of Cleveland. This position he held for seven years, discharging his duties with fidelity and abil- ity, to the entire satisfaction of the government and of those with whom his business brought him in contact. In 1862, whilst holding this office, he became financially interested in a small iron foundry which was started that year under the firm name of Bowlers & Maher, the other Bowler, member of the firm, being a brother. William at that time was a financial and not an active working partner. Shortly after he bought a third share in the Globe Iron Works, of Cleve- land, a large machine-shop and foundry, holding it for only about one year, when he sold out. In 1869, in company with Mr. Lord, he started a large machine-shop under the firm name of Lord, Bowler & Company, the partners being Samuel Lord, William Bowler, J. H. Johnson, and J. W. Pearce, which firm still continues, in the enjoyment of an ever-increasing business, chiefly consisting in the building
21
104
BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPÆDIA AND PORTRAIT GALLERY.
of stationary engines and general machine work. All the engines of this class used by the Northern Ohio Fair Asso- ciation were built by this firm. The one made for the Standard Oil Company is one of the largest ever con- structed in Cleveland. The firm of Bowlers & Maher soon after developed into Bowlers, Maher & Brayton. Mr. Bray- ton became a partner in 1870, the works then being known as "The Cleveland Foundry." The little iron foundry started by the original firm soon became an extensive establishment. In May, 1880, Messrs. N. P. and William Bowler bought out the interests of Messrs. Maher and Brayton, the firm name now being Bowler & Co. Mr. Bowler's partners in this firm are N. P. Bowler and G. W. Balkwell. Their chief manufac- ture is car-wheels, and their capacity over one hundred a day, besides a large amount of "soft" or machine work. This establishment now ranks among the largest in the State, and does an annual business of some four hundred thousand dollars, the outgrowth of the small foundry started in 1862. Mr. Bowler also controls the chief interest in the wholesale jewelry house of Bowler & Burdick, of Cleveland-the firm being William Bowler and R. E. Burdick-a firm whose business extends into several States. This firm was started in 1872, in the interest of Mr. Bowler's only son, Frank W., now aged twenty, a young man of great promise, highly cherished by his father, being his only child. In all his business enterprises Mr. Bowler has been successful, a trib- ute to his manliness, his honor, integrity, and uprightness. Neither has he been unmindful of the more important duties of life ; for he has devoted, in his busy career, much of both time and money to deeds of usefulness and charity. He has been a member of the Disciple Church for some thirty-five years, to the support of which he has of his abundant means contributed liberally, and performed an active part. For many years he was superintendent of the Sabbath-school. He was also active in the support of the Bethel, one of Cleve- land's most worthy of her many worthy institutions. He also has taken an active part in the Young Men's Christian Asso- ciation, of which he was president for two terms, and has been an active worker in the temperance cause, of which he is a staunch adherent. He was for some time chairman of the finance committee during the erection of the Tabernacle building in Cleveland. But of late his health has become impaired, and he is compelled to relinquish many of his "labors of love." Still aiding with his means, he relegates to others the more active labors. During the war he gave freely to all movements in aid of the soldiers in the field or hospital, and also to their families at home. His brother, John R. Bowler, served as assistant paymaster in the navy. Another brother, Charles P. Bowler, was a member of the 7th Ohio Regiment, and fell at the battle of Cedar Mountain. In 1854 he became a member of the Order of Odd-fellows, entering Erie Lodge, No. 27, which was among the first in the State. In this Order he has been a zealous worker, hav- ing passed all the degrees, and was for a long time trustee of the Lodge. His travels throughout the country have been extensive. Mr. Bowler has married three times, first to Miss Mary B. Hubbell, of Chagrin Falls, September 30th, 1846. She died without issue, January, 1854. In 1855 he married Mrs. Annie Scarr, of North Royalton, Ohio, who bore him two children-one daughter, who died in infancy, and one son, Frank W., who is still living. She died in 1862. Mr. Bow- ler's third wife was Miss Mary Louisa Robison, of Cleveland, who is still living. The marriage took place' in 1867. Mr.
Bowler is a man highly esteemed, both in the public and private walks of life, for his many qualities of head and heart. He is a man whose good deeds and charities live with him, and will be remembered long after he has passed away.
CLEMENTS, JOSHUA, physician, was born in Caro- line county, Maryland, August 6th, 1795, and died in Day- ton, Ohio, January 3d, 1879. When a youth of eighteen he entered the army and served in the war of 1812 in the memorable campaign of Major-General Benson. In the fall of 1813, in company with an elder brother, he came to Ohio, making the journey in pioneer style, a board serving for his bed and his roll of baggage, for a pillow. Passing from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati on a flat boat, he found employment in Warren county, near Lebanon, first on a farm and after- wards in a woolen mill. He was subsequently employed for a short period in the cotton mill in Lexington, Kentucky. From 1819 to 1823 he served as clerk in the old Cincinnati Hotel. He then read medicine with a brother who was a physician in Lebanon, Ohio, and graduated from the Cin- cinnati Medical College in 1827. In September, 1828, he went to Louisiana, and for some two years was a physician on a plantation. While there he became an intimate ac- quaintance of the grandfather of Hon. Wade Hampton, the present governor of South Carolina. In June 1831, Mr. Clements settled in Dayton, where, for fifty years past, he was known as the veteran physician of that city. In 1834 he married a daughter of the late Judge Joseph H. Crane of Dayton, a short sketch of whom appears on page 213. In 1854, on the completion of the Southern Ohio Asylum for the Insane, Dr. Clements was appointed superintendent and chief physician, and conducted that office creditably till re- moved through political changes. In politics he was formerly a whig, but during the late war became a democrat, and was a warm friend of the late Hon. C. L. Vallandigham. In religious views, a liberalist. He had a successful and honorable prac- tice of nearly fifty years. Being of Virginia parentage, he retained something of the " Old Dominion " pride of ances- try, and, possessing a tall and commanding figure, with an appearance of reserve, to strangers his bearing was proud and dignified, but withal very courteous, affable and agree- able to every one, without regard to rank or station, and he enjoyed great popularity, both professionally and as a citizen. He had amassed a respectable competence by his practice, but in his latter years a series of misfortunes scattered all that the labor of the best years of his life had collected. He buried his wife in 1841, and passed the remainder of his days alone. The last few years of his life brought him but little sunshine. Few remained of those whom he knew in former days, and the infirmities of advanced age were rest- ing heavily upon him when death brought him relief in his eighty-fourth year. He had an only son, Major Joseph C. Clements, by profession a civil engineer, and at present con- nected with the Interior Department at Washington. He served with distinction through the late war, and for meri- torious services was breveted major, November 9th, 1865.
RITCHIE, JAMES M., lawyer, of Toledo, was born in Dunfermline, Scotland, July 28th, 1829. His parents were Thomas Maxton Ritchie and Ann (Robertson) Ritchie, na- tives of Scotland. The family immigrated to this country in 1832, locating upon a piece of wild, unimproved land in St. Lawrence county, New York, seven miles from the then vil-
L& Baumegandhier
165
BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPÆDIA AND PORTRAIT GALLERY.
lage of Ogdensburg. A log house of one room for a family of twelve, with the forest at its door, is Mr. Ritchie's earliest recollection of life and home. There, in the labor incident to clearing, improving, and cultivating the farm, his youth and early manhood were chiefly passed. His mother taught him to read (as all Scotch mothers can), and his father, who had been a student under Thomas Dick, LL. D., the well-known astronomer and author, and who was very proficient in math- ematics, instructed him very early in life in the use of the pen and in the rudiments of arithmetic. This constituted his educa- tion until he was fourteen years of age. He then attended a common district school for four successive winters-a term of twelve weeks each winter. But to do this he was obliged to rise early in the morning, before light, and work late, often after dark at night, to chop the fuel for the house, feed and care for the stock, and thrash with the flail cnough grain so that the straw produced would afford sufficient fodder for the cattle and farm stock. Thus he passed four winters. This took him through Bullions's "English Grammar," Adams's "Arithmetic," Davies's "Elementary Algebra," and Mitch- ell's "Geography." After the age of eighteen he attended for three terms, of eleven weeks each, the Ogdensburg Academy, under the superintendency of R. G. Pettibone, now and for many years postmaster at Ogdensburg. These were fall terms, as they were called, and thus in working on the farm during the summer, occasionally chopping wood by the cord, and mowing grass by the acre for others, attending the acad- emy during the fall, and teaching school in the winter, with such time as he could devote to the higher branches of mathematics under the instruction of his father, his life was spent till he was twenty-three years of age. This was the extent of his school education, twenty months in the aggre- gate constituting his entire school period. All the rest was de- rived from books, observation, and experience. Always an inveterate reader of books, devouring all that came in his way, borrowing when not able to buy, a man of keen observation and varied experience, he has attained a high degree of men- tal culture and refinement, possessed himself of a large fund of knowledge and information, and acquired that self-reliance so necessary to success in life. These, coupled with an intel- lect naturally of a high order, make him a man most eminently fitted for the high place to which he has recently been called by his fellow-citizens. In 1852 Mr. Ritchie removed to Lorain county, Ohio, where he engaged in teaching school during the winter and working at such employment during the summer as could be obtained. In the spring of 1854 he was elected a justice of the peace on the anti-Nebraska issue. Up to that time he had given no attention to the law, not even hav- ing read the Constitution of Ohio. However, in order mainly to fit himself for the proper discharge of his duties as jus- tice, he began to apply himself diligently to the reading of the law. Encouraged to persevere in the study by a few kind friends who took an interest in him, and more especially by his wife (now dead), he did so, and with unusual success. Besides providing for his family and performing the duties of his office, he prepared himself so thoroughly that, in April, 1857, he was admitted to the bar by the district court of Lucas county. After admission Mr. Ritchie began practice in Lo- rain county, where he remained about one year, removing to Toledo September, 1858, since which date he has been ac- tively and successfully engaged in the pursuit of his profess- ion. As a lawyer he occupies a prominent place, his services being especially sought for in criminal cases, having gained
great popularity for his ability in the conduct of such suits. In 1867 he was elected judge of the police court of the city of Toledo, which court he was chiefly instrumental in organ- izing upon the advancement of the city from one of the sec- ond to one of the first class. As soon, however, as he got the court well organized, he resigned to resume his practice, having acted as judge about twenty months. Judge Ritchie has always preferred the practice of his profession to that of a politician and office-holder, nor has he ever been an office- seeker in any sense of the word, rather deprecating that method of securing popularity and gain. He was sent as a delegate to the republican national convention at Chicago, June, 1880, which nominated James A. Garfield for President of the United States. In the fall of 1880, while Judge Ritchie, in company with his family, was recreating among the north- ern lakes, he was nominated by the republicans as a repre- sentative to Congress. This, to his great surprise, he learned by a dispatch the same evening from a committee appointed for that purpose. He had known nothing whatever of any such purpose on the part of the people, having himself urged and advocated the nomination of another gentleman. He appreciated the compliment, and accepted the nomination, being elected over his democratic opponent, Hon. Frank H. Hurd, by a handsome majority. Mr. Ritchie has taken his seat in the Forty-seventh Congress, and will undoubtedly justify the acts of his constituents in doing him such honor. Mr. Ritchie was first a free-soil democrat, but upon the organ- ization of the republican party transferred his allegiance to it, and has always remained a unit in its ranks.
BAUMGARDNER, LEANDER SOLOMON, one of the leading wholesale merchants of Toledo, was born in East Union township, Wayne county, February 10th, 1832. His father, Peter Baumgardner, was a native of Baden-Baden, Germany, who landed in Philadelphia about 1812, being then fourteen years of age. His mother's maiden name was Catherine Heller, who was also of German descent, although born in America. She was born in Hellerstown, Pennsylvania, a place which bears the name of her father. After their marriage they came to this State, settling in Wayne county in the year 1830. Among thrifty Germans there is great industry, and Leander was bound out, at the age of ten, to a farmer, who promised to send him to school each winter. He failed to fulfill his pledge, but no one but a youth of untiring perseverance would have been able to ex- tract much value from what was taught in the district-school. He made the best use of his opportunities, and was enabled to acquire enough, by the expiration of his time, to devote two seasons himself to the duties of a teacher. In the summer he toiled upon the farm, until his twenty-second year. He then resolved to abandon agriculture for a more active pur- suit-one in which his own efforts would count for more. He had a natural adaptation for mercantile life, and thought he could do no better than to embark in it. In conjunction with his older brothers, J. H. and T. P. Baumgardner, he founded the firm of J. H. Baumgardner & Co., in 1854, in Wooster. Their business was dealing in drugs, stationery, musical instruments, etc., and was successful from the start. The same luck which attended Leander S. Baumgardner in this enterprise has followed him through life. Three years afterwards they resolved to erect a building for themselves, in which they could devote some space to the use of the public as well as accommodate themselves. The edifice was known
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.