USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume I > Part 40
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as the Arcadome Building, and the hall in the upper story was known as Arcadome Hall. This was the first public lecture and assembly room in Wooster. To make their business more widely known they established a newspaper, first called the Calathumpian, but afterwards the Arcadome Agitator. The editorial work was chiefly done by Leander S. Baumgardner and his brother, J. H. Baumgardner. The former was also a charter member of the Wooster Library Association, which was of great value to the town, and filled at different times all the various places of trust. When he left Wooster in 1865 the association had upon the shelves of their library four thousand volumes, since scattered about and the organization abandoned. In that year Mr. Baum- gardner sold his interest to his brother J. H., and bought a farm in Cuyahoga Falls, there residing for a year. But while he had great love for agricultural pursuits, he was eager for a more active life, and determined to remove to Toledo. There he founded the firm of L. S. Baumgardner & Co., which car- ries on an extensive wholesale business in notions, gentlemen's furnishing goods, etc. Its success has been remarkable from the start, and the business has grown until it now amounts to three hundred and fifty thousand dollars per year. Close attention is paid to details; the market is carefully scanned, over-buying is avoided, and with ample means they' have been enabled to go on from the beginning with no interruption in the tide of prosperity. Panics, while cutting down weaker firms, have only made them stronger than before. Mr. Baumgardner is now one of the wealthiest merchants in Toledo, and one of her most highly respected citizens. Beginning with no capital besides his native ability and honest and determined purpose, his present affluence shows an unusual talent for the transaction of business and a keen insight into the characters of men. He has not, how- ever, neglected his duty to the community while attending to his own affairs. There is in Toledo no more public-spirited citizen. Part of the prominence his city has recently gained has been owing to the excellence of its fairs. Of these the most notable is the Tri-State Fair. To it Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio send their products, and the meeting has been of mammoth proportions. Upon the inception of the asso- ciation which took this matter in charge, in 1876, he was made the president, and has since, by the unanimous voice of the society, held the position for five years suc- cessively. It now has a large balance in the treasury and all the grounds and buildings required to make the exhibi- tions what it should be. This is chiefly owing to the skill and executive capacity of Mr. Baumgardner, who has man- aged the matter as if it were his own. During his five years of presidency there was paid out for premiums and purses the sum of eighty-five thousand dollars, and for permanent improvements upwards of forty-five thousand dollars, while the receipts during the same time amounted to two hundred and ten thousand dollars. In the government of the city of Toledo he has always taken an active part, and many of the good features which have characterized the admin- istration of its affairs have been the result of his good judg- ment and influence. He was largely instrumental in organ- izing the Merchants' and Manufacturers' Exchange, of To- ledo, of which he is vice-president. This is an association that has resulted in great good to the commercial and manu- facturing interests of that city. Strenuous efforts have been made by him to raise the standard of public morality, and with great success. Toledo is a city of public spirit. It was
largely owing to his influence that the present board of police commissioners, nominated by the governor of the State, was organized, and the present members of the board appointed. This was done to secure a more efficient police force, the necessary step to the enforcement of the laws, and a more wholesome and effective administration has since been inau- gurated. This is only one of the many similar important acts in behalf of the city in which Mr. Baumgardner has been a leader. So important a part has he taken that the city instinctively looks to him in any emergency. He has always been a republican, and is an aggressive worker for the party. He gave that organization his earnest support upon its incep- tion, from honest belief in its principles. While not a politi- cian or a seeker for political preferment, it would be hard to find any one who has labored more sedulously for the inter- ests of the party than he, or who has been more liberal in its support. He is always a delegate in convention, and a most effective, yet quiet, worker. In selecting candidates for office he always advocates those that will give strength to the party, neither looking to his own interests nor those of his friends. In the recent campaign the two State senators who, with the exception of but one or two other candidates, were the only ones elected on the republican ticket, were placed there by his influence, as he knew the strength they would bring to the party. His work in politics has always been of this nature, an unselfish devotion to his party. His efforts in this direction have been generally successful, and much praise is due him for it. Liberality and earnestness charac- terize his life throughout. A free giver of means to all laud- able enterprises, kind and liberal to the honest poor, and always willing to assist those struggling for success, his name is loved and honored in the city of his adoption. He is hospitable and open-hearted, and has a free and joyous nature. In 1879 Mr. Baumgardner accepted the nomination of his party for mayor of Toledo, while it was largely in the minority, and was defeated, though the democrats voted largely for him ; but, in consequence of his non-compliance with the wishes of the liquor element, especially the Ger- mans, he lost their votes. In 1880 he was a prominent can- didate for Congress from the 10th district, but was defeated in convention by J. M. Ritchie, of Toledo. In the same year, at the State convention, he was honored with a vice-president's badge. The name of Mr. Baumgardner is always found among those prominent in works of benevo- lence and charity. He belongs to the highest type of the German-American citizen. In religion he and his family are Episcopalians, and he is a vestryman in Trinity Church. He has been an Odd-fellow for the last two years, and is also a member of the Legion of Honor and Royal Arcanum. He married, April 25th, 1858, Miss Matilda E. Miller, daughter of David and Martha P. Miller, of Akron, Ohio. Mrs. Baum- gardner is one of Toledo's noblest women, and will always be remembered for her generous acts and true Christian charity. Her principal work has been in connection with the Protestant Hospital and the Protestant Orphans' Home, of which she is one of the directors. Besides these, she is a liberal contrib- utor to the Church societies and many other benevolent in- stitutions.
KEHOE, MURTAUGH, was born in Winchester, Frederick county, Virginia, December 9th, 1797, and died in Portsmouth, Ohio, November 25th, 1874. His parents, Peter Kehoe and Ann Cary, came from Ireland to America when
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they were quite young, and were married in Virginia. His mother died when our subject was a small boy, and in 1815 his father, with four children, removed to Portsmouth, Ohio. Young Kehoe was brought up in the trade of a shoe-maker, under his father, and subsequently engaged in the boot, shoe, and leather trade, opening the first store in Portsmouth de- voted exclusively to this line of business. He was for many years one of Portsmouth's substantial and successful busi- ness men, and, having acquired a competency, retired to private life. Strong in his likes and dislikes, conservative in every thing, industrious and frugal in his habits, strictly honest in all his dealings, he merited and enjoyed the respect and confidence inspired by these qualities. Although quiet and unostentatious in his manners, no one was more social and genial when enlisted in conversation. The son of a pioneer, he possessed a very clear recollection of early days, and his vivid description of pioneer hardships and privations was most entertaining. Originally a whig, he was afterwards a democrat. He was also a Knight Templar in the Masonic Fraternity. He was a member of All Saints Episcopal Church, of Portsmouth, and a vestryman in that communion. A friend to education, he was an early trustee of the schools in Portsmouth, and a friend to general progress. April 29th, 1829, he married Eliza Thompson, who now (December, 1880) survives him, and has been the mother of eleven chil- dren, of whom John C., James S., Caroline, Ann Eliza, Anna Cary, Mary Ellen, and Murtaugh Kehoe, Jr., are deceased. James S. Kehoe served in our late civil war, in Battery L, under Captains Robinson and Gibbs ; graduated from Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, and became an excellent phy- sician, dying in Clay Center, Kansas, in March, 1875. The surviving children are: Charles T. Kehoe, connected with the mercantile firm of C. P. Tracy & Co., Portsmouth, Ohio ; Peter Kehoe, a merchant of Clay Center, Kansas; Frank B. Kehoe, a grocer of Portsmouth, Ohio; and Murtaugh Kehoe, also of Portsmouth.
TERRY, JOHN PEASE, was born in Coos county, New Hampshire, February 16th, 1807. His parents, Charles Terry and Huldah Pease, were from New Haven, Connecticut, sub- sequently removing to New Hampshire, where our subject was born, and when he was three years of age the family removed to Oneida county, New York, and one year later to Ontario, now Wayne county, where his father purchased a farm in the wilderness, and began clearing it, assisted by his oldest sons. His father was a soldier in the war of 1812, and died in 1814 from the effects of a gunshot wound received in the defense of Sodus Point, on Lake Ontario, against the attacks of the British. Shortly after this event young Terry was bound out to a farmer, where he remained until he was about nineteen years old; but, not liking his master, he left, and, after visiting a sister some thirty miles distant, started on foot for the West, with but one dollar in his pocket, which he had borrowed from his mother. He had at this time no definite destination, but made his way to the mouth of the Genesee River, walking a distance of some forty miles. Then by boat he reached the mouth of the Niagara River, where, having spent his dollar, he stopped a short time, and cut wood to earn some money to enable him to prosecute his journey by water. Reaching Buffalo, he again stopped, and worked a month carrying brick and mortar, and receiving ten dollars, half in cash and half in dry goods. He then boarded a sailing vessel bound for
Cleveland, and was some seven days on the way, the vessel being impeded by a storm. From Cleveland he footed it to Akron, Ohio, where he found employment for some six months as clerk in a store of the contractors on the Ohio canal. This was in 1825. For something over a year sub- sequent he worked for his brother-in-law, William Lake, at Newburg, near Cleveland, in the manufacture of fanning- mills. From 1828 to 1832 he was connected with the engi- neering corps on the Ohio canal, being for a part of the time assistant engineer. He was also subsequently engaged in contracting on the Cincinnati and Harrison turnpike. On November 14th, 1832, he married Susan Waller, daughter of Dr. Thomas Waller, whose biography will be found in this work. He then purchased an interest in the Clinton furnace, Scioto county, and had the management of it until the spring of 1834, when he was compelled to sell out and pay a large sum of money as an indorsement for Jacob Clingman, cashier of the old Commercial Bank of Scioto. This misfortune left him worse off than nothing. For several years following he was employed in contracting on the public works of Ohio and Indiana. In the fall of 1837 he embarked in the whole- sale boot and shoe business in Portsmouth, and so continued for some four years. For the two subsequent years he was engaged in freighting products to New Orleans, and for two years later in farming in the vicinity of Portsmouth, and still later in the milling business. In 1853, in connection with others, he built the Madison furnace, in Jackson county, Ohio, and had the general management and supervision of it until 1864. In 1866 he purchased the Buckeye furnace, in the same county, conducted it two years, and then sold it. He was subsequently interested in a firm in Pettis county, Mis- souri, and also superintended the building of a furnace in Washington county, in the same State. Since 1874 he has been variously engaged in business in Portsmouth; was for a while president of the First National Bank, and is still a stock- holder. He was a director in the Portsmouth Iron and Steel Works until June Ist, 1881, when he became president and general superintendent; and he is also interested in a large tract of wood land near Portsmouth, working up the timber into lumber. For several years he was a member of the city council and board of education. He has always manifested a large degree of public spirit, and has been prominently active in advancing the interests of his adopted city. Politically, Mr. Terry is a staunch, uncompromising republican. He has been very successful in his business, and has always main- tained first-class credit. He is a fine specimen of a self-made man, and, as his record shows, worked his own way from a poor, fatherless boy to a leading position among the business characters of his community. Retiring in manners, strictly honorable and conscientious in all his dealings, he is greatly respected in the community for his sterling qualities, both as a man and a citizen. During our late civil war Mr. Terry was a member of the military committee for the 11th district of the State, being appointed by Governor Dennison. In the discharge of the duties of this office he was independent, conscientious, and true to the interests of his country. Mr. Terry had four sons and two daughters. Charles Terry is superintending the wood-land interests. Louis Terry left Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, entered Company A, 33d Ohio Regiment, as private, and was subsequently commissioned second lieutenant by Governor Brough, a position he refused to accept. He accompanied Sherman in his famous march to the sea, and served with honor through the war. George Terry
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was a member of the Union Light Guards, whose duty was to act as body-guard for President Lincoln. He was subse- quently detailed as an orderly on the staff of General Augur, in the department at Washington. Thomas Waller Terry served through the three months' service, and was appointed a cadet at West Point ; but left that institution in the second year, was placed on the staff of General S. S. Fry, and died of typhoid fever at Point Burnside, Kentucky, March 4th, 1864. He was a brave and gallant soldier, and a true patriot. It will thus be seen that Mr. Terry gave three sons to the cause of the Union, one of whom laid down his life for his country, all three of the boys entering the army while yet under age. The daughters, Mary I. and Alice B. Terry, reside at home.
BLANDY, FREDERICK JOHN LEONARD, manu- facturer and inventor, Zanesville, is a native of Bristol, England, having been born in that place in May, 1820. His parents were Benjamin and Jane (Addison) Blandy. His mother was related to the poet of that name, and was also an aunt of Hopkins, the distinguished painter. Another nephew of this lady was a page to Princess Charlotte. The commence- ment of the recorded history of the Blandy family dates with the landing of William the Conqueror. The family acquired high consideration in England. Frederick Blandy gained his early education in Goldsten's and Hewlet's academies, and for two years pursued his studies under the auspices of Professor John Lewton. In 1832 Benjamin Blandy came to the United States with a view of finding a new home for his family in America. Among the points visited was Zanesville, then containing a population of thirty-eight hundred, and giving promise of great future development. The natural advantages surrounding this place pointed it out as a great manufacturing point in the future. Returning to England,
he, with his family, set sail to the United States, landing in New York City in the fall of 1833. Cholera was then raging in some portions of the country, and, as he was solic- itous for the safety of his family, he deferred carrying out his plan of settling in Zanesville until spring, passing the winter in Orange, New Jersey. Arriving at Dresden, Muskingum county, Mr. Blandy and his. family pursued the remainder of their journey on a small steam packet which plied between that place and Zanesville. Notwithstanding some substan- tial progress had already been made at that day in steam navigation on our Western rivers, the contrast with the pres- ent time is very marked; and the subject of this sketch re- calls to mind with vividness the difficulties attending his trip to Zanesville. In many places the river was too shallow to be navigated. Horses would then be landed and attached to the boat, and they would drag it bodily until water was reached deep enough to float the craft. In 1835 Mr. Henry Blandy, Frederick's elder brother, formed a business associ- ation with parties under the firm name of Dillon, Blandy & Co., and started a forge and furnace for the manufacture of iron from the ore, at Licking Falls, four miles from Zanesville. A large store-room, stocked with groceries, dry goods, etc., for the supply of the hands employed at the furnace, was placed in charge of Frederick, who was then only fourteen years old. It may be fairly presumed that a boy at that age must be thought to have considerable executive ability to fill a position so responsible, the onerous character of which was further enhanced by his surroundings. The county was in a rude and uncultivated state, and the loneliness of his situa-
tion was very trying to one so young. Alive to possible dangers, he slept at night on the counter, with a revolver under his head, ready to defend his trust in case of emergency. At the end of eighteen months, the enterprise proving unre- munerative, the business was closed up and the partnership dissolved. The store department, under Frederick's charge, had made over six thousand dollars ; but he received noth- ing but his board for his labor, although he had rendered valuable service, and endured many privations and hard- ships, including a year's experience with the prevailing dis- ease of the country, fever and ague. Upon leaving, he en- gaged with a large manufacturing establishment in New York City as clerk and salesman. After a few months' trial the proprietor desired to employ him permanently at a very lib- eral salary; and at the end of two years he returned to Zanesville on a visit to his home, where he was prevailed upon to remain with his mother and sisters during an ab- sence of his father in Europe. His employer in New York offered a further increase of salary on learning of his inten- tion, but without avail, he feeling that he owed it to his father to forego the temptation-Mr. Blandy promising to establish him in business on his return from Europe, which he did in 1840. He built for him a large foundry, furnislied a small cap- ital, and loaned him some money, for which he was paid inter- est, Frederick having some money of his own, which he added to the common stock. His brother Henry was associated with him in 1847, under the firm style of H. & F. Blandy. At first, the business comprehended the manufacture of stoves, plows, hollow-ware, threshing-machines, castings, etc. They kept seven or eight teams constantly on the road, peddling their wares among the farmers, and frequently found it nec- essary to take horses in exchange for farming implements, etc. These horses were kept until a large drove was col- lected, when Frederick would drive them across the mount- ains on the common roads, occupying twenty-one days on the way to the city of New York. The foundry gradually increased in importance, so that in 1849 it took rank among the largest manufacturing establishments in Ohio, and began to exert a large influence in building up and extending Zanesville's business relations with the outside world. The miscellaneous character of their manufactures was discon- tinued, and their operations confined to the production of a few specialties. There was finally added a machine-shop, and H. & F. Blandy soon became widely known as a large con- tracting firm. The first two contracts of importance were for the iron work of Zanesville Water Works, and for the Zanes- ville Gas Works. In 1850 the Ohio Central Railroad-since merged into the Baltimore and Ohio-was built, and H. & F. Blandy turned their attention to locomotive building. They took contracts to build locomotives for this and other roads. Among the roads they helped equip were the Ohio Central, Mad River and Lake Erie, and Cincinnati, Wilmington and Zanesville, and Steubenville and Indiana. They built the first locomotive ever constructed in Ohio, and thus be- came the pioneers . in this branch of industry in this State. The subsequent failure of the Ohio Central and other roads they had been working for induced them to abandon the enterprise, after sustaining heavy losses by the failures. In one instance a failure left them with twelve large locomotives on their hands which had been contracted for. They were subsequently disposed of at a sacrifice. At about this period they built, for a firm at Ironton, Ohio, a rail-mill, with a ca- pacity of seventy tons of T-rails per day, and in connection
R. G. Pardond
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made several million bricks, erected twenty dwellings for the operatives, opened coal mines on an extensive scale, and when about ready to start the firm they represented failed, causing a great and embarrassing loss of means to H. & F. Blandy. In 1855 the locomotive works were changed into a manu- factory of portable steam-engines and sawmills, which they constructed on a new and improved plan, introducing inven- tions designed by Frederick. These inventions were so im- portant that their machines were the most excellent manu- factured, and it soon became necessary for the inventor to have recourse to the law courts for protection against in- fringements on patent-rights. A great deal of litigation grew out of some of these suits, and the highest legal talent in the State was employed on both sides. In every instance Mr. Blandy came out victorious. On the breaking out of the Rebellion the firm was doing a large business in the South, and had outstanding debts aggregating $150,000 scattered through all the Southern States. The whole was a dead loss to them; but their business continued to thrive, notwith- standing tlie great loss, and they executed large government contracts during the war. Their business increased to such an extent that in 1863 they found their works in Zanesville too circumscribed to turn out their machines fast enough; and they accordingly purchased the Newark Machine Works, at Newark, Ohio, which equaled in size and efficiency their Zanesville works; and in 1865 they built and sold over $1,250,000 worth of machinery. In these works they have built many powerful stationary engines for blast furnaces and mills of all kinds, up to five hundred horse-power. In 1866 the Zanesville works were entirely consumed by fire, involving a loss of $200,000. With characteristic promptness, Mr. Frederick Blandy set about clearing away the ruins with a large number of men, preparatory to the erection of new works on a much more extended scale. Mr. Henry Blandy was at that time in Europe. In less than four months the old site was occupied by one of the finest and best equipped machine works in the United States. Just prior to the ill- ness and death of his brother, they had entered into two very extensive contracts. One, the iron work for the Chicago cus- tom-house; the other, the Fullerton avenue conduit ma- chinery for pumping out the Illinois river in the city of Chi- cago. Mr. Frederick Blandy has completed both these contracts since his brother's death. He is now sole proprietor of the Blandy Steam-engine Works. He is a stockholder in various corporations, and is very active in his efforts to advance Zanesville's material interests, encouraging with means and influence every deserving public enterprise. He is president of the Zanesville Union Bank, the Ohio Furnace- coal Company, and of the McIntyre Building Association; is a director in the Brown Manufacturing Company, and largely interested in various coal companies, besides being an exten- sive land-holder and stock-breeder. He was married to Julia Johnson, a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and by this union has had issue of six children, four sons and two daugh- ters. The latter have exhibited wonderful talent in painting and drawing, and their work bears the impress of genius. A most melancholy event in his family history was the loss of his two sons, Frederick A. and Harry J., between whose deaths only five months intervened. Both were remarkably intellectual young men, graduates of Harvard, where they took their degrees with high honors. Severe mental appli- cation and undue neglect of physical health resulted in com- plete prostration, terminating with quick consumption. Fred-
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