USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume I > Part 42
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introduced to it in its most arduous form, digging up stumps. After two days spent at this, he said it was a "more laborious occupation than he had been accustomed to," and, declaring himself an artist, begged permission to paint the portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Ely. He was finally permitted to show his skill, and the result was two excellent profile likenesses of large cabinet size ; the artist soon after suddenly disappearing. A few days later the village was alarmed by the news of a threatened landing of the British at the mouth of the river, for the capture of some United States military stores, and to burn the village. In anticipation of such an attack, a force of fifty men had been stationed with an 18-pounder at the mouth of the river, seven miles distant. The militia and volunteers were hastily gathered in from every direction. At the village all was excitement. There were in the place only thirty-two men capable of bearing arms. One of these was held as a reserve, with a cart (and one cart was enough), to move out of danger the women and children. Another man was a Quaker. The remaining thirty elected Elisha Ely and Francis Brown as captains. They were armed with muskets that had been stored with Hervey Ely & Company. This formidable force, marching through the deep mud and rain, reached the mouth of the river at two o'clock in the morning, and at day- light Mr. Ely headed a volunteer party of observation. They went out in an old lighter, favored by a fog. The fog sud- denly clearing away, the little party found itself under the guns of the fleet, and in imminent danger of capture. A boat put out from the fleet in pursuit, and a few musket-shots were exchanged, but the lighter made good its retreat. Forty years after this incident, Mr. Ely met in Toronto a British officer on half-pay, who had lost an arm, and explained that it was due to his share in a miserable affair with the Yankees, in the last war, at the mouth of the Genesee river. The musket-shot from the lighter was at last heard from. At ten o'clock, on that morning a flag of truce was seen to be approaching from the fleet. Captains Brown and Ely were ordered to receive it, but on no account to allow it to enter the river or to disem- bark. They received the flag at the end of a fallen tree overhanging the water, pleading ignorance of military usage in not allowing it to land. The message from the fleet, Ad- miral Yeo in command, was a demand for the surrender of public property. The answer was that the public property was in the hands of those who would defend it. The mes- sengers returned. But at four o'clock in the afternoon another flag was sent on shore. Captain Ely was present when it was received in General Porter's tent, and, to his astonishment, lo! the portrait-painter and stump-digger. Mr. Ely was not a violent man, but only the sanctity of a flag of truce saved the British officer and artist spy from instant punishment. The flag bore back to the fleet another defiant and indig- nant reply; and with a change of wind it sailed away, to return no more. The work of the artist spy is now one of the greatest family treasures; for it gives to the children the only image of their mother's face as they looked up into it in childhood. With the return of peace came a rapid growth and settlement, and the Genesee soon became a world-famed wheat producing region, and Rochester the flour city. In this interest the Messrs. Elisha and Hervey Ely were very prom- inent, being its pioneers. In 1832, in consequence of exposure while caring for the sick during the great cholera visitation, Mrs. Elisha Ely died, and three years subsequently her daughter Caroline, aged nineteen, died also. The family then became scattered. Elisha Ely removed to Michigan, and
with his two eldest sons, Alexander and Elisha, founded the town of Allegan. There Elisha Ely died in 1856, full of years and honors, having been senator, judge, and regent of the State University. Alexander Ely was foremost in the settlement of Linn county, Iowa, in 1845, and of Cedar Rapids, its capital, and closed his active and useful life there in 1848. Elisha Ely, another brother, returned to Rochester and engaged in the milling business; he died in 1849. At the time of the death of his mother in 1832, and consequent scattering of the family, George H. was only seven years of age, and, whilst his two elder brothers with their father moved into Michigan, he was sent to Massachusetts, under the care of an uncle, Major John Lyman, of Southampton, Massachusetts. With this uncle he remained for many years, attending school, and devoting himself in the latter period to classical study, with a view of preparing himself for college. At the age of eighteen he went to Allegan to visit his father and brothers, remaining there for eighteen months, assisting the others in their business, and at the same time continuing his studies, in furtherance of which, for the sake of greater advantages, he then returned to Rochester, and entered upon a systematic preparation for college under Professor Chester Dewey, of the Rochester high-school. After four years of this active and thorough preparation, he in 1846 entered Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts, as a sophomore, being graduated as B. A. in 1848. Three years later he was called upon to return and deliver the master's oration, with which request he complied, receiving the degree of master of arts. Immediately on graduating and leaving col- lege, in 1848, he left for the West, remaining for three days at Rochester on his way. He proceeded to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to take charge of the business and estate of his brother Alexan- der, who had just died, leaving a large flouring-mill and an ex- tensive landed property. Six months later he was joined by his brother, John F., who has resided there ever since. Here he re- mained nearly two years, when, on account of the climate being injurious to his health, he returned to Rochester, where his brother, Samuel P. Ely, was then engaged in the flour-man- ufacturing business, having a large mill, with eleven pairs (or run) of stones. He then embarked in the same business, purchasing the Granite Mills, the next largest in the town, with ten run of stones, for which he paid $30,000. In this he re- mained for seven years, manufacturing annually from seventy thousand to a hundred thousand barrels of flour. During this period, in 1852, he was married to Hannah, daughter of Judge Henry Welles, of the supreme court of the State, residing at Penn Yan, Yates county. Mrs. Ely died in 1854, and subse- quently an infant daughter, six months old, followed her. While engaged in the milling business at Rochester, his con- nection with the iron-ore business on Lake Superior com- menced with Samuel P. Ely and his oldest brother, Heman B. Ely. Heman B. Ely, educated at Hamilton College, and by profession a lawyer, had built the first telegraph line west from Buffalo, about 1847, and had become a resident of Cleveland. He organized and promoted the Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula Railroad, of which he was the first president, the first link in the line of the Lake Shore Rail- road, from Buffalo to Chicago. In 1850 Heman B. Ely, with his younger brothers, Samuel P. and George H., gave impetus to the development of the Lake Superior iron region by the construction of a railroad from the mineral range to Mar- quette. Under these labors the health of Heman B. Ely be- came impaired, and he died in the midst of his unfinished
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work and plans, at Marquette, in 1856. The first visit of George H. to the Lake Superior region was made in 1855, immediately after the opening of the new lock and canal at the Sault Ste. Marie. The three Elys commenced the con- struction of the Iron Mountain Railroad, to connect the mines of that region with the harbor of Marquette, under a contract with the Cleveland Iron Mining Company and Jackson Iron Company to convey the ore from the mines for twenty years. They landed their first rails and locomotive for this purpose in 1855. At this time they had also jointly acquired large tracts of valuable iron lands in that region. On the decease of Heman B. Ely, the two younger brothers sold out their rail- road interest to the Chicago, St. Paul, and Fond du Lac Rail- road Company, represented by William B. Ogden, of Chicago. This company subsequently failed, and the railroad properties reverted into the hands of the Elys. Other parties then came in and subscribed more capital, and the company became reorganized, completing the road to the mines in 1858, under the title of the Marquette, Houghton and Ontonagon Railroad Company. John F. Ely, of Iowa, has been identified with and prominent in the construction and management of sev- eral leading lines in the railroad system of Iowa. Samuel P. Ely took up his residence in Marquette in 1858, where he still resides. He was for many years in charge of the railroad, and also of several mines and furnaces. Hon. Lewis H. Mor- gan, of Rochester, who was intimately connected with the Elys as their friend and counselor in all their business enter- prises and undertakings, died in January, 1882. A lawyer by profession, he was distinguished for his scientific attainments, and many of his works have been published by the Smith- sonian Institute. The opening up and development of the Lake Superior iron-ore trade, from that time on, resulted in George H. Ely coming to Cleveland to reside in June, 1863, and forming a partnership with H. B. Tuttle, of Cleveland, for the sale of iron ore and pig iron. This firm continued until the death of Mr. Tuttle, in 1878. Since that event Mr. Ely has associated with himself as a partner Mr. Theodore Sim- mons. For a year previous to Mr. Ely's coming to Cleveland he was engaged in Philadelphia, in shipping coal for the supply of the navy during the war. From that time on Mr. Ely was prominent in the iron-ore trade of Cleveland and in the development of the immense mining interest in the Supe- rior region. The beneficial results to the city of Cleveland in particular, and to the country at large, of the opening up of the Superior iron region, of which the Elys were among the pioneers, have been of great magnitude.' Cleveland is now one of the largest, if not the largest, manufacturing city of the various products of iron in the country, one mill employing six thousand men, besides a large number of lesser ones, all of great and important dimensions. Mr. Ely was married a second time, at Philadelphia, in 1856, to Amelia, daughter of Joseph Ripka, Esq., an extensive cotton manufacturer of that city. They have had five children, only one of whom, at present writing (1882), is living. In 1877 they lost a beautiful daughter, Laura, thirteen years of age; and in May, 1880, their only son, Montague Ripka, died at Princeton College, of malarial fever, contracted through the defective drainage of the college. He was one of eleven students who died there during that summer from the same cause. A young man of great promise, admired and beloved, his early death after an illness of only a few days caused universal mourning in college and intense anguish to his bereaved parents, who had hastened to him, and reached his bedside only a few hours
before he expired. In 1869 Mr. and Mrs. Ely made a trip of between four and five months to Europe, visiting England and the Continent. In the following year Mr. Ely, with his wife and son, made a tour to Colorado, Utah, and the Pacific coast. The next year, also, to Florida. These travels re- established his health, which has remained good ever since. In 1877 he was appointed by the mayor as one of the three representatives from Cleveland to attend the national rail- road convention, at St. Louis, to promote the construction of the Texas and Pacific Railroad across the continent. Two years later, in December, 1879, he was a delegate from the Cleveland Board of Trade to the Lake Improvement Con- vention held at St. Paul, of which he was chosen president. This convention commissioned him to go to Washington to advocate and secure the immediate entering upon the improvement and enlargement of the St. Mary's river by the government, and the immediate completion of the lock and canal. In this service he was entirely successful, and obtained an appropriation from the government of $100,000 for expen- diture on these works the following season. The following winter, in this same connection, he again went to Washing- ton, for the purpose of securing a rapid continuance of the work already undertaken. In November, 1879, he was chair- man of a committee of the Cleveland Board of Trade sent to Detroit to opposé, before a commission of government engineers sitting for the purpose of obtaining testimony, the bridging of the Detroit river; that project being then before Congress. This scheme had almost become suc- cessful, and while it might have been a questionable advan- tage to the railroads, it would have most seriously interfered with and crippled the shipping interests, the proposition hav- ing been to build a low bridge, with draws. The following February he was requested by the Board of Trade to proceed to Washington, and oppose the bridge scheme before the committees on commerce of the House and Senate. There, in a most able manner, he clearly demonstrated the evils that would arise from a bridge, the impracticability of the scheme, and the gross injustice to the marine interests, the result being a second defeat of the bridging project. He has, in conse- quence of his information and activity pertaining to the navigation of the great lakes, become regarded as an espe- cial guardian of that interest. In July, 1878, he delivered an address at the Ely reunion at Lyme, Connecticut, at which five hundred and forty-seven members of the Ely family were present; and in August, 1879, one of a more formal character, at the opening of the new building of the Board of Trade, at Cleveland. During our last presidential campaign he was president of the business men's club, and made several speeches, the press giving wide circulation to his efforts. In politics a republican, he has ever been zealous in promoting the interests and principles of his party. Mr. Ely has been an elder and trustee in the First Presbyterian Church for seventeen years; and was commissioned by the Cleveland presbytery to four of its General Assemblies, held respectively at Rochester, St. Louis, Pittsburg, and Saratoga. He is a trustee of the City Hospital, Floating Bethel, and Adelbert College of the Western Reserve University. He is president of the Humane Society, a member of the council of the "Society for Organizing Charity," manager of the Cleveland Bible Society, manager of the Industrial Home, vice-president of the Board of Trade, and director of the Brush Electric Light and Power Company. He also took a prominent part in promoting the construction of the St.
Mileyget
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Louis, Hannibal, and Keokuk Railroad, of Missouri, and the Texas Trunk Railroad, of Texas, in both of which he is a director, and of the latter the treasurer. He is also inter- ested in silver mining in Utah and Arizona. His office is in the National Bank Building, and his residence 699 Euclid Avenue.
LEGGETT, GENERAL MORTIMER D., of Cleve- land, the son of Isaac and Mary (Strong) Leggett, was born at Ithaca, New York, April 19th, 1821. His father was a farmer, who removed in 1836 with his family to Montville, Geauga county, Ohio. The boy assisted his father on the farm, spend- ing his leisure time in study, under the instruction of his parents and elder sister, until arriving at the age of eighteen, when he attended the Teachers' Seminary at Kirtland, where he remained until he graduated, at the head of his class, and himself became a teacher. Having chosen the law for his profession, he gave it his earnest study, in due course passing his examination and being admitted to the bar in 1844 (although he did not commence its active practice until six years later, when he had become a resident of Warren). After his admission to the bar, he became deeply interested in the subject of common schools, and labored arduously with Doctor A. D. Lord, Loran Andrews, and M. F. Cowdry, Esq., for the establishment of our present system of public instruc- tion. These three gentlemen and himself stumped the whole State, at their own expense, in favor of free schools and edu- cation. Harvey Rice, of Cleveland, and Judge Wooster, of Norwalk, were both at the time in the legislature, and were ardent friends to the same cause. By their united efforts a special school law for the village of Akron was passed in 1846. In the spring of 1845, after a due course of training, he graduated at the Willoughby Medical College, and in the fall of 1846 went to Akron, and organized the first system of free graded schools ever instituted west of the Allegheny mountains, under what was known as the Akron School Law. There he remained two years, then removing to War- ren, Trumbull county, and organizing there the same system. In 1850 he commenced the practice of law in the latter place, in which he became so eminent that in 1856 and 1857 he was professor of Pleading and Practice in the Ohio Law College. Late in 1857 he removed to Zanesville, where he continued his law practice, and in addition had general su- pervision of the public schools. On the outbreak of the war, in 1861, being a personal friend of General McClellan, he ac- companied him to West Virginia. In the latter part of 1861 he was commissioned by Governor Dennison to raise and organize the 78th regiment of infantry, which was speedily done. He himself enlisted as a private-the first enlistment of the regi- ment. He enlisted and organized the regiment of 1040 men within forty days, during which period he was private, second lieutenant, first lieutenant, captain, major, lieutenant-colonel, and colonel. With his regiment he joined General Grant at Fort Donelson, during its siege, where he did excellent service. The discipline and conduct of himself and regiment there won much favor with General Grant, and a personal intimacy sprung up between them which has ever since continued. Colonel Leggett being the youngest colonel in command at Fort Donelson, General Grant attached him to his staff, in order to enable him to use General Grant's name in issuing orders, and thereby take a larger command than his regi- ment. He was in the battle of Shiloh, where he received his first wound, but did not leave the field. On the 16th of May,
1862, while in command in the advance on Corinth, he had one horse killed under him and another wounded, he himself es- caping uninjured. For his conduct in that engagement he was commissioned a brigadier. He had command at Middleburg, Tennessee, on August 31st, 1862, where, with five hundred men, by a ruse, he defeated Van Dorn, who had four thousand troops with him, receiving for this "honorable mention" by General Grant, and a special letter of thanks from the Secre- tary of War. He was in the battle known as "Hell on the Hatchie " and the battle of Iuka, in the latter part of 1862, and was in all the movements against Vicksburg in the spring and summer of 1863, including the running of the blockade, the battles of Port Gibson, Raymond, Jackson, Champion Hills (here he received a severe flesh wound in the thigh), Big Black, and the siege of Vicksburg. Up to this point he had commanded the second brigade of the third division of the 17th army corps. But the second brigade being by "turn " in reserve, he was transferred to the command of the first brigade of the same division, which held the only position where there was. reasonable hope of breaking the rebel line of works by assault. The rebels had erected a heavy fort to protect this exposed position. . Under it, however, we drove a sap, and on the afternoon of July Ist, two thousand and seven hundred pounds of powder were exploded directly under the fort, utterly de- molishing it. General Leggett, at the head of a body of picked men, which had been held in readiness, rushed into the crater this explosion had made before the rebels had recovered from their surprise ; and after a fierce and bloody contest, lasting twenty-three hours, was left in peaceable pos- session, though severely wounded in the right side, left shoul- der, and elsewhere. This was on the evening of the 2d of July. On the following morning negotiations for the surrender of Vicksburg commenced. As the first brigade broke the enemy's line, it was assigned the honor of being first to march into Vicksburg, receive the surrender, and raise its flags. The general was helped to mount his horse and rode in at the head of his brigade. Partially recovering from his wounds, he was promoted to the command of the third division, 17th army corps, and placed in command of the post, being breveted major-general. He commanded in the expedition to Monroeville, Louisiana, and also one up the Yazoo river. Early in 1864 he commanded his division in Sherman's raid to Meridian. He entered the Atlanta campaign as com- mander of the 17th army corps in the spring of 1864, in the temporary absence of General F. P. Blair, and he par- ticipated in all the battles of that campaign, receiving high commendation from General Sherman. He captured the mountain to the left of the Kenesaw, during a terrible thunder storm, the thunder absolutely drowning the din of battle. The main army had not discovered his advance until the storm broke away, when his command on the crest of the mountain was mistaken for the enemy, and a brisk cannon- ading was opened upon him and continued until an aid-de- camp could be sent back to notify the attacking body of the mistake. In the evening of July 20th, 1864, he received in- structions from General McPherson to order his troops, if possible, so as to capture a hill overlooking Atlanta. This hill was strongly fortified, and held by a large force. At sunrise on the morning of the 21st he advanced, and after a short but desperate struggle took the hill, and captured pris- oners nearly equal in number to those of his own troops engaged. The great battle of the 22d of July, one of the fiercest contests of the whole war, was brought on by the
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Confederates to recover possession of this hill. The battle raged with hardly a moment's cessation from half-past eleven A. M. till eight P. M .; but he held the hill against fearful odds, with a great loss of life on both sides. Almost at the commencement of the battle, McPherson was killed in try- ing to get to him. General M. F. Force, who commanded his first brigade, was severely wounded, and taken from the field ; and General T. K. Scott, who commanded his second brigade, had his horse shot under him, and, becoming entan- gled under his horse, was captured by the enemy. For his conduct here his promotion as major-general was recom- mended by General Sherman, which rank was afterward given him. In Sherman's report the hill was named "Leggett's Bald Knob," and is still generally known as Leg- gett's Hill. He was with Sherman in his memorable march to the sea. His last engagement was at Pocataligo, South Carolina, where he had a running fight of twenty miles, and captured a large fort at Pocataligo, in January, 1865, thereby releasing the Union forces from Savannah, and opening the way through the Carolinas. At the grand review of the ar- mies at Washington, after the close of the war, no general officer was more warmly and cordially received in the Pres- ident's pavilion than was General Leggett, or congratulated with greater warmth and heartiness by the President and Secretary of War. He was on that day recognized as one of the heroes of our land. The war being ended by the overthrow of the rebellion, he returned to his business at Zanesville. When Grant became President he was at once offered very desirable positions, but at first declined entering political life in any form. The President once heard him re- mark that he knew of but one position he would be willing to accept if offered, that of commissioner of patents, it being less partisan than almost any other. That position very soon after became vacant, and was immediately tendered to him, and accepted early in 1871. He held that office four years, then resigning, and removing directly to Cleveland, where he established himself in the law, more particularly the law as pertaining to patents, for which his tastes and four years as commissioner of patents at Washington so eminently qualified him. In this branch of the profession he has been most ex -. tensively employed ever since in court practice, and in litigat- ing patents, in the United States courts throughout the entire country east of the Rocky Mountains. To some extent, also, he attends to the securing of patents. Soon after his arrival in Cleveland he was one to help organize the Telegraph Supply Company, a very important company, now known as the Brush Electric Company, of which he is president. This company is doing an enormous business, which has proved highly profitable to the shareholders. They have ex- clusive control of their many valuable patents, and supply the entire country with their products. The works cover five acres of ground, employ six hundred men, and turn out and ship seven thousand dollars worth of machinery daily. The business manager of this company, to whose high ability great credit is due, is Mr. George W. Stockley. He is also pres- ident of the Cummer Engine Company, a new company, formed in December, 1881, for the building of steam engines under the patent of F. D. Cummer. These engines are adapted to all purposes, but very especially where steady, regular power is needed, such as for producing the electric light, etc. A large number of these engines had already been made by Christie & De Graff, of Detroit, and proved a great success, when Mr. Cummer sold the entire rights and patent .
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