USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume I > Part 43
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to the new Cleveland company. They are now erecting new buildings on the Lake Shore road, where they will have large capacity. He is also vice-president of the Cowings Steel Casting Company. This is another very important company, lately organized (of which Judge S. Burke is the president) for the making of steel castings under the Cowing process, the advantages of this being the fact that they are able to make these castings in a finished state, without impairing the virtue and quality of the steel. This process is new, and a most valuable one. The company have acquired from Mr. Cowing all the rights and patents pertaining to his invention. He is also as a stockholder interested in several other manu- facturing concerns. He has been a member of the board of education for two years. In educational matters he still con- tinues to take great and active interest, and is recognized as a leader of the educational board, ever seeking the better education of the children and improvement of their comfort and physical condition in the matter of the school rooms and buildings. In politics the general is a republican. The gen- eral was married July 9th, 1844, to Marilla, daughter of Ab- salom Wells, Esq., of Montville Center, Ohio, who died in the autumn of 1876, deeply mourned by her husband and family. She was a woman remarkable for her intelligence, graceful manners, even temper, cheerful disposition, and great benevolence. Her house was always open, and all who knew her loved her. They had one daughter and four sons. The two elder are engaged in the practice of law, one, L. L., with his father at Cleveland, and the other, W. W., at Detroit, in the same special law business as his father. Their young- est son died in infancy. Their son Mortimer died at Cornell University in the fall of 1873. He was graduated at Colum- bia Law College, and was admitted to the bar before he was seventeen. Their daughter is married to H. A. Seymour, Esq., of Connecticut, who is settled in Washington, District of Co- lumbia, in the practice of law. General Leggett was married a second time, in 1879, to Weltha, daughter of H. C. Post, Esq., of Sandusky, an extensive business man, largely inter- ested in fish culture, and one of the State commissioners on this subject. He is an attendant of the Presbyterian Church, to which his wife and family all belong. General Leggett was the third in a family of eleven children, his father dying in 1878, at the ripe old age of ninety. His mother, now' eighty-five, is still living, hale and hearty, strong in mind and body, a great reader and remarkably intelligent woman; and she has never failed to write to her son a letter every week since he left home as a boy. And with what tenderness the general, now over sixty years of age himself, speaks of that dear mother! As he says, those letters from her make him feel young, for he is still her boy. To the care and training of that mother and that father he owes largely his success in life. They taught him, when young, the great principles of life -- self-restraint, self-respect, and moral courage; and also gave him much of his scholastic education. Inheriting from his parents, as he did, a strong, pure, healthful physical organization, as well as mental, he has always been able to rise to the top, or to come to the front, in whatever he has undertaken. In the army, he rose from the ranks to a major- generalship; he was in as many battles as any officer in the war, and never once suffered defeat when in command. With a clear, strong mind, indomitable courage and energy, agreeable in manner, true to his convictions of the right, he makes life-long friends. When it comes his time to pass away one of the landmarks of our State will be gone.
Ment truly
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HANDY, TRUMAN P., was born in Paris, Oneida county, New York, January 17th, 1807. Having received a thorough training in the English branches of education, at the age of eighteen he accepted a clerkship in the Bank of Geneva, at Geneva, in that State. Five years later he re- moved to Buffalo, to assist in organizing the Bank of Buffalo, in which he held the position of teller for one year. In 1832 he came to Cleveland, and accepted the position of cashier of the reorganized Commercial Bank of Lake Erie, whose charter, obtained in 1816, had recently been purchased by the eminent historian, George Bancroft. This institution was very prosperous under his careful management till the expi- ration of its charter in 1842, a renewal of which was re- fused by the legislature. In the financial crash of 1837 it had been compelled to accept, in payment of the obligations of its customers, a large amount of real estate, so that it be- came one of the largest landholders in the city. In closing up the affairs of the bank, Mr. Handy was appointed trustee to divide this property among its stockholders. This task was completed, to the entire satisfaction of all, in 1845. In the mean time, in 1843, he organized a private banking house under the firm name of T. P. Handy & Co., whose business was prudently conducted and quite profitable. Upon the establishment of the State Bank of Ohio, in 1845, Mr. Handy organized the Commercial Branch Bank. He was by far the largest stockholder; and during the entire period of his connection with it was its chief executive officer, being its cashier at the outset, and later its president. Its affairs were so ably administered that, during the entire period of twenty years through which its charter extended, it paid upon an aver- age more than twenty per cent upon its capital stock. The Commercial National Bank succeeded to its business in 1865. The failure of the Ohio Life and Trust Company, in 1857, precipitated the remarkable financial crisis of that year, and seriously involved the Merchants' Branch Bank, which up to that time had never been very prosperous.' With diminished resources and impaired credit, it struggled to regain its lost ground till January, 1862, when Mr. Handy accepted its pres- idency, and assumed control of the bank. In a very brief space of time the results of his management were apparent. A large amount of new and profitable business was attracted to it; old losses were soon made good; and in little more than a year it was placed upon a solid, dividend-paying basis, so that upon the expiration of its charter, in 1865, it was one of the strongest and most prosperous banks in the State. The Merchants' National Bank was organized in February, 1865, with Mr. Handy as its president, which position he still retains. From the first it has occupied a position among the foremost of the national banks. It has been a United States depositary from its organization, and has rendered the gov- ernment efficient aid in negotiating all its loans. Its manage- ment has been characterized by the exercise of prudence and caution. It has been uniformly enterprising and conserva- tive, steadily maintaining a strong reserve, while at all times affording its dealers all the accommodation proper to be ex- tended. In the conduct of its business it has been extremely liberal ; and thus it has attracted to itself the very best class of customers to be found in any community, all of whom are its personal friends. It has paid regular dividends, av- eraging nearly ten per cent per annum, and at the same time has accumulated a surplus of more than thirty per cent of its capital. It is not too much to say that, while Mr. Handy. has at all times had associated with him able men as direc-
tors, the principal credit for this great success belongs to him alone. While as a business man Mr. Handy will always be known as a banker, he has also been largely identified with railroad, mining, and manufacturing enterprises. He was among the earliest and most efficient friends of the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad. He was its treasurer and principal financial officer from its organization till 1860, when he resigned; and since that time he has been a director and a member of the executive committee. He was also a director in the Bellefontaine Railway till its con- solidation with the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, and In- dianapolis Railway. He has also for many years been a large stockholder and director in the Cleveland Iron Mining Com- pany, and a large stockholder in the Cleveland Rolling-mill Company and several other manufacturing corporations. As a citizen, Mr. Handy has always been warmly interested in the policy of protecting our domestic industries against foreign competition, and of establishing just relations between labor and capital; but at the same time he has uniformly declined to accept any political preferment. In the war for the Union he was a steadfast supporter of the policy of President Lincoln, and contributed largely both of his time and means in caring for the sick and disabled soldiers at the front and in the hospitals. He was treasurer of the Cleveland branch of the Sanitary Commission from its organization. In edu- cational and charitable institutions he has always been deeply interested. For ten years he was a member of the board of education, where he rendered most efficient service, in con- junction with the late Charles Bradburn, George Willey, and others, in organizing the present system of graded schools, and establishing upon a secure foundation the Central High- school. He has been for many years a trustee of Western Reserve College, and one of its most generous patrons. He is also a trustee and a liberal benefactor of Lane Theolog- ical Seminary. He was one of the founders of the Cleveland Industrial School, and has been president of its board of trustees from the first. He is also president of the homœo- pathic hospital; and very largely through his efforts was the present elegant and commodious building erected. Mr. Handy has been a devoted member of the Presbyterian Church from his boyhood, and for nearly fifty years an elder of the church. He has been a member of the Second (Rev. Dr. Pomeroy's) Church since its organization. He has been an active worker in the Sunday-school, either as teacher or superintendent, for almost sixty years. He has now a large class of young la- dies, who value him as a faithful instructor and a wise coun- selor and friend. For many years he was a corporate mem- ber of the American Board. This position he resigned at the reunion of the Old and New School branches of the Presby- terian Church. He was an earnest advocate of that measure, and was a member of the joint committee which framed the articles of reunion. He has very often represented his pres- bytery in the general assembly, and is widely known through- out the denomination. Mr. Handy was married in March, 1832, to Miss Harriet N. Hall, of Geneva, New York. There were born to them two children : a son, who died in infancy ; and a daughter, who married Hon. John S. Newberry, of De- troit, Michigan. Mrs. Handy died July 5th, 1880. The fore- going is but a very meager outline of Mr. Handy's long and useful life. He is still actively engaged in business, and is to be found at his office as regularly as half a century ago. He is in quite vigorous health, with form erect, step elastic, and eye undimmed. He possesses rare benignity of manner, and
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a generous sympathy for the young. Positive in his own convictions, he is charitable towards the opinions of others ; and no man in the State is more widely known or more uni- versally respected as a broad-minded Christian philanthro- pist. His successful business career attests the soundness of his judgment. With firmness and decision he combines un- varying courtesy ; and he is one of the few men who can say no without giving offense. Surrounded with every comfort that wealth can furnish, and with a whole city full of friends, he is just entering upon life's evening, and with assured hope waits for the morning.
BOOKWALTER, JOHN WESLEY, a very extensive manufacturer of Springfield, and lately the candidate of the Democratic party for the office of Governor of Ohio, is the son of David Bookwalter, who was born in Berks County, Pennsylvania, in 1808, and Susan Vangrundy, his wife, who was born near Chillicothe, Ohio, in 1812. They were united in 1830, removing the same year to a farm near Rob Roy, Fountain County, Indiana, to battle with the heavy forest in clearing and cultivating a farm. Here were born their chil- dren, five in number, all of whom are still living, John W. being the second. The others are Francis Marion, William Henry Harrison, Melinda Jane, and Melissa Jane. The fa- ther died in 1859, but the mother is still living, having re- moved to Springfield, Ohio, and is in the enjoyment of her mental and physical powers to a high degree for a lady of her age. John W. Bookwalter first saw the light of day on the farm, and as he grew older became accomplished in its many duties. In Winter he attended the district school, and in Summer was employed around the place at any duties that might be required of him, and part of the time in at- tending his father's saw-mill. He surmounted successfully all the difficulties which lie in the road of a poor boy, and rose from one success to another by his own exertions. He had poverty to contend against, and lacked even the ordinary opportunities of the American poor boy. No one could en- courage him, but, on the contrary, he was faced at every step of his progress by the most disheartening discourage- ments. But his industry was only made the greater. He laid the foundations of his excellent scientific knowledge, as well as that of history and literature, during the odd inter- vals when he was not at work and could seclude himself. Then he began that course of mechanical experimenting which has borne since such excellent fruit, and systematically read all books within his reach. Naturally endowed with a fine and vigorous intellect, he is emphatically a self-educated and self-made man. His reputation became noised abroad through the country, and James Leffel, of Springfield, him- self well known as an inventor and manufacturer of celeb- rity, hearing of him, went to make him a visit. This was in 1863. The result of this acquaintance was that Mr. Leffel, in 1865, invited Mr. Bookwalter to Springfield, to . take charge of his extensive shops. The offer was accepted, and the business soon saw the advantage of the accession. In these shops were manufactured the Leffel water-wheel and mill machinery. Mr. Bookwalter speedily invented new devices and new methods of performing old problems, thus improving the machines already invented, and among other things evolved the Bookwalter engine. The establishment has met with continuous success, and was never more pros- perous than at the present time, as the shipments made to every State in the Union most fully attest. The buildings in
which the works of this establishment are carried on cover several acres. He has not limited himself to his machine works and his inventions, but several years ago founded the Scientific News, a scientific and mechanical journal, in which he might give further and wider utterance to his views upon important subjects. It was begun in Springfield, but he had always originally intended to publish it in New York, the center of the publishing business in this country, and has since carried out this intention. He outlines its manage- ment, and is a regular contributor to its columns. It is one of the leading journals of its class in America. In many respects he is a very remarkable man. Hardly yet advanced to that period popularly denominated the prime of life, he has carried forward several vast projects to a successful and brilliant consummation, and at an age when most men are just learning how to do business successfully, is able to re- tire upon his ample fortune, himself its architect and builder. He belongs to that comparatively small class of men whose range of possibilities appears to be boundless, and whose energies may be turned from one channel into another with- out tiring or impairing their force. Notwithstanding the many grave and great responsibilities which have rested upon him in a business way, he has found time to turn aside from the cares and perplexities which always attend large projects, to gratify his taste in the fields of science, literature, and his- tory. He is the author of many papers on mechanical and scientific subjects, whose value and authority are undisputed, and has written an excellent book of travels. He has not only traveled extensively over the United States, but has also visited Europe and the West Indies several times, and the Sandwich Islands once. Each of these show clearly his inquiring, fruitful, and well-stored mind. He has always re- tained his love of farming, and as soon as circumstances made it possible, began purchasing land. He now owns many thousand acres in Ohio, Illinois, and Nebraska, all well stocked and attended to. He has on his farm in Nebraska all the modern improvements, keeping fifteen thousand graded merino sheep. He is one of the largest farmers in the United States. He has always been known as a liberal employer, and as a citizen he has given his adopted city, in the way of business and public buildings, the most ample proof of his public spirit. He has no partner, and manages, direots, controls, and outlines the policy of all his business, and sees that it is carried out. He voted with the Repub- lican party long enough to get dissatisfied with a great many of its men and measures, and having become alarmed at the manifest tendency of that party to sectionalism and centralization, he left it, and joined the Democrats in the Greeley campaign. He has since then co-operated and voted with them. In 1881, although he had never been active in politics, his neighbors in Springfield, knowing his ability and sterling integrity, announced his name as a candidate for Governor of Ohio. The idea of taking a manufacturer and financier directly from the workshop was so well received that on the day of the Democratic convention he was nom- inated without strong opposition. He aimed to unify the Democratic press of Ohio, and so conducted the campaign that he won encomiums from the opposition press. The contest was a peculiar one. Garfield was lying on his death- bed, and his condition so quieted for the moment all dis- sensions among the Republicans that they came to the polls in their full numbers, so that although Mr. Bookwalter re- ceived one of the largest Democratic votes ever cast in Ohio,
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and more votes than any Democrat that ever was elected, he was defeated by a largely reduced Republican majority. Reared by his parents in the Methodist Church, his thorough and searching investigation of the Bible in after years leads him into more liberal views. He was married, in 1865, to Miss Eliza Leffel, daughter of Mr. James Leffel, a modest, unassuming lady, of very fine literary talents, and of fine abilities as a painter. They lived together for fourteen years, and were highly devoted to each other. In her death he suffered a great loss. She was a member of the Lutheran Church. In social, domestic, and business life, he stands very high, and is respected and beloved by all who know him.
WITT, STILLMAN, railroad president and capitalist, was born in Worcester county, Massachusetts, January 4th, 1808, and died at sea, April 29th, 1875. When only thirteen years old, he was taken with the family to Troy, New York, where he was employed to run a skiff-ferry at $10 a month. Mr. Canvass White, of the United States engineer corps, frequently crossed the ferry, and in course of conversation with the young ferryman was struck by the interest he mani- fested in construction. Finding the lad eager to learn, Mr. White obtained permission of the elder Witt to educate him in his own profession. He applied himself with so much zeal that he was not long in mastering the principles of the profession and to apply them practically, when he was sent by his friend and employer to take charge of the Cohoes Manufacturing Company. He surveyed and laid out the village and arranged the water-power, and from the begin- ning thus made has been developed one of the most import- ant manufacturing points in the country. This work accom- plished he returned, and was again dispatched to construct the bridge across the Susquehanna at the mouth of the Juniata river. Thence he went to Louisville, where he spent a year and a half in building the Louisville and Portland canal. Still retaining his connection with Mr. White, he re- moved to Albany, where he assumed the duties of agent of the Hudson River Steamboat Association. The Albany and Boston Railroad Company invited him to become manager of their line and he accepted the position, where he remained eight years. At the end of that time he was induced to visit Cleveland by the efforts that were making for the construction of a railroad to Columbus. The Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad Company had been organized, but there was difficulty in finding experienced builders who would con- tract for the construction of the road and take the greater part pay in stock. The ground was looked over, the propo- sitions considered, and finally the firm of Harbach, Stone & Witt was formed for the building of the road. The work was completed and the road opened in 1851. A contract for the construction of the Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula Railroad was then made and the road finished by Stone & Witt, after the death of Mr. Harbach. The same firm next constructed the Chicago and Milwaukee Railroad and ope- rated it for some time after its completion. He now turned his attention to the management of the large interests he had acquired in railroads and other property. He was at different times chosen director in the Michigan Southern ; Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis; Cleveland, Paines- ville and Ashtabula; Chicago and Milwaukee, and Belle- fontaine and Indiana Railroad Companies. His connection with the last named line had an important influence on State and national affairs as well as on the fortunes of the road.
He had invested very heavily in the road, but for a long time it was unremunerative and it was only by his strenuous endeavors that it was saved from going into bankruptcy. The stock was down to a nominal figure, being in fact unsal- able at any price, but he had faith in its final success and his faith and works were finally rewarded by the stock rising considerably above par and by the subsequent consolidation with the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad. John Brough had been made president of the company and was his trusted aid in carrying out his measures. In 1863 the political situation in Ohio was very grave, the sympathiz- ers with the Secession war having become numerous and defiant. He urged upon Mr. Brough, who had been a very prominent democratic politician, but had abandoned politics in disgust, to accept the nomination for governor of the union party, and offered to perform his duties in the railroad com- pany and transfer the salary to Mr. Brough, who was too poor to sacrifice his position for the inadequately paid office of governor. The promise to Mr. Brough was kept, and in every way possible he manifested his regard for him. On the death of Mr. Brough, in 1865, which took place in Cleveland, he took charge of his deceased friend's affairs, and the $20,000 which he had originally given Mr. Brough became, by care- ful management for his family, upwards of $66,000. The affection of these two men for each other was strong and lasting. Not less so was the regard in which he held, and was held by, the late Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton. When Mr. Stanton retired from office, broken down in health and spirits, and poor in purse, he forced upon him a gift of $5,000, that he might find much needed rest and recuperation in travel. On the death of Governor Brough, Mr. Witt was elected president of the Bellefontaine and Indiana Railroad, and retained that position until the consolidation. Besides his position on the directory of the different railroads in which he was interested, he was director of the Second National and Commercial National Banks of Cleveland, and president of the Sun Insurance Company, Union Steel Screw Company, and Cleveland Box Machine Company. He was justly ranked among benevolent, public-spirited citizens of Cleve- land, and deservedly enjoyed the esteem and gratitude of the community at large. Distinguished for uncommon liber- ality toward all meritorious works of a charitable character, his unostentatious deeds of kindness to individuals were so numerous as to excite public notice. Sterling integrity and untiring industry were leading traits in his successful career. He died while on his way to Europe for the benefit of his health. In June, 1834, he married Miss Eliza A. Douglass, of Albany. Of his two surviving daughters, Mary married Dan. P. Eells, of Cleveland, and Emma, Colonel W. H. Harris, of the United States army.
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