USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume I > Part 45
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" With every one, professional and non-professional, he was held in the highest esteem for his private worth and amiable character. As a lawyer he was zealous, painstaking, and conscientious. Never losing sight of right and justice, he made every thing subordinate to them, thus setting a valu- able example to us all in the practice of a profession so full of questions of frequent occurrence nicely divided between right and wrong. He was sure to be right, because he stud- ied to find it. The community believed and trusted him, be- cause they knew the crucible in which he tried every thought and worked every proposition. Tender as a child in all his domestic relations, he was lion-hearted when grappling with error, fraud, or wrong."
"He was a man of great natural intellectual powers, had no graces of rhetoric, nor extraordinary skill in the forum. Yet he became a great man, and impressed himself strongly on the communities in which he moved, rising to the front rank of his profession in the State. He grew great because of an intellectual and moral integrity which held him aloof from the influence of mean passions; and which, throughout his long and useful career, exalted and sustained him in his profession and among men. He did what it is so hard for lawyers, in the heat of professional strife, to do, held his zeal for his client subordinate to his love of justice. He sought the right with a singleness of purpose which was always manifest to the court and jury, and which gave him an in- fluence never accorded to the artful and unscrupulous advo- cate. The strength he gained by loving and seeking the truth was not merely influence on others, it was subjective as well as objective. His mind grew stronger and more appre- hensive, and he gradually acquired that spiritual power which our Savior promises when he says, 'If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.'"
"M1. Hunter was a step-child of fortune. All that he ac- complished was in spite of her. His life was one of great
labor and trial. Sustained, however, by a strong sense of duty and a passionate love of family, he met and buffeted wave after wave of trouble bravely and uncomplainingly to the last. His self-control and self-denial, his charity, pa- tience, and unconquerable moral courage were almost more than human. And though he stood with the foremost of his profession in the West, and ran a career as honorable and as worthy of emulation as any, yet his triumphs as a lawyer will be but coldly remembered, while his exalted character as a man will be handed down for an example in the commu- nity which revered and loved him."
" Such an example as the life of Mr. Hunter affords is of rare occurrence. He came to the bar under the most dis- couraging circumstances ; poor, without the usual preparatory education, and with no natural gift of fluent speech or popu- lar manner, and all that he had of adventitious aid was the good wishes of friends, almost as poor as himself. But want- ing these helps to success, he had a courageous spirit and an indomitable will that overcame all obstacles and estab- lished him at last in the front rank of the profession. We are justly proud of Mr. Hunter. We take pride not only in the lawyer, but in the man, for his private life was the fit counterpart of his professional life.
"Eminent success at the bar was supplemented by eminent virtues as a husband, a father, a friend, and a citizen, and by admirable traits of character, unsullied by any vice, temper- ate in all things, proverbial for his honesty and impartiality, one of the most loving and affectionate of men in his domes- tic relations, and one of the most constant and reliable in his friendships."
LORD, WILLIS, D. D., LL.D., late pastor of the First Presbyterian church, of Columbus, Ohio, was born at Bridge- port, Connecticut, on the 15th September, 1809. His father, Daniel Lord, a house-builder by occupation, and his mother, Anna Choate, married and residents until their decease at Bridgeport, were originally from Norwich, Connecticut. His father's grandfather, the Rev. Benjamin Lord, D. D., was for many years a trustee of Yale College. As a matter of curiosity in genealogy, Dr. Lord has in his possession a docu- ment, traced by the late Chancellor Walworth of New York, by which it is satisfactorily shown that he (Dr. Lord) is, of the twenty-eighth generation, a lineal descendant of William the Conqueror, so-called, of England. From his boyhood a persistent student, he graduated in his twenty-fourth year from Williams College, in the class of 1833, under the presi- dency of the Rev. Edward Dorr Griffin, D. D., and immedi- ately entered upon the study of theology at Princeton College. After there completing the course, he took charge of a church at New Hartford, Connecticut, but under medical advice con- cerning his health, went to Philadelphia in 1840, and there assumed the pastorate of Penn Square Presbyterian church, in which he continued until 1850, when he received and ac- cepted a call from the Broadway Presbyterian church, of Cincinnati. Here he remained four years, when, under medical advice, his health being again threatened, he ceased from labor and returned for the recuperation of the same to his native State. His health being again restored, he was invited to and accepted the charge of the Second Presbyterian church, of Brooklyn, New York, which had been vacated by the death of the Rev. Dr. Spencer, and there remained until - appointed by the general assembly in 1859 to the professor- ship of biblical and ecclesiastical history in the Theological Seminary of the Northwest, at Chicago. In 1867, he was by the same authority transferred to the chair of didactic and polemic theology in the same institution, and continued therein until, in the spring of 1870, he became the first presi- dent of the University of Wooster, Ohio, an institution that it may here be properly remarked has had, for one so young as
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it is, a remarkable degree of success, and in which he re- mained as president three years, when by the urgent advice of his physician he felt constrained to resign and, by a change of climate and a long period of rest, restore his health. He spent the subsequent four years in Minnesota and Colorado, his residence in the latter State being particularly beneficial, and resulting in the restoration of his health to such an extent as permitted him to accept a call to the Church at Columbus in the year 1877. During his years of comparative inaction from labor in any regular capacity, Dr. Lord produced a work which has been very favorably criticised by editors of religious newspapers of several Christian denominations, en- titled, "Christian Theology for the People." To sum up the opinions of it expressed by those editors, this work may be considered a treasury of Christian learning, the work of a clear and forcible writer who, while faithful to the standards of his church, avoids all offensive expressions of opinion, and who has produced that which is to pastor, Sunday school teacher, theological student, and private reader, a clear, strong, reliable, and exhaustive exposition of "those things most surely believed amongst us." Dr. Lord has also and more lately published a very pleasing smaller volume, en- titled, "The Blessed Hope, or the Glorious Coming of Christ." In addition to those works he has produced many highly meritorious addresses, pamphlets, and tracts. Preëminently a scholar, this fact is indicated by his every public service as in all the smaller matters of scholarship. From this results a simplicity and purity of style, clearness and force of logic, and elegant and tasteful rhetoric, embellished, at his pleasure, by a brilliant imagination, that please alike the learned and the unlearned. His manner in the pulpit is dignified and serious, his prayers fervent and childlike in their confidence and directness, his reading of the scriptures and the hymns of the church clear, impressive and beautiful. His sermons are read from manuscript, but with a freedom of elocutionary diction that leaves no complaint from the most ultra advocate of, so-called, extemporaneous delivery ; while in his lectures, and expositions in week-day meetings, and ante-communion services, he exhibits his ability to interest and instruct his people without the aid of manuscript. In manners, Dr. Lord is a genial and affable gentleman, a kind and sympathetic pastor to those in sorrow and affliction, while with those who seek his society for social entertainment, he is intelligent, playful, and witty. The dignity and sacredness of his call- ing, the value of immortal life to every living soul, and the immense responsibility of the present in relation to the future, are ever present to this minister of the gospel of the blessed God. These so far transcend all things earthly that, with St. Paul, he "counts all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord." In 1834, Dr. Lord married Miss Hannah W., a daughter of Deacon Ezra Bough- ton, of Danbury, Connecticut. Three living children, a son and two daughters survive, the issue of this union. The son, now a merchant, made a very gratifying record in his three years' service in the war for the Union, as a member of bat- tery A, Chicago artillery, composed of some of the finest young men of that city, and which record culminated by Mr. Lord receiving a captain's commission a few weeks before his term of service expired. The daughters are both married to clergymen, the youngest being the wife of the Rev. Samuel H. Murphy, a missionary connected with the Gaboon mission of Western Africa, where he now is, and the eldest the wife of the Rev. Thomas C. Kirkwood, of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.
ELY, HEMAN, founder of the town of Elyria, Lorain county, Ohio, was born in West Springfield, Massachusetts, April 24th, 1775, and died at Elyria, February 2d, 1852. He was the youngest of the three sons of Justin Ely, of West Springfield, who was a large land owner in the States of New York and Ohio, and a descendant of Nathaniel Ely, who came to this country from England, and was made a freeman in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1634; was one of the orig- inal settlers of Hartford, Connecticut, in 1636; of Norwalk, Connecticut, in 1640; and went to Springfield, Massachu- setts, in 1660, where he died September 25th, 1675. In the family life all the records show that the Elys were gentle- men and gentlewomen. As children they were dutiful, as husbands and wives faithful and loving, as parents kindly and affectionate, ever watchful of the welfare of their off- spring, whom they nourished and trained with a tender regard, both for their temporal and eternal welfare. The family has been remarkable for its production of men of learning and men of mark, of integrity, honor, enterprise ; who have served their country on the bench, in her halls of legislature, in her armies, in her pulpits, in her mercantile enterprises, in the developments of her natural and mineral resources. The women have been equal to the men. Not seeking for themselves great distinction, they have rather sought and proved to be good mothers, who have given to their country many sons who have borne honored names. At Lyme, Connecticut, there was held on July Ioth, 1878, an Ely reunion, at which five hundred and forty-seven were present, representing a residence in all parts of the United States and Canada. Heman Ely, the subject of this sketch, in early years received an education for a business life. After that he removed to New York City, and entered into partner- ship with his brother Theodore, and for nearly ten years was engaged in commerce with Europe and the East Indies. In the prosecution of his business he several times visited England, France, and Spain. During this period he became interested in the growth and development of the central and western portions of the State of New York, and under his direction considerable tracts of land in that State were sur- veyed and sold to new settlers. On one of his visits to Paris he was arrested under a charge of uttering treasonable statements respecting the government and confined in one of the prisons, and might have remained there an indefinite time had not one of the officials accepted compensation for conveying a message to the American minister, through whose influence with the department of police his discharge was obtained on the authorities being convinced of the en- tire innocence of their prisoner. He was in Paris from July, 1809, till April, 1810. It was during this time that the divorce of the Emperor Napoleon from the Empress Jose- phine occurred, and also his marriage with the Arch Duchess Maria Louisa, of Austria, which was celebrated with great magnificence and of which he was a witness. The year fol- lowing his return from Paris he made his first visit to Ohio. Leaving West Springfield on the 21st of April, 1811, he went to Hudson, from which place his journal records the fact of his passage down the Hudson river to New York and return to Albany in a steamboat. On this trip he did not extend his travel quite to the place of his future home, but from Cleve- land he went to Warren, Ohio, and thence to Erie, Pennsyl- vania, passing through most of the townships in North-east- ern Ohio, and returning to Springfield via the Niagara and St. Lawrence rivers and Montreal. The war of 1812 arrested
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the progress of settlement in the western country, little being done in that direction until its close. In the Summer of 1816 he made his second visit to Ohio, and made contracts to have built for him a saw-mill, a grist-mill, and a log-house, all to be finished early in the following year. On this trip he came near losing his life by the earth of an overhanging precipice giving way under the hind feet of his horse. On the 20th of February, 1817, with a considerable company, he again started for Ohio, intending there to make his future home. His step-brother, Ebenezer Lane, late chief-justice of Ohio, accompanied him. The journey was made by wagon through Albany and Buffalo to their destination, which they reached on the 18th of March, two days less than a month from the time of starting. The place of set- tlement at the time of their arrival was almost an unbroken forest, and was known only as No. 6, Range 17, Connecticut Western Reserve, but was immediately named Elyria, not as stated in Howe's "Historical Collections of Ohio," "being formed from the surname of Mr. Ely and the last syllable of the given name of his wife, Maria," for, at this time, he was unmarried, and when he married his wife's name was not Maria, but Celia. He said the ria was added to his own name with no other purpose than to fix the locality, which is not done when the same name is given to several places, as too often happens in this country. The following year the town had attained such growth as to entitle it to a post-office, and Mr. Ely was appointed postmaster. Six years after, in 1824, a new county was formed, to which he gave the name Lorain, after the then French province, but with a change of orthography, Elyria being the shiretown. He, at different times, held various important official positions, both town and county. In 1831-32, he was member of the State Board of Equalization. From about 1835 to 1845 he was one of the associate judges under the old constitution of the State. Al- though not himself a professed Christian until 1841, he yet rec- ognized fully the need of Christian institutions, and especially the due observance of the Christian Sabbath in our new settle- ments. Accordingly, on the first Sabbath after their arrival, he read to the little company one of Dr. Joseph Lathrop's ser- mons, several volumes of which he brought with him from Massachusetts, and this was his custom when there was no min- ister of the gospel to officiate, until a church was organized in 1824. For nearly thirty-five years his life and health were continued, and he was permitted to witness the fruit of his labors in the growth and prosperity of the town, which from first to last was uppermost in his mind, which he watched with parental solicitude, and to which he made large contributions. Obstacles and difficulties, which to many would have ap- peared insurmountable, seemed only to stimulate him to increased effort until the end sought was attained. His early plans were characterized by no narrow or sectarian bias. In laying out the village ample provision was made for public grounds, public buildings, schools and churches of all de- nominations, and for the improvement of such grounds, the erection and maintenance of school houses and churches, as well as all objects of common interest in the community. These expenditures were large and constant. These, as well as his systematic contributions to benevolent institutions generally, testify to the breadth of his mind as well as his conscientious stewardship. He lived to see an immense forest cleared away, and a thriving, prosperous town rise up. Two years before his death he visited his friends in Massa- chusetts and Connecticut, when he bade them a final and
affectionate farewell, as he expected to see them no more. His business affairs were characterized by punctuality, accu- racy, and system. Every thing was done in order, and done well. His promises were punctually performed. His temper was uniform, disposition genial, and manner courteous and kindly. He was reserved without seeming to be so, espe- cially with strangers, but was frank and communicative with his intimate friends. He was strong in his convictions and allowed no considerations of convenience or profit to swerve him from a course which he believed to be honest and right. His judgments were formed after mature deliberation, and rarely proved erroneous. He was hospitable. His residence was the welcome home of friends and strangers, especially to the clergy of all denominations, it being known as the "minister's home." In 1850 he retired from active business. He departed this life on the 2d of February, 1852, in the 77th year of his age.
ELY, HEMAN, banker, capitalist, and land-owner, of Elyria, Lorain county, was born in Elyria, October 30th, 1820. He is the son of Heman and Celia Ely, whose family history is contained in the preceding biography. He received his education in Elyria and in Connecticut, and at the age of twenty-one, having completed his scholastic training, entered his father's office. On September Ist, of the same year, 1841, he was married to Miss Mary H. Monteith, daughter of the Rev. John Monteith, of Elyria, who was one of the early missionaries to the West, and by her he had two children, one of whom, George Henry, is living and engaged in busi- ness. She died March Ist, 1849. On the death of his father, in 1852, he succeeded to the management of a large landed estate of considerable value. Like his father, he always takes active and foremost interest in all matters of local concern, and in many ways contributes to the public wel- fare. In politics a republican, he labors zealously for the advancement of his party and its principles. In the legis- lature of 1870-71, he was a representative from Lorain county, where he labored so faithfully for the interests of his constituents and of the State, that he was re-elected to the legislature of 1872-73. During his term of service he took a prominent part in the important legislation affecting insurance matters, working diligently upon the various meas- ures introduced, and rendered valuable service in shaping legislation for the greatest good of the public. He was also upon the committee on benevolent institutions, where his duties were onerous and his services valuable. As a legisla- tive representative he knew no ambition save the strictest per- formance of his duty. Since leaving the State legislature he has declined all political preferment. From the year 1838 he has been a member of the Presbyterian Church (now Congregational), to the support of which he contributes of his means most liberally. For the last ten years he has been superintendent of its Sunday-school. He was married a second time on May 27th, 1850, to Miss Mary F. Day, daughter of the Hon. Thomas Day, of Hartford, Connect- icut. By this marriage there are four children, Edith Day, Charles Theodore, Albert Heman, and Harriette Putnam. During the war of the Union he was very active in its sup- port; he furnished a substitute to the ranks, and gave lib- erally and continuously to all objects calculated to aid the Union cause, devoting to this purpose both time and money. Among his other business connections he was a director of the Lorain branch of the State bank of Ohio, and on the
Very truly yours Atoman Color
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reorganization or that institution as the First National Bank of Elyria, he retained his interest and directorship. In all his business affairs he is a man of the strictest integrity and highest honor. The settlement which his father founded in 1817 is now a large and prosperous town, containing, at present writing (1882) a population of nearly 6,000, with a new and imposing court-house, seven churches, many of them fine structures, and eight schools (with its one high- school, to which all the others are auxiliary), with some sixteen hundred children attending them. Among its man- ufacturers may be mentioned Topliff & Ely (George H. Ely), manufacturers of carriage hardware, principally the tubu- lar bow socket, whose business extends, not only through- out the United States, but also to Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, the volume of which is large and constantly increasing. The Western Automatic Machine Screw Company is another large company, with a capital invested of over $300,000, and there are several others of minor importance. Its fine business blocks and elegant pri- vate residences, many of which would vie most favorably with our larger and older cities, show of themselves the pros- perity to which the citizens of Elyria have attained and enjoy. To the wisdom and discretion of her founders and immediate successors this must be largely attributed. The location se- lected for laying out the town was an admirable one. It has fine water-power, given by a pretty, weird, wandering stream far down a ravine, and its two water-falls make the valley highly romantic. Health, peace, prosperity, and the enjoy- nent of the comforts of life mark the whole.
EELLS, SAMUEL, lawyer, brother of Dan P. Eells, Esq., of Cleveland, and son of the Rev. James Eells, was born in Westmoreland, Oneida county, New York, May 18th, 1810, and died in Cincinnati, March 13th, 1842. He was the third in a family of seven children. Spending his boyhood days in his father's family, surrounded by culture and a Chris- tian atmosphere, and receiving judicious instruction by the domestic fireside, he grew up free from the many vicious habits to which boys less carefully trained are liable to be addicted; and in after-life he often referred to those gentle influences of his childhood as having determined his career. Naturally self-reliant and independent in spirit, united with an affectionate disposition and vigorous intellect, he was pleasing in manner, and had every qualification of a leader in whatever circle he might be. He won by kindness, excited interest by his wit and genius, and swayed by the acknowl- edged force of his mind and character. He early in life ex- hibited those traits that, when developed, render one a leader among men. At the age of fifteen, for the purpose of recre- ation, relief from study, and physical exercise, he spent two summers in farming. The change was happy in several particulars, as it rendered him more robust, and gave him those habits of industry which never left him. In the spring of 1826 he entered Clinton Academy, under the care of Mr. Wilmarth, where he devoted himself with renewed eagerness to his studies. In August, 1827, he became a member of the freshman class in Hamilton College ; but in a few months his health failed, and it was doubtful whether he could continue his studies. But after a year's interval, during which he trav- eled much by sea and land, he resumed his college life, and was able to pursue it until he graduated, in 1832. The dis- cipline and education of this year, just at the period when they would have most influence, were probably of more im-
portance, as bearing on his future, than the contributions of any other single year of his life. He had tested and learned himself, than which there is no knowledge of more value to one who proposes to attempt an elevated career. He had studied men, and the lessons furnished him so early opened the way to success on many occasions of difficulty afterwards, He had come in contact with the rough world, and encoun- tered some of its severest tests of the human will and energy, and felt that he could face what might meet him hereafter without trembling, though no aid should be given him save that of the unseen Helper. The young man who took his place in college the second time, was very unlike the boy who had been there before. He was soon able to make his mark among the unusual number of brilliant young men who were at that time in the institution. On leaving college, Mr. Eells entered the office of the Hon. Sampson Mason, of Spring- field, Ohio, and, after a due course of preparation and study, removed to Cincinnati, and commenced the practice of law in February, 1835. It was some time before he had a case, having gone there a perfect stranger, young and unknown. His first opportunity to appear in court was assigned him by the judge in the defense of a man without money or friends, who was indicted for larceny. By degrees he attracted the attention of some of the eminent men at the bar, and in No- vember of the same year was invited by Salmon P. Chase to become his partner. This was, indeed, more than his ambi- tion had anticipated, or dared to hope for. Mr. Chase had been in successful practice for many years, and was rapidly rising. Mr. Eells fully realized the necessity then imposed on him to tax his every energy and power, that he might do justice to his position and acquit himself well. As an advocate he was successful, his college training and natural tastes for declamation and forensic address and his natural gifts all having tended to make him a leader in his profession. He .studied hard that he might also be the more proficient as a counselor, and acquire more fully that thorough sense and acuteness of discrimination that would be needed. His success may be best learned from the words of some of the distinguished men who knew him well, and were pleased to honor one who was their associate for but a brief period. Chief-justice Chase said of him : "To a most per- suasive and prevailing eloquence he joined the grace of high literary culture and the strength of profound legal knowledge, while in the walks of private companionship he was equally endeared by his tenderness and manliness. If I were to rely wholly on my own recollection the account would be brief indeed, but it would be all eulogy-a sun that scarcely arose above the horizon ere it hastened to its setting ; but during its course all radiant with the light of mind, and its setting with new and softer glories from the world which needs no sun." Hon. W. S. Groesbeck wrote of him thus : "Samuel Eells was an extraordinary young man, and if he had lived would to-day have been known and honored throughout the nation. He had every quality to make himself distinguished. He rose here at our bar very rapidly, and had a reputation which has never been surpassed among us by any one so young. Young as he was, he made before courts and juries some as able and eloquent arguments as I have ever heard. It was a great pleasure to hear him. He was logical and classical, and at times very grand and eloquent. There was nothing foolish about him, and he was equal to any situation in which he found himself. It is not often we meet such a man. Once known, he can never be forgotten." Mr. Eells
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