USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume I > Part 46
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remained in partnership with Mr. Chase for three years, dur- ing which time the business of the office increased, and he became so well known that it was evident it would be wise for him to assume an independent position. Advised by the firm and excellent friend whose kindness and established reputation had been of so much advantage to him, and also by others who desired him to advance, he opened an office of his own in November, 1837. His business multiplied be- yond his strength, and was of a most desirable kind. His reputation passed beyond the limits of the city to which he had so recently come as a perfect stranger, and his path seemed open to the realization of the most glowing visions his ambition had ever pictured. He was frequently urged by his friends to enter political life, and high State offices were offered him, but he declined to turn from the profession he had chosen. Feeling assured that he had but a few years of life to live, he was resolved to crowd those years with as much of success as a lawyer as God would give him strength to attain. He lived only six years after entering upon his pro- fessional career, but those few years were crowded with suc- cess. In 1840 he traveled again for his health, going to Cuba, hoping thereby to recuperate his failing strength, but the benefits were but temporary. Feeling that his life was draw- ing to a close, he returned to Cincinnati to adjust his business affairs, and calmly awaited the end. He died in the full confidence of Christian hope, on Sabbath morning, March 13th, 1842, surrounded by tender friends who had ministered to him during his last sickness. On the day of his burial the court adjourned, and the judges and members of the bar attended his funeral. His life was short, but it was crowded with usefulness, beauty, and honor.
BROWN, THEOPHILUS P., real estate owner, legis- lator, and railroad president of Toledo, Ohio, was born Jan- uary 5, 1835, at Whately, Franklin county, Massachusetts, . being the fourth child of a family of ten. His parents, George and Almira Brown, are still living in his native State, having attained upwards of eighty years of age. They are both descendants of the old Puritan stock, George Brown being born in Connecticut. His mother's maiden name was also Brown, though she was no relation of her husband's family. Her father was a soldier in the war of 1812. Born of humble, though truly Christian and worthy parentage, his early life was one not blessed with opportunities nor flatter- ing prospects, and his subsequent achievements seem to have been the offspring of his own inborn, though then un- developed, capabilities. His father was a tradesman, and- imitative-like the son learned a trade also, that of broom- making, at which he labored most of the time until twenty years of age. At the age of sixteen he left the village schools to employ his time exclusively at his calling. But afterwards feeling that, if he expected to succeed in life, es- pecially when thrown upon his own resources, as was his lot, it was necessary that he should possess a reasonably lib- eral education. So, at the age of eighteen, he went to Deer- field Academy, where one year of diligent study was passed, which enabled him, being naturally bright in intellect, to obtain a good knowledge of the most essential branches. In 1855, then twenty years of age, he came West as far as Mich- igan, and for three years was employed in various ways ; but in 1858, he settled in Toledo, Ohio, and at once engaged in the insurance business, which was continued successfully up to 1877. During these years he became largely inter-
ested in real estate in and near the city of Toledo, which, however, he discontinued as a business in 1880. In 1870 he instituted and carried into execution a scheme which has made his name honored and will make his memory revered by thousands of laboring men and women of his city strug- gling for homes and livelihoods, and at the same time has brought him no little fame as a benefactor of the city and the public interests generally. Aware of the vicissitudes through which the laboring poor have to pass, and how diffi- cult it is, and in hundreds of instances utterly impossible, for them to save enough out of their meager earnings, in conse- quence of the high rents exacted from them within the city, to buy homes of their own, Mr. Brown resolved on a plan to aid them and, at the same time, benefit the city. He selected a plat of one hundred and sixty acres of land outside and tangent to the corporation, and divided it into lots to be sold at auction, on easy terms, to that class of people. To this he constructed a street railway, two miles in length, for their convenience. The enterprise caused a great sensation, and hundreds of people gathered upon the grounds during the days of sale to make their purchases; and, indeed, it con- stitutes an epoch in the history of Toledo. Ample time for payment was given, and in such a way that, with the money which would have been paid for rentals, the people were soon possessed of homes of their own. Mr. Brown afterwards made other additions, and the result is that around and upon this plat, known as "Brown's addition," thousands of people are enjoying home comforts they can call their own. Mr. Brown has himself built a great many dwellings, furnishing cheap homes for the poor, upon his property, all of which has since been included within the cor- poration ; five different manufactories, which he either built or assisted other parties to build, are all in successful opera- tion, with room for the employment of over five hundred operatives. No citizen of Toledo has in proportion to his means done as much for the general good of the city and its people as Mr. Brown. Not because other men may not have put forth efforts towards the consummation of such ends, but in consequence of the advantage of the practical over the impractical and the unselfishness of his motives. He is a man endowed with the faculty of evolving practical ideas, and that energy and sagacity necessary to carry his plans into execution. He finds no time to theorize upon contemplated schemes and enterprises, but with keen fore- sight and sound judgment he sees things in their proper relation ; evils and their remedies, opportunities and their advantages, and then with quickness of resolution and bold- ness of purpose he "acts in the living present," and lets the wisdom of his ideas and opinions find their verification in their practical results. Mr. Brown has always bent his best energies, exercised his best thought and judgment, and con- tributed much time and money towards building up the in- dustries, expanding the growth, and increasing the advan- tages and facilities of Toledo. This has been done not only from a hope of pecuniary reward for himself, but for the good of all. This is the class of men of whom it will always be said that " the world is better that they have lived in it." Ever since 1856, when he cast his first vote for John C. Fre- mont for President, Mr. Brown has taken a very active part in political matters, both as a worker and public speaker. His father was a whig before him, and the son naturally allied himself with the party that succeeded it. In 1875, he was nominated by the republican party for the office of State
V
G.S. B. Hempstead)
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senator, and although the district had a democratic majority of about 1,400, Mr. Brown's great popularity, especially among the laboring classes, whom he had so greatly aided, won him the election by a handsome majority. He made a most excellent record in the Senate, representing wisely and energetically the interests of his constituency, whose appro- bation of his course was signalized in many ways. During his service in the Legislature he served on six different committees, among which were the committee on insurance, of which he was chairman, and the committee on railroads and telegraphs, and he was also appointed one of a special committee to investigate the Ashtabula railroad disaster of 1876. His efforts were especially directed against the evils of irresponsible insurance companies, which resulted in great good. He also labored to secure a limitation of taxation in the city of Toledo and Lucas county, in reducing the rate of taxation from nearly five per cent to nearly three per cent. As an earnest of the appreciation of his services as a legis- lator, entertained by his party, in 1877 the republican sena- torial convention offered repeatedly to renominate him by acclamation. But he respectfully declined the honor, pre- ferring to return again to business enterprises and other conquests. In the summer of 1881 he enlisted his energies towards organizing a company for the purpose of constructing a railroad from Toledo to Indianapolis by way of Findlay ; an enterprise which has for twenty years been the subject of discussion and speculation among the leading capitalists of that section of country. And, indeed, several attempts, in the meantime, had been made to carry it into effect, but in every instance, until the present, the efforts proved futile, evidently from the lack of push and tenacity of purpose in the parties who took the project in hand. At last it fell to Mr. Brown, a man possessing in a remarkable degree all the essential qualifications, to accomplish the desired end. Nat- urally a leader of men, he was soon enabled to arouse an interest in his cause all along the line of the contemplated road, which was soon followed by the organization of the company known as the Toledo and Indianapolis railroad company, of which he was made president. The road, when completed, will be one hundred and ninety-three miles in length, passing through a very rich tract of country, thus bringing its products into and through Toledo, which will be . of great advantage to the city. The work of grading that portion of the branch between Toledo and Findlay is now in progress, and before long the entire line will undoubtedly be completed. Mr. Brown has assumed the entire responsi- bility of the enterprise, and is pushing it with all his charac- teristic energy and zeal, which, in fact, are the principal factors of his nature, and which have, in all his undertakings in life, been used wisely and successfully. The wisdom of his counsels has been manifested in many ways in connec- tion with the affairs of the city and public interests in general. It was due to him, more than any other man, that the Tri- States Fair was established in Toledo in opposition to the Ohio State Fair, which he and others had unsuccessfully en- deavored to have established in this city in 1877. He, with a few other of the prominent men of Toledo, organized the scheme. The citizens of Toledo subscribed $10,000 as the capital. The project was pushed to completion, and in a few weeks sixty thousand people attended one of the most suc- cessful fairs ever held in the State, which has been the annual experience ever since. In 1873 Mr. Brown, in company with his wife, visited Europe, and in 1875, the West Indies. He
established a sugar plantation on the island of San Domingo, which he carried on for one year and then abandoned what proved an unprofitable speculation. He was married April, 1861, to Miss Frances A., daughter of Isaac H. and Harriet N. Hampton, of Toledo, though formerly of Tecumseh, Mich., where his wife was born. Mr. Brown has been a member of the First Congregational Church of Toledo for the past seventeen years, and is a man of high social standing, of unimpeachable character, and of the strictest integrity in every relation. In summing up the life of Mr. Brown it is found to be that of an intelligent, capable, enterprising, and progressive self-made man, whose achievements are the result of his own inborn 'powers.
HEMPSTEAD, GILES S. B., M. D., A. M., LL. D., son of Giles and Lucretia (Saltonstall) Hempstead, was born in New London, Connecticut, June 8th, 1794, and is the eighth generation in direct descent from Sir Robert Hemp- stead, who was one of the first settlers of New London, to which place he came with Governor Winthrop. Robert, with two brothers, first settled at Hempstead Plains, on Long Island, upon their emigration from England, about 1630. After a short time the two brothers returned to England and Robert went to Boston, and from there, with Governor Win- throp, to New London. In 1798-9, the subject of this sketch was placed at school under the tutorship of Samuel Belden, in the so-called Edgar House, where William Ellery Chan- ning was a pupil. In 1800 Giles was placed in a school kept by his cousin, Joshua Hempstead, where he remained until June, 1802, when his father and uncle, Hallam Hempstead, with their families, commenced a long and tedious journey to the West, and arrived at Marietta, Ohio, on the 4th of Au- gust following, after a trip of sixty-four days' duration. The company consisted of twenty-eight persons and twelve horses, four to each wagen, two wagons, two carriages, and two horses under saddle. So scattered were the habitations they were compelled to camp out two-thirds of the time. The following from the doctor is an interesting event which he relates in connection with their trip, which we insert ver- batim : " As a general thing our trip was a pleasant one. All enjoyed good health, and there was much to amuse and instruct. I drove a one-horse chaise, as it was then called, and having only two wheels, it was easily overturned. This vehi- cle I drove from New London to Marietta, Ohio, carrying as passengers my mother, youngest sister, age two years, and myself. This one-horse chaise was turned over, by my mis- management, eighteen times, that I counted, but the occur- rences became so frequent I ceased to count them, except, in one instance, where my sister's left arm was broken below the elbow ; which was soon repaired without deformity, my father being the surgeon improvised for the occasion. Our arrival at Marietta was a joyful event to all, and the most of us en- joyed a bath in the Ohio river, and found some difficulty in sustaining ourselves, its density being so much less than salt-water, to which we had been accustomed." At Marietta, Giles was placed in the Muskingum Academy which, as a preparatory school, was a superior institution of learning ; its faculty consisting generally of graduates of either Yale, Cam- bridge, or Dartmouth. Here he remained until 1810, when he had reached his sixteenth birthday, when Governor R. J. Meigs, who was a friend of the family, questioned him as to his studies, and hearing him translate Latin and Greek made the remark to his father that he was well prepared to study
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a profession, and offered his office, books, and personal in- structions in such a manner that a refusal seemed out of the question. He was therefore duly installed as a student at law; but after one year's faithful application he told his father it was useless to continue longer in the study, as he should never practice the profession; it having been his greatest desire from the first to study and practice the science of medicine. Yet he has never regretted the time spent in reading law, and to this day finds gratification in perusing the reports and decisions of our courts, and has great respect for the science of law generally. When he had reached the age of seventeen he entered the junior class at the Ohio University, and two years later was graduated, being the first literary graduate west of the Ohio river. In addition to the regular college course he studied French, Spanish, Italian, and Hebrew, so as to translate with accuracy and freedom. Immediately after graduating he commenced to study med- icine with Dr. John B. Regnier, a native of Paris, France, an educated man, and a very distinguished physician, who com- menced the practice of medicine in Marietta, Ohio, about the year 1810. He remained with Dr. Regnier until the year 1816, when a deputation from Waterford, a neighboring town, waited on his preceptor with the request that he would send them a physician, as they were suffering from a malignant epidemic with no physician nearer than Marietta. He rec- ommended his student, who, after complying with the require- ments of the law regulating the practice of medicine, by passing an examination before a board of censors, who duly licensed him to practice medicine in the State of Ohio, re- paired to Waterford, where he soon found himself in control of a very large practice, and very successfully treated the dis- case then epidemic, known as cold plague or spotted fever. Here he remained three months, only losing three patients, and treating over one hundred successfully. But after the epidemic disappeared he was comparatively idle, and he re- solved to move to Athens to improve his condition. But every thing being so slow here after his first three months' practice he soon became dissatisfied, and in June of the same ycar, 1816, removed to Portsmouth, Ohio. Here he found four physicians in regular practice, which he considered plenty for the population of what was then a small village, and went to Marietta, Ohio. In July, following, he went to Chillicothe, West Union, Limestone, now Maysville, Wash- ington, Augusta, Ky., and thence through Ohio to Cincin- nati, where he was strongly importuned by Dr. Ramsey to remain. But the city then contained thirty physicians, which he considered enough for its then comparatively small popu- lation, and he resolved to try his fortunes elsewhere. He continued his journey to Brookville, Ind., then a territory ; thence to Lawrenceburg, the county-seat of Dearborn county. This was during the hotly contested campaign between Jen- nings and Posey, who were candidates for governor. After visiting New Lexington, Paoli, Madison, and several other places in Indiana and Kentucky, and Guyandotte, West Vir- ginia, he was induced by a friend to again return to Ports- mouth, which he did in October of the year 1816. Here he permanently located, and has since made that place his home, with the exception of fifteen years spent in Hanging Rock. It was not long before his abilities as a physician became known and recognized, and his practice increased to such proportions as to be one of the largest of any physician in Southern Ohio. April 11th, 1821, he was married to Miss Elizabeth Peebles. In 1819, Aurora Lodge No. 48, was in-
stalled and organized under her present charter, and Dr. Hempstead was duly initiated. He was elected junior warden, and subsequently, master of the lodge, a position he held twenty-one years. He became, also, a charter member of Mount Vernon Chapter, which was organized about the year 1829. The same year Dr. Hempstead was confirmed in All- Saints Protestant Episcopal Church, Portsmouth, Ohio. In the winter of 1821-2, Dr. Hempstead attended a course of lectures in the Medical College of Ohio, and received the degree of Doctor of Medicine in the second class that gradu- ated from that institution of learning. The same winter the degree of Master of Arts was conferred upon him by the Ohio University, and in 1879 the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from the same institution. In 1880 he was made a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science at Boston, Massachusetts. He was also at one time president of the Ohio State Medical Society. Dr. Hempstead's wife died April 15th, 1875, leaving three children, two daugh- ters and one son. Margaret J. became the wife of B. B. Gay- lord (see sketch of Mr. Gaylord elsewhere in this work). Samuel Booth married Mary Ann Hamilton, and Harriet E. married Gaylord B. Norton. Samuel Booth Hempstead died in 1873. Dr. Hempstead was engaged in the active practice of medicine until 1865. Since that time he has only consented to accept the cases of old patients and personal friends, devoting the greater portion of his time to the study of the natural sciences. Dr. Hempstead is widely known throughout Southern Ohio as one of the ablest physicians of the State and a scientist of considerable repute. He is a gen- tleman of fine social qualities, and possesses remarkable vigor of mind and body for a man of his age, being now nearly eighty-eight years old. His career through life has been an honorable one, and we predict for him yet many years in which to enjoy the fruits of a well-spent life.
EATON, FREDERICK, a prominent merchant of To- ledo, Ohio, was born at Sutton, New Hampshire, February 10, 1836. He is one of a family of eight children-six sons and two daughters-all of whom are still living, and, except himself, all highly educated. Two brothers, General John and Colonel L. B. Eaton, are both graduates of Dartmouth College. The former entered the army as chaplain of the 27th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, but was afterward promoted by General Grant to the rank of brigadier-general, and placed in com- mand of the "contrabands," in the campaign from Cairo through to the Gulf. After the war he aided in organizing the Freedmen's Bureau, and in 1870 was appointed by President Grant Commissioner of Education, at Washington, D. C., a po- sition he still holds. Colonel L. B. Eaton was in command of a regiment in the Army of the Tennessee, and after the close of the war was appointed by President Grant United States Marshal of West Tennessee. He now represents the City of Memphis in the Legislature of that State. Mr. Eaton has a brother a farmer in Santiago, California ; another a dry goods merchant at Adrian, Michigan ; and the youngest, Charles, is an attorney-at-law in Toledo. His oldest sister lives in Boston, and the other (who is unmarried) lives at home in New Hampshire Summers, and in the South during the Winter seasons. John and Jennette G. Eaton, the parents of this large family, are both dead ; the former, whose vocation was farm- ing, died in 1873, and the latter in 1846. They were both natives of New Hampshire, and belonged to families dating back to a very early period in American history. The great-
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grandfather (Eaton) of our subject commanded a company at Bunker Hill, and served throughout the Revolutionary War. In consequence of some peculiar conjunction of cir- cumstances Mr. Eaton did not have the privileges of a colle- giate education, which was extended to the other members of the family, but was obliged to accept as his portion what could be absorbed from the hard benches which served as seating conveniences in the country schools of- that day, and out of which their victim-occupants were obliged to extract the chief portion of their instruction. Up to the age of sev- enteen Mr. Eaton spent his time as do most farmer boys. At that age he engaged as clerk in a country store for three years, at the fabulous salary of fifty, seventy-five, and one hundred dollars per year, respectively. However inauspi- cious or otherwise this may have appeared to him, it was, nevertheless, the inception of a career in the business world which challenges our admiration, and places Mr. Eaton among the first ranks of our self-made business men. After the expiration of his three years in the village store, he spent one year at Manchester, New Hampshire, as clerk in a large dry goods store, at a salary of three hundred dollars. . His next step was to come West, following his oldest brother, General Eaton, who had preceded him, and who was at that time superintendent of the public schools of Toledo. Mr. Eaton, upon his arrival in that city, found employment as a clerk, at ten dollars per week, at which he labored but a few months, and in August, 1857, began business independ- ently, which he was enabled to do upon the little capital which the combined savings of his own and those of his brother John afforded. He opened out a dry goods store, assisted by one clerk only, sleeping upon the counter at night (a substitute for insurance policies and burglar-proof safes). To-day over two hundred clerks, salesmen, and accountants are busily employed in the various departments, attending to the wants of a multitude of customers. As a criterion by which may be judged the extraordinary growth and prosperity of his enterprise, the figures showing the amount of business transacted the first year of trade and that of 1881 will suffice. The sales of the first year amounted to fifteen thousand dollars, while in 1881 they reached the enormous sum of one and a quarter million, of which four hundred thousand dollars was wholesale, and the remainder retail. The two stores now occupied by Mr. Eaton, taken together, are larger than any other similar establishment in the three States of Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan, with the exception of one in Cincinnati. With succeeding years, other departments have been added to that of dry goods, such as notions, millinery, clothing, boots and shoes, hats and caps, carpets, upholstery, furs, crockery, etc., consti- tuting a business enterprise which is an honor to the city of Toledo, and of which it is proud to boast. The same wisdom and shrewdness employed in the conduct of his business in- terests, as well as many other marked capabilities evinced in his relations with men, qualify him to fill positions of high responsibility. He is a man who takes great pride in ex- "celling in whatever he undertakes, to which end he sum- mons all his remarkable energy and ambition. Mr. Eaton is not confined to mercantile business alone, but has for years been one of the city's most prominent men in the promotion of institutions calculated to enhance her growth and wealth, and win for her name and fame among the cities of the Union. He is interested in no less than seven different manufactories located there. He was one of the founders
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