USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume I > Part 52
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M. N. Carrington
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AD Bushnell
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drapery of his couch about him," it shall be said mankind is better that he lived; his neighbors were his friends, his enemies the enemies of virtue.
CARRINGTON, MILES D., grain merchant and cap- italist of Toledo, Ohio, was born January 1, 1823, at Litch- field, Connecticut. His parents, Rice and Abigail (Seymour) Carrington, were both born in Wethersfield, Connecticut. His father was a prominent farmer, being the only one of his family that chose that occupation, the others selecting the various professions. He died in 1846, at the age of fifty-five. The mother, who lived to the advanced age of eighty-two, belonged to a very prominent family in Connecticut, and is herself a cousin of Governor Seymour, of that State. In 1840 the family removed to Oneida County, New York, where they resided until the death of the father. The country schools were the highest the son, Miles D., was privileged to attend, and consequently his education was of a meager character, which, however, a long and varied experience has fully complemented. Until he was nineteen years of age, he remained at home laboring upon his father's farm. In 1842 he came West, and located in Hillsdale County, Mich- igan. Here he was variously employed for the following two years. He then went to Goshen, Indiana, and engaged as clerk in a dry-goods store, at which he labored for three years. At the end of that time he concluded to take up the lines for himself, which he did at Middlebury, Indiana, where he opened out a general store. At the end of the second year, Mr. T. B. Casey (his present partner) joined him in the business. After a very successful period of seven years they sold out their business, from which a handsome fortune was realized, although begun with no capital and but little expe- rience. Nothing but the conjunction of industry and rare business qualifications can, in any legitimate enterprise, begin with nothing and, in a short term of years, result so successfully. In 1854 Mr. Carrington and his partner re- moved to Toledo, Ohio, where they at once engaged in the grain trade, which has been continued ever since and with great success. No department of trade has brought Toledo into so much prominence as a commercial city as grain, and none engaged in this line of trade have given more impetus toward its local development than Messrs. Carrington and Casey. The former was for years director, several times vice- president, and once president of the old board of trade, and was one of its charter members. In consequence of the rapid increase of the traffic in wheat and other cereals in Toledo, both as a receiving and shipping point, he saw the necessity of establishing, upon a higher and wider basis, the organization which must care for and largely control these great interests of the city. To this end he offered a resolu- tion before the board of trade recommending the increase of membership from $20 to $250, so that funds might be raised with which to purchase real estate with the ultimate purpose of erecting a building suitable for the transaction of all their business and other public purposes. This resolution was not adopted by the board (as it required a two-thirds vote), but Mr. Carrington, with a few other prominent members, succeeded in influencing a majority of the leading members to withdraw from the organization and form themselves into a new corporation, known as the Toledo Produce Exchange. The plan set forth in Mr. Carrington's resolution was adopted as the basis upon which the exchange was established. In the course of two years (the old board having dissolved)
enough money had accrued from the increased membership with which to begin the enterprise which Mr. Carrington had labored for. He was made chairman of the building com- mittee, and as such toiled zealously until the enterprise was carried to completion, The property is now valued at nearly a quarter of a million. It is worthy of note that the Produce Exchange of Toledo was the first in the United States that erected and owned its own building. It has since been patterned after by New York, Baltimore, Chicago, and other large cities. Great credit is due Mr. Carrington for the present high standing of the exchange as compared with others throughout the country ; a membership in it is now valued at $2,000 instead of $20, as when he first began his efforts toward improvement. He has been one of the direct- ors of the exchange ever since its existence, and during 1880 its president. In the beginning of 1881 a branch house was established by the firm in St. Louis, Missouri, which is also carrying on a large business under the management of Mr. F. B. Shoemaker and son-in-law, a junior partner. Mr. Car- rington is one of the most enterprising and practical business men in the country, not only in connection with his own ex- tensive interests, but also in public enterprises and improve- ments, both material and commercial. He has been for many years largely interested in banks, western lands, ves- sels, railroads, and insurance companies. While on a visit east in 1874 he was nominated by his party (the Democratic) for State Senator, which nomination he respectfully declined to accept. In 1877, however, he was appointed by Governor Bishop, and reappointed by Governor Foster, as a member of the Board of State Charities. This was a selection wisely made, and was accepted by Mr. Carrington from the fact that it is a subject in which he is greatly interested, and in which he has always taken a very active part in his own city. As a member of the board he has served with distinction in the course pursued by him toward this important department of the State's control. In religion Mr. Carrington is a Congre- gationalist, having been a member of that Church since 1854, and for many years a trustee of his church (the First Congre- gational). He was married November 20, 1849, to Miss Eliz- abeth M., daughter of Lyman and Maria Casey, of York, Livingston County, New York, and sister to his partner.
BUSHNELL, A. S., of Springfield, is a member of the oldest and one of the largest manufacturing firms of that place. He was born in Rome, Oneida County, New York, on the 16th of September, 1834. His parents, Daniel and Harriet Bushnell, were natives of Connecticut, and removed to New York State at an early day. Mrs. Bushnell is dead, but his father is still living, at the age of eighty-two. A. S. Bushnell received his early education in the Eleventh District School, Cincinnati, Ohio, going to Springfield to live in 1851. That city was then much smaller than now, having but five thousand inhabitants, and many of the prominent industries now developed had not then begun. He procured a situation as a dry-goods clerk, in which capacity he served three years. He was then employed as a book-keeper for Leffel, Cook & Blakeney for three years, and after this was with Warder, Brokaw & Child for one year. In the Fall of 1857, having accumulated a little money, he entered into partnership with Dr. John Ludlow in the drug business, which he continued until 1867. After this he became the junior partner of the firm of Warder, Mitchell & Co., now Warder, Bushnell & Glessner. This establishment is carrying on a
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very extensive business in the manufacture of the Champion Reapers and Mowers, and is known all over the United States. Mr. Bushnell is now doing honor to himself and the city as presiding officer of the city council. He is president of the Republic Printing Company and the Springfield Gas- light and Coke Company, and is one of the directors of the Springfield Female Seminary and the Springfield Savings Bank. During the war he was active and energetic, giving liberally of his time and money to suppress the rebellion. He recruited Company E, One Hundred and Fifty-second Regiment Ohio National Guard, and went out with them as their captain, being under General Hunter in the campaign at Martinsburgh and Lynchburg, Virginia. He was married to Miss Ellen Ludlow, daughter of John Ludlow, September 17th, 1857, and has two daughters and one son. In politics he is a republican, and an active worker for that which he believes to be right. With his family he is a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church. He has always favored useful public improvements in his adopted city and the State and nation. Mr. Bushnell's career in Springfield is worthy of note. Beginning when a youth as clerk, he gradually worked his way up to the confidence and esteem of his employers, and after ten years of experience as a druggist was invited to a partnership in one of the leading manufacturing establish- ments of the city. He is an active business man, social and courteous in all relations of life. He is highly esteemed as a citizen, and regarded as a man of rare business qualifications and prospects. Having by industry, economy, and hard study gradually become recognized as one of the leading men of Springfield, he may truly be called a self-made man.
BACKUS, ELIJAH, a pioneer lawyer and editor of Marietta, Ohio, was born at Norwich, Connecticut, about 1745. He was descended from a family dating back in the history of Connecticut as early as 1637, when William Backus, the first of the line in this country, was living at Saybrook, in that State. He was one of thirty-five men who bought the township of Norwich, Connecticut, in 1659. The family of Backuses, descended from this head, have become very numerous, and a large number have acquired distinction in the various walks of life. Elijah Backus, whose iron- works at Yantic were so serviceable to the country in the Revolutionary War, was one of this family. James Backus, one of his sons, as agent of the Ohio Company, made the first surveys of Marietta, Ohio, and is said to have built the first regular house in that town. Elijah Backus, an older brother of James, was a graduate of Yale, in 1777, and for several years held the office of Collector of Customs at New London, Connecticut. His daughter was the mother of Major-general John Pope, U. S. A. Several of the Backus family have been distinguished in the ministry. Elijah Backus, the subject of this sketch, was a graduate of Yale College, and afterward studied law, and was admitted to the bar. In 1800 he removed to Marietta, Ohio, and engaged in practice with Wyllis Silliman. They also established the Ohio Gazette and Virginia Herald, the first Democratic paper published in Ohio, issuing the first number November 30, 1801, with Mr. Backus as its editor. He had been appointed by President Jefferson Receiver of the Public Moneys of the United States. The Gazette zealously sus- tained Mr. Jefferson's administration. The following is taken from the Marietta Register, of November 30, 1876 : " Three-quarters of a century old to-day is the Register-not
in name, but in fact-it being the lineal descendant of the Ohio Gazette and Virginia Herald, started in Marietta, No- . vember 30, 1801. A few items relating to Marietta editors may not be uninteresting, not a full, but a desultory account. The Gazette of 1801 was established by Elijah Backus and Wyllis Silliman, who bought their printing materials at Philadelphia-the press, a wooden one with a stone bed, which bed is still in the Register office. Royal Prentiss, after- ward a well known citizen of Marietta, was a printer on the first paper issued here. Backus and Silliman were lawyers. Mr. Backus was elected to the State Senate, in 1803." Hon. Lewis Cass, of Michigan, read law with Mr. Backus, and was admitted to the bar in Marietta. Mr. Backus was the owner of the island in the Ohio, below Marietta, afterward sold to the famous Blennerhassett. Mr. Backus afterward removed to Kaskaskia, Illinois, and was judge of the Court of Common Pleas when he died, in 1812.
BACKUS, THOMAS, lawyer, was born at Norwich, Connecticut, August 8, 1785. After due preparation, he en- tered Yale College, where he was graduated. His father, Eli- jah Backus, had previously removed to Marietta, Ohio, and engaged in the practice of law, and as soon as the young man had completed his course he entered the office of his father, as a student, in 1808, being admitted to the bar by the Su- preme Court of Ohio. On November 10, 1810, he was mar- ried to Temperance Lord, daughter of Colonel Abner Lord, and in 1811 removed to Franklinton, Franklin County, and engaged in the practice of law. In 1820 he was appointed prosecuting attorney, by the court. He owned a large body of land, six miles up the Scioto from Franklinton, and was largely engaged in real estate operations. He removed to Marion, with his family, in 1823, and was there appointed prosecuting attorney, but died during his term of office. This was on the 25th of October, 1825. His wife soon after re- moved again to Franklinton, and in 1828 took up her resi- dence in Columbus. Mr. Backus was a frequent contributor to newspapers and magazines. He was an able and incis- ive writer, and sometimes indulged in poetry. His lines on the demolition of the beautiful Indian mound on the corner of High and Mound Streets, Columbus, became celebrated for their pathos, and were published in Martin's " History of Franklin County." The earth was used in the manufac- ture of bricks for the State House. It was interspersed with human bones.
BACKUS, ABNER L. Among the class of men con- nected with State affairs in the early history of Ohio, few were more prominently and actively associated with the in- ternal improvements of the State than Mr. Backus. For many years past, however, he has not been identified with affairs of state, having withdrawn from the school of politics and politicians, and consequently from public life. His reasons for so doing were not, perhaps, that he did not have aspirations in that direction, which it would seem could not have met with other than high reward, but were personal to himself. A family of sons were growing up around him, whose ambitions he did not wish directed in that channel, and hence he sacrificed his own ambition in order that the influence and glamour of the inheritance he might otherwise leave them might be removed. Mr. Backus was born at Co- lumbus, Ohio, June 27, 1818, being the fourth son of Thomas and Temperance (Lord) Backus. His maternal ancestor,
Aller L Packung
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Colonel Abner Lord, was a prominent business man of Marietta, Ohio, in a very early day. He emigrated from Lyme, Connecticut, his native place, about 1800, and en- gaged in the mercantile business, and also in ship-building, continuing the latter until 1807, when the embargo act, dur- ing Mr. Jefferson's administration, caused a suspension of the enterprise, and resulted in the loss of his fortune. He died in 1821, in Franklin County, Ohio, where he had lived the remaining ten years of his life. The biographies of Mr. Backus's paternal ancestors are given elsewhere. Our sub- ject received a good education at the schools of Marietta, and at the age of nineteen entered the service of the State as civil engineer, being engaged in the construction of her canals. With this great enterprise of internal improvement he was connected, either directly or indirectly, till 1878, ex- cept from 1846 to 1852. He served as constructing engi- neer, and afterward as superintendent of the Miami and Erie Canal, from its inception, in 1837, until its completion. Many other positions in the management of these interests were filled by him, and his skill and executive ability soon placed him at the head of the entire system. In 1857 Mr. Backus was elected a member of the State Board of Public Works, being the only successful candidate on the Demo- cratic ticket. The ticket was headed by H. B. Payne, of Cleveland, for Governor. Mr. Payne, however, was defeated by twelve or thirteen hundred votes. Mr. Backus was made President of the Board, in which capacity he rendered val- uable service to the State during liis term of office. During these years he had taken a very active part in politics, being a very ardent and influential Democrat. In 1860 he was sent as alternate delegate to the Democratic National Con- vention at Baltimore. In consequence of the grave errors, as he considered them, on the part of the politicians, in making their nominations (he being an ardent supporter of Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois), and from the dissensions of liis party in general, he became disgusted with the whole proceedings. Combined with the other causes above stated, they caused his withdrawal from the political field, never again to become a participant. While for over twenty years he has abided by this conclusion, he has never failed, on proper occasions, to give expression to his zeal in the cause of true Democracy, by advocating and upholding its principles. For several years prior to 1860, Mr. Backus was engaged in several mercantile enterprises along the Maumee River, and in 1862 engaged in the grain and commission business, in Toledo, in company with Mr. S. M. Young, now of that city. The firm of Young & Backus erected what was then con- sidered a large grain elevator-among the first built in Toledo. It still stands on Water Street, and in it Mr. Backus yet retains half-ownership. The twenty years of his career in Toledo as a business man has been one of remarkable suc- cess, considered not merely in relation to its pecuniary re- wards, but also in its general bearing upon the material and commercial interests of the city and public in general. He has always been a prominent man in public matters calcu- lated for the enhancement and growth of advantages neces- sary for the development of all the interests that combine to build up a great city, which Toledo is fast approaching. Mr. Backus was one of the organizers of the Toledo and Columbus Railroad, of which he was a director for the eight years prior to its consolidation with the Hocking Val- ley and West Virginia Railroads, in 1881, when he disposed of all his interests in it. In 1881 he aided in organizing the 27
Union Railroad Elevator Company, of Toledo, of which he is president. The capacity of the company's elevator is eight hundred thousand bushels of grain, and it is one of the largest in the city. He is now and has been a director in the Toledo Gas Light and Coke Company since 1871. Mr. Backus has done much toward building up the extensive grain interests of Toledo, and has been for years one of the most prominent members of the Produce Exchange of that city, of which he has been a director ever since its existence, and in 1877 its president. The firm of Backus & Sons is carrying on a very extensive business, which is conducted with great suc- cess, and to the entire satisfaction of the public who have com- mercial dealings with them. In the Spring of 1881 Mr. Backus was appointed, by Governor Foster, one of the four members of the Police Commission of Toledo, instituted by an act of the State Legislature, passed in the same year. In this capacity he rendered much valuable service in bringing about an efficient police organization for the city. Mr. Backus was married October 29, 1844, to Miss Elizabeth Reed, of Water- ville, daughter of Judge Henry Reed and Temperance Pratt, also of Connecticut. He was formerly an associate judge of Lucas County, under the old constitution of the State. She died October 25, 1878, leaving a family of three sons and three daughters, now grown into men and women. The former seem to have inherited largely the business qualifica- tions and characteristics of their father. Mr. Backus is not a member of any church, but was educated and brought up in the Episcopalian faith. No citizen of Toledo enjoys the con- fidence and esteem of his fellow-citizens more generally than Mr. Backus. He is a man of the strictest integrity, and of unimpeachable character, whose influence and energies are always directed toward the highest interests of society. He is a person of great independence of thought and action, which are always guided by a high order of intelligence.
BEATTY, JOHN, pioneer. James Beatty, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born in County Cavan, Ireland, in 1745. He was descended from an old Cavan family, whose history can be easily traced to the fourteenth century. The name was originally Betagh. In 1611 grants of land were made by Parliament to Henry Betagh, gentleman, the great- great-great-grandfather of James Beatty. These lands are shown by the record to have been transmitted to John Beatye, the grandson of Henry, and portions of the same estate are at this time in possession of his lineal descendants, Mr. John Beatty, of Kivet, and Mr. John Beatty, of Lisney, both of the parish of Kilashandra, County Cavan. James Beatty, when he attained his majority, removed from Cavan to County Wexford, located at Ballycanow, and is still well and favorably remembered there as a successful mill-owner and merchant, a warm-hearted, hospitable man, and an exem- plary member of the Episcopal Church. He died in 1805, leaving the bulk of his fortune to James, his eldest son. John Beatty, the third son, was born in Ballycanow, March 17, 1774. When eighteen years old, he obtained the parental permission to visit America, spent a year or two in Phila- delphia, traveled over New England, and finally concluded to locate in Norwich, Connecticut. Before doing this, how- ever, he thought it best to return to Ireland, submit the plans he had formed to his father, and obtain the means necessary to enable him to engage in business. This he did in the Spring of 1796. In the Fall of that year, while standing on the quay at Dublin, awaiting departure of
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the vessel on which he proposed to take passage for Phila- delphia, his attention was attracted to a group consisting of one gentleman and two young ladies. Observing this party intently for a short time, Beatty pointed out one of the ladies to a companion, and said very emphatically: "There is my wife." True to the resolution thus suddenly formed, he made the acquaintance on ship-board of this young lady, Miss Mary Cooke, of County Fermanagh, the sister of Will- iam Cooke, Esq., one of the early settlers of Lancaster, Ken- tucky, and niece of Brigadier-general William Irvine, a name often and favorably mentioned in connection with the Revo- lutionary War. Miss Cooke was born near Enniskillen, De- cember 25, 1776, and was then in her nineteenth year, a handsome, intelligent, educated woman. This lady Mr. Beatty married in Philadelphia, October 22, 1796, and soon after returned to Norwich, where he remained until 1803, when he removed to New London. Having embraced the denominational tenets of his mother (Ann Bennett), he be- came an active and zealous member of the Methodist Epis- copal Church, and while at Norwich and New London de- voted much time to religious matters. Mr. D. N. Bently, of Norwich, in a letter dated January 10, 1876, writes that Mr. John Beatty "was a Methodist local preacher in Norwich (1802-3). He formed the first class in what was then called the Landing, where, at his house, the circuit preachers held their meetings. In those meetings 1 received my first re- ligious impressions, and joined his class on probation. Mr. Beatty was a remarkably generous, kind-hearted man. 1 have known him to give to a poor destitute widow the last dollar from his pocket. He was not an economical man, and was somewhat negligent of his business affairs. He sustained, while a resident in Norwich and New London, an excellent Christian character, beloved and respected by all denomina- tions." It will not do to infer from father Bently's state- ment that his old class-leader was a saint. This would be very far from the truth, for John Beatty, evidently trying to do his best when Mr. Bently knew him, was, in fact, a hot- tempered, impulsive, generous, obstinate Irishman, who never managed to attain that degree of Christian perfection which enabled him to love his enemies, or offer the left cheek to an adversary who had smitten him on the right. In 1808-9, having acquired, either through his own business or from the estate of his father, who had died three years previously, what in that day was regarded as a handsome fortune, he conceived the idea of investing a portion of his.money in wild lands, and thus, as he supposed, laying the foundation of an estate that would not only make him independent for life, but become a splendid inheritance for his children. In the prosecution of this plan, he made a prospecting tour through the wilderness of Northern Ohio in 1810, and subse- quently purchased large tracts, embracing thousands of acres of what were then known as the Connecticut fire-lands. On this trip West he was accompanied by Thomas James, Judges Wright and Ruggles, and James Forsythe, the last a brother- in-law of Mr. Beatty. Soon after his return to Connecticut he induced a number of families to remove to his Ohio lands, and finally, in 1815, followed them with his own family and a colony consisting of about sixty persons. He built his first cabin five miles south of Sandusky, on what is still known to the older inhabitants of that region as the Stone-house place. This investment in wild land would doubtless have been an exceedingly profitable one had Mr. Beatty remained in Connecticut, prosecuted the business in which he was en-
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