USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume I > Part 54
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EELLS, REV. JAMES, D. D., LL. D., brother of Dan P. Eells, of Cleveland, Ohio, was born in Westmore- land, New York, August 27, 1822. The family record is traced back to Colonel Samuel Eells, who came to America from England, in the latter part of the seventeenth century. His son was Rev. Nathaniel Eells, who was graduated at Harvard in 1696, and was settled as pastor in the Presbyterian
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Church in Scituate, Massachusetts. His son, Rev. Nathaniel Eells, was also a graduate of Harvard, in 1728, and was for nearly half a century pastor of the Congregational Church in Stonington, Connecticut, where he died. His son, Rev. Edward Eells, also a graduate of Harvard, succeeded his father in the pastoral office at Stonington. His son was Rev. James Eells, who was graduated at Yale College, in 1763, and who was afterward settled as pastor of the Orthodox Church in Glastonbury, Connecticut. His son, Rev. James Eells, also a graduate of Yale, in 1799, removed, early in this century, to what was then the West, in Central New York, where he labored as pastor and missionary, and as financial agent for Hamilton College, until his removal to Ohio, in 1831. He died in Grafton, in that State, in May, 1856, from injuries received in a railway accident, after a long and most useful and blameless life. One of his sons was Rev. J. Henry Eells, a graduate of Hamilton College, in 1828, who, after a brief and successful ministry at Elyria and Perrysburg, in this State, was accidentally drowned in the Maumee River, in 1836. Another was Samuel Eells, also a graduate of Hamilton, and known as the founder of the college fraternity of Alpha Delta Phi, whose life, after a career of great brilliance and promise in the legal profession, was cut short by consumption, in 1842. He was the legal partner, in Cincinnati, of Salmon P. Chase, and the personal friend and compeer of William S. Groesbeck, and of others who have since become distinguished at the Ohio bar and in political life. Dr. Eells is thus the living representative of a family of ministers extending through six generations. Like his brothers just named, he pursued collegiate studies at Ham- ilton College, where he was graduated with honor, in 1844. He had taught school before entering college, as a means of support, and after his graduation he resumed this occupa- tion for a time, in the State of Kentucky. He at first had determined upon following his brother Samuel in the legal profession, but was finally led to yield to the ancestral bent toward the Christian ministry, and to choose that as his voca- tion. His study of theology was commenced at Oberlin, but in 1849 he entered the Presbyterian Theological Seminary, at Auburn, New York, where he graduated in 1851. He had received, before graduating, an invitation to the pastorate of the Presbyterian Church in Penn Yan, New York, which he accepted, and entered at once upon his ministerial labors. In 1855, he received a call from the Second Presbyterian Church, in Cleveland, Ohio, then, as now, one of the most conspicuous congregations of that denomination in the State. Accepting . this call, he became at once popular and influential as preacher and pastor, in the city and in the region. His pastorate. in Cleveland was continued, with great usefulness, for five years, when he resigned, in 1859, to accept the ministerial office in the Church on the Heights, in Brooklyn, New York, of which the Rev. George Bethune, D. D., then re- cently deceased, had long been the eloquent and successful pastor. His connection with this Church, which was one of the most conspicuous congregations in the Dutch Re- formed body, was not determined by any change in his eccle- siastical views, but simply by considerations of usefulness and of health. While in this position, he received, in 1861, the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity, from the University of the City of New York. He remained in Brooklyn until 1867, when impelled by similar considerations, he accepted a prominent pastoral charge in San Francisco, in connection with the Presbyterian Church. A new and most interest-
ing and important field of usefulness here opened before him. The congregation was one of the largest on the Pa- cific coast; the city was just passing through a critical period, both in its material growth and in its moral history ; and California was rapidly rising into position and influence. Dr. Eells remained in San Francisco until 1870, when he was recalled to his former charge in Cleveland, where he labored for four years, with increased activity and success. No pastor in that city was more honored for his work, or more beloved for his personal qualities. In 1874, he was again called to California, to the care of the First Presby- terian Church, in Oakland, and was led, by urgent reasons in connection with the health of his family, to consent to the sundering of his pleasant relations in Cleveland. Re- suming his work on the Pacific coast, he became at once widely influential, and his extensive labors in the interest of his denomination and of evangelical Christianity were highly appreciated. While in this field, he was chosen professor of sacred rhetoric and pastoral theology in the Presbyterian Theological Seminary, located in San Francisco, and during his stay in California he discharged acceptably the duties of that position, in connection with his pastoral work. In 1877, at Chicago, he was chosen Moderator of the General Assem- bly of the Presbyterian Church, and filled that difficult place with marked acceptance. In the same year he visited Eu- rope, as a delegate from the Presbyterian Church of the United States to the meeting of the Pan-Presbyterian Alli- ance, held in Edinburgh, taking the opportunity, during the Summer, of visiting also some portions of the Continent. In May, 1879, Dr. Eells was elected professor of practical theology (including homiletics, Church polity, and the pas- toral care), in Lane Theological Seminary, an important in- stitution of the Presbyterian Church, located at Cincinnati. He accepted the unanimous invitation of the board of trus- tees, and in the Autumn resigned his charge in California, . in order to enter upon the duties of his new position. Here he is highly appreciated, not merely as an able professor and teacher, but also as a popular preacher and a man of extensive influence in the Church and in society. His ser- vices in the Seminary, and in its behalf, have been such as to command entire confidence, and his continuance and in- creasing usefulness in this new sphere may be safely pre- dicted. In 1881, Dr. Eells received the additional title of LL. D., from Marietta College. He is also one of the associ- ate editors of the Presbyterian Quarterly Review, published in New York. It is just to say that the Presbyterian Church at large recognizes in him one of its foremost men. Dr. Eells was married, in 1851, to Miss Emma Paige, then a resident of Auburn, New York. One of his sons, Charles Parmelee Eells, was graduated from Hamilton College, in 1874, and is now a lawyer in successful practice, in San Francisco.
WELCH, JOHN, LL. D., a lawyer of distinction and for thirteen years a judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio, was born in Harrison County, Ohio, October 29, 1805. His father, Thomas Welch, and his mother, Martha Daugherty, the one of English and the other of Irish parentage, were among the earliest pioneers to that part of the State. John Welch was one of a family of seven sons and four daughters, and, his father being a man of limited means, the son's early educational advantages were circumscribed to the meager opportunities afforded in his own immediate neighborhood. When eighteen years old, his father, at his earnest solicita-
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tion, gave him his time, and he began to address himself seriously to obtaining such an education as he had deter- mined to procure. He taught school, and devoted his earn- ings to the prosecution of higher studies, in 1823 entering Franklin College, and in five years, by alternate teaching and attendance at that institution, succeeded in graduating from it with honor. Having decided upon the law as his profession, in January, 1829, he commenced his legal studies under the preceptorship of Joseph Dana, of Athens. He was very fortunate in his selection of a calling, as subse- quent experience has proved, being possessed of a strong, analytical mind, and being otherwise adapted to the profes- sion. He applied himself to his studies with such earnestness that his health became greatly impaired, and by the advice of his physician he discontinued his studies for a time, and began other work, finding employment in a saw and grist mill. By varying the labors attending this occupation with study, he did not fail to realize from both, and while regain- ing his health he was also acquiring the information that enabled him, in 1833, to pass an examination and to be ad- mitted to practice. Having married, some three years previ- ously, the daughter of Captain James Starr, of Athens, Ohio, he decided there to make his home, and has resided in that place permanently since. Having brought to the prac- tice of his profession the ability, energy, and diligence which distinguished him in every previous engagement, he soon became established as a prosperous lawyer, with cases of im- portance always on hand. In 1845 he was elected to the State Senate, and served a term of two years in that body. In 1850 he was, as the successor of S. F. Vinton, elected to Congress, and served a term also in that body; but, by reason of his district being changed during that term he was not re-elected. In Congress he distinguished himself by de- livering a speech on the public lands, which was published at length in the National Intelligencer. In 1852 he was a delegate to the Baltimore Convention which nominated Gen- eral Scott for President, and in 1856 he was a member of the electoral college that cast the vote of Ohio for John C. Fremont. In 1862 he was elected Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, and sat on the bench of that court three years, when he was appointed to the supreme bench of Ohio, to succeed Hon. Rufus P. Ranney, who had resigned. He was thus engaged thirteen years, when he retired, and once more engaged in practice. His judicial opinions are con- tained in the Ohio State Reports, Vols. XVI to XXVI, in- clusive ; also a few in Vol. XXIX. Among his more impor- tant opinions may be cited the one delivered in the case of the Board of Education vs. Miner, known in the judicial his- tory of Ohio as the "Bible case," and involving the relation of the courts to the public schools, with reference to the use of the Bible in the schools. In this case he held that the Constitution of the State does not enjoin or require religious instruction, or the reading of religious books, in the public schools of the State; and the Legislature, having placed the management of the public schools under the exclusive con- trol of directors, trustees, and boards of education, the courts have no rightful authority to interfere by directing what in- struction shall be given, or what books shall be read therein. The case of the State of Ohio vs. Sherman et al., 22 O. S. R., was a proceeding in quo warranto under section 12 of the Attorney-general's Act (S. and C. 89), instituted by the House of Representatives against certain individuals charged with usurping the franchises of a corporation. This opinion served
to settle the law in regard to corporations, and defined legis- lative authority relative to the creation of corporations under the Constitution of Ohio. His opinion in the case of Brown vs. State of Ohio is one of the most elaborate in the annals of jurisprudence in this State. Judge Welch has made an exceptionally high record as a lawyer. His experience at the bar covers a period of over forty years. In the earlier years of his practice he was a contemporary of Thomas Ewing, the elder, and in many of his more important cases met in legal controversy that distinguished lawyer. Judge - Welch is a warm friend of cheap home colleges, and depre- cates the extravagant practices which characterize the con- duct of Eastern colleges. In a lecture delivered before the students of Franklin College, June 28, 1876, he thus ex- pressed himself:
" 1 may be wrong in this matter, but I can not resist the conviction that at least some part of the extravagance and consequent corruption which now abound in the country, which cause true Americans everywhere to cover their faces in shame, and which hang as a cloud of disgrace over our otherwise glorious Centennial, is attributable to the mammoth wealth and extravagance of the Eastern colleges and the cost of attendance upon them. Their inmates are the sons of the rich, or of those who ape the rich ; or, if any of them are not such, they are but too apt to take on the character of their surroundings, and the tendency is to have them all come forth from the college educated aristocrats, full of the old-fashioned belief that labor is a divine punishment, that the well-born alone should be educated, and that the mass of mankind are doomed to perpetual ignorance and toil. They are assigned high positions in society, and give tone to its morals and customs. If they become lawyers or physi- cians, they expect large fees for little service. If they are placed in offices of trust and honor, they expect high salaries and numerous corps of subalterns and attendants, who are to do all the work and get but little of the pay. If they are ministers, they seek congregations dressed in silks and broad- cloths, and seated on cushioned pews, where people of mod- erate means can not attend without humiliation. Their hab- its of extravagance and aristocracy cling to them through life, and follow them into every position, and all else must be sacrificed at their shrines. When their wealth slips away from them, as it generally does, or they lose their lucrative positions, they either live in 'splendid poverty' or become leeches upon society-it may be, form themselves into 'rings,' and prey upon public plunder.'
Judge Welch's views are further enunciated in the follow- ing extract, which shadows his democracy :
" What the country needs, and what it must have, in order to save it from failure and disgrace, is a return to the republican plainness and simplicity of its founders. We must cease to ape aristocracy in any of its forms or phases. Let us either be republicans in very deed or cease to claim the name. We greatly need, just now, a few Benjamin Franklins, judiciously distributed in places of influence and power, shedding the light of their example upon us; and to this end we need a plentiful supply of such schools and places of education as those at which Franklin graduated. We must have men in high places who are patterns of plainness, economy, simplicity, and honesty-men who have
' The austere virtues strong to save, The honor proof to place or gold, The manhood never bought or sold.'
I say, let us multiply instead of diminishing the number of our colleges, and let us more widely distribute instead of con- centrating our endowments and patronage, so that each may have a competence, and none of them a plethora. I by no means agree to the theory that Ohio has too many colleges, and that some of them ought to be crushed or suffered to die out, that others might gain by their loss. I believe if the forty odd colleges of Ohio were consolidated into a single university that their usefulness would be vastly diminished.
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And I say now, as I said before a legislative committee last Winter, 'that it is the true policy of the State to endeavor to .keep them all on foot by helping those which most need help,' and that 'the poverty of a college, and the fact that she is about to be crushed out by her rivals, are poor reasons for refusing her aid.' "
Judge Welch had four children-two sons and two daugh- ters. Johnson M. was a major in the late war for the Union, and is now a lawyer of prominence, being one of the leading civil lawyers in his section of the State, and the junior mem- ber of the law firm of Welch & Welch. His other son, Henry H., is secretary of the National Wood Preserving Company, St. Louis.
KENNON, WILLIAM, JR., a lawyer of note, and a member of the Thirtieth Congress of the United States, was born at Carrickfergus, Ireland, June 12th, 1802, and died at his home in St. Clairsville, Ohio, October 12th, 1867. He accompanied his parents to America when quite young, set- tling in Belmont County, Ohio. He attended the common schools of the day when a boy, and later matriculated at Franklin College, where he graduated in due time; and having exhausted such means of education as were at his command, he turned his attention to the study of law. His predilection for the law was severely discountenanced by his father, a circumstance which early threw him upon his own resources, and which, doubtless, served to develop the habits of diligence and pains-taking care which distinguished him in later life. He was admitted to the bar in 1836, and his subsequent practice was characterized by the diligence and assiduity which marked his preparation. He thus became recognized as an accurate and able lawyer, and when he was elevated to the Common Pleas Bench it was said by many, and with good reason, that he was the " best judge that ever presided in Belmont County." In 1846 Mr. Ken- non was elected to Congress, where he served his constit- uency with his customary zeal and ability. In 1864 he was elected to the Common Pleas Bench, to fill an unexpired term, and in 1865 was re-elected for the full term, but resigned in the fall of 1867, to return to the active practice of his pro- fession. He had also served as prosecuting attorney for Belmont County from 1837 to 1841. Mr. Kennon was mar- ried to Miss Elizabeth G. Kirkwood, whose family were prom- inent in the early history of the country. Her grandfather, Robert Kirkwood, was in the struggle for colonial independ- ence. He was commissioned by Congress a first lieutenant in the only regiment raised by the State of Delaware for the defense of the colonies. He was afterward made a captain. At the defeat of Camden his regiment was reduced to a single company. Under the rules of the service, this debarred him from further promotion, officers being proportioned to the number of men furnished by their respective States. In 1789 Captain Kirkwood settled in Belmont County, and located the site of the present town of Kirkwood. His experiences in bor- der warfare have been preserved and utilized by a writer of romance. He fell at the great defeat of St. Clair, in a brave attempt to repel the enemy with the bayonet. Mr. Kennon filled no public positions other than those named. He was devotedly attached to his profession, and his death was in a measure attributed to his intense application to the duties of his profession. He was a contemporary of William Kennon, Sen., to whom he was related. Both acquired exceptional prominence, both being lawyers of distinction, judges, and Members of Congress.
VINTON, SAMUEL FINLEY, was the direct descend- ant, in the sixth generation, of John Vinton, of Lynn, Massachusetts, whose name occurs in the county record of 1648. The traditions of the race confirm the supposition that the founder of the family in this country was of French origin, by name de Vintonne, and was exiled from France, in the seventeenth century, on account of his being a Hu- guenot. Samuel Finley was the son of Abiathar Vinton, who is spoken of in a book called the "Vinton Memorial," which was compiled by the Rev. John Adams Vinton, as "a substantial farmer, in easy circumstances." Samuel Finley was called after his grand-uncle, Dr. Samuel Finley Vinton, whose name is mentioned in the Massachusetts archives as one of the_" minute-men " that marched on the " Lexington alarm," in April, 1775. The subject of this sketch was born September 25, 1792, and was the eldest of seven children. His mother was Sarah Day, of South Hadley. Mr. Vinton graduated at Williams College, in 1814, and in 1816 was ad- mitted to the Connecticut bar. Soon after this he established himself in the practice of law, at Gallipolis, Ohio. In 1822, without having either expected or solicited the nomination, he was elected to Congress, and continued to be chosen, by constantly increasing majorities, for fourteen years, until, in 1836, he voluntarily withdrew from public life. The American Review, of September, 1848, says, in a memoir published of Mr. Vinton, with regard to this continuous service: " Dur- ing this long interval, he took a part, equally useful and active, in nearly all the great questions; and from the first that power of labor and that prompt instinct of the useful-of the substance of things-which had so quickly made Mr. Vinton a leading lawyer, also made him an efficient Representative. He applied to each question, as it arose, his strong powers of investigation." Mr. Vinton originated and carried through the House various meas- ures of great importance to the general interests of the country. But any adequate statement of his service, how- ever concise, would transcend the limits of an encyclopedic notice. In 1843, after an interval of six years, during which he occupied himself most successfully with the practice of the law, he was very reluctantly induced to consent to a re- nomination to Congress. He then continued in public life for six years, but in 1849 he voluntarily withdrew from po- litical life, and positively declined a re-election. At the time the country was at war with Mexico, he was chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, and at this particular juncture his financial talent was admitted to have been of great service to the nation. During the entire course of his public life, he had ably opposed various schemes for the sale of the public lands, and he was acknowledged as the leader in the House of Representatives, of the party that adhered to the plan of the framers of the government adopted for their disposal. Among other notable public benefits, he originated, matured, and carried through the House, against much oppo- sition, the law which created the Department of the Interior. Of Mr. Vinton's public service, John Quincy Adams said* that "very few men, if any, in Congress, were his superiors." And among his contemporaries who survive him, the Hon. Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia, in a speech made in the House of Representatives, March 3, 1880, alludes to Mr. Vinton as "a Whig leader," in these words: "Samuel F. Vinton, of Ohio, whose acquaintance with the rules, great
*See " Vinton Memorial," page 197.
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prudence, and sound judgment, rendered him, perhaps, the most prominent leader on the Whig side." This is a dis- passionate verdict, given nearly twenty years after his death, and may thus well pass into history. In 1851, he consented to accept the candidacy for Governor of Ohio, and this at a time when, owing to a peculiar combination of unfavorable circumstances, defeat was considered as almost certain. But it was hoped that so strong a candidate could perhaps win success. Mr. Vinton himself regarded the election of any Whig as impossible at the time he generously allowed his name to be used, nor was he mistaken in his opinion, as he failed of the election. In 1853, Mr. Vinton assumed the presidency of the Cleveland and Toledo Railroad, which he consented, for the purpose of a thorough organization, to re- "tain for one year, when he resigned the post, and returned to Washington City. From this period of 1854 until the time of his death, on May 11, 1862, he continuously resided at the national capital. During this term of years he lived in dignified retirement, his home being a hospitable center, much frequented by the best society of the country, where Mr. Vinton was constantly consulted by the public men of the day, on all leading questions. When the dark days of civil war, during which his life closed, were upon the nation, many and anxious were the deliberations held at his house, as to the best means to avert the swift-coming calamity of secession ; but his prescient mind foresaw from the first the impending ruin. During his residence as a private citizen in Washington, he never opened a law office for the transaction of law business, but would occasionally consent to argue a law case of importance before the Supreme Court of the United States. He was remarked as singularly successful in the prosecution of his cases, and this success doubtless arose, in great part, from his habits of patient investigation and clear analysis. His mind was pre-eminently an analytical one. He exhausted every subject he discussed, and presented his thoughts without rhetorical flourish, but with wonderful lu- cidity. His use of the English language was masterful, and like his friends Robert C. Winthrop and Daniel Webster, he delighted in wielding words of Saxon strength. As a jurist, he was the peer of the ablest lawyers of the country. Mr. Vinton never associated himself with any of the religious de- nominations, although he reverently believed in God and his revealed law, so far as he understood it. No purer or more unselfish patriot ever served his country. His first and highest thought was the national good, and in this ardent de- sire for the common welfare he merged his own career, and all personal considerations. Some weeks previous to his death, he had yielded to the urgent solicitations of many; and consented to become one of three commissioners appointed by President Lincoln to adjust the claims of slaveholders in the District of Columbia, at the time of the manumission of their slaves. Mr. Vinton died of traumatic erysipelas, after a brief illness; and it was his dying request to be buried in the cemetery of Gallipolis, Ohio, beside the dear wife whose memory he had, for over thirty years, so faithfully cherished. He was married, in 1824, to Romaine Madeleine Bureau, a daughter of one of the most respected of the early French emigrants. His wife died in May, 1831, leaving him two children : John Bureau, who died very young, and Madeleine Vinton Dahlgren, the writer of this sketch. Mr. Vinton was of slight frame, but of great dignity of presence. His mild and clear blue-gray eye was very penetrating, and his thin, compressed lips evinced the determination of his character. 28
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