USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume I > Part 56
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1. 76 Bergen U. D
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district." Mr. Hoffman was married, October 5th, 1843, to Lucy M. Fuller, a daughter of James J. Fuller, of Athens, Ohio. By this marriage there are two sons,-James F., by profession a lawyer, and who is associated with him in prac- tice, and Frank F., who is also a lawyer. Mr. Hoffman's wife died at Columbus, Ohio, July 22d, 1874. On the 21st of December, 1875, he was married to Miss Mary E. Sulli- vant, the fourth daughter of Joseph Sullivant, of Columbus, by which marriage there is a son five years of age. He is a clear- headed business man, whose judgment is seldom at fault when affairs of great moment are to be determined. He is also a lawyer of more than ordinary research, is effective as an advocate, and is gifted with the peculiar faculty of discov- ering and skilfully using to his advantage the weak places of the opposite side of a cause. Mr. Hoffman is a man well adapted to enjoy life. He possesses a large fund of humor, which serves to enliven all who come in contact with him. He occupies a high place in his profession, and is a success- ful man of business, with excellent social qualities, and of unquestioned integrity.
BERGEN, SYMMES HENRY, M. D., of Toledo, O., was born near Princeton, New Jersey, July 15th, 1826. His parents were Christopher and Mary Bergen (whose maiden name was Disbrow). The Bergen family dates back to the earliest period of colonization along the Atlantic coast. Hans Hansen Bergen, the common ancestor of the Bergens of Long Island, New Jersey, and vicinity, was a native of Ber- gen, Norway, a ship carpenter by trade, who came to New Amsterdam (now New York) in 1633, in the same vessel with Wouter Van Twiller, the second director-general. He mar- ried, in 1639, Sarah Jansen de Rapalje, the first white child of European parentage born in the colony of New Nether- lands, the date of her birth being June 9th, 1625. For two and a half centuries the Bergens have figured prominently in the history of New York, New Jersey, and in other States in all professions, positions, and trades-in the military profes- sion, law, the ministry, medicine, educational affairs, and in legislative halls. Christopher Bergen, the father of Symmes Henry Bergen, who died in 1844, at the age of sixty, was a farmer by occupation, and had served as captain of a company in the war of 1812. His father had been a soldier of the Revolutionary war, and had a large plan- tation carried on by slaves, slavery being then tolerated in New Jersey. The doctor's mother, whose death occurred in 1846, at the age of sixty, was also a native of New Jersey. Her father was a prominent and enterprising man of Cran- berry in that State. He was largely interested in the stage line between New York and Philadelphia, which was, in that day, considered as of as much importance as railroads are at the present age. Dr. Bergen's early education was such as the common school furnished. At the age of thirteen he was sent to a private collegiate school at Freehold, remaining there four years, where he prepared himself for the senior year at college, but did not afterwards matriculate. In 1844 he began the study of medicine with an older brother, who was practicing at Freehold, New Jersey, and in 1846 entered Berkshire Medical College at Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and continued his studies there till 1847, when he went to New York City and entered the Col- lege of Physicians and Surgeons, remaining there only six months. Upon the urgent solicitations of Dr. Alonzo Clark, of New York, now president of the College of Physicians and
Surgeons, and one of the ablest of the profession, he went to Woodstock, Vt., as demonstrator of anatomy in Vermont Medical College. It was while engaged as instructor in that college, in 1848, that Dr. Bergen received his degree of M. D. Immediately after graduating he located at North Bay, Oneida county, New York, a pleasant country village, more for the purpose of recuperating his health (which was poor) than to practice his profession. However, by the time he had re- gained his health, he found himself in the enjoyment of a good practice, which he carried on for the succeeding seven years, besides acting as superintendent of schools for four years, an office to which he was elected. Anxious to try the Western country, Dr. Bergen drew his practice at North Bay to a close, and while on a prospecting tour, in 1855, stopped at Toledo, and was induced by some friends, who had pre- ceded him, to locate there, which he did, and where he has ever since remained, living to see Toledo develop from the then small town into a city of 60,000 inhabitants, and him- self for years in the enjoyment of a large and lucrative prac- tice as well as the respect and esteem of his fellow-citizens. With the exception of Dr. W. W. Jones, Dr. Bergen is the oldest practitioner in Toledo, and enjoys the reputation of be- ing one of the most successful in the medical fraternity. His whole life has been devoted to his profession to the exclusion of every thing of a public character, neither asking nor wish- ing for political preference nor public patronage other than that of his profession. Though popular with his fellow-citizens, and qualified for any position to which they might call him, yet he shrinks from any thing that would divert him from his practice, especially of a public character, other than what is his duty as a citizen to assume. During the war he served as coroner of Lucas county, for four years, and until 1880 was a member of the Board of Health. In 1880 he was elected a member of the Toledo School Board, an excellent selec- tion, since Dr. Bergen has always been very much interested in school matters, and is one of the strongest supporters of schools and good school systems. He was re-elected in 1882, when he was made president of the board, a position he now holds. He was one of the organizers and char- ter members of the Toledo Medical Society, established in 1858, of which he has been president, treasurer, li- brarian, etc. He is also a member of the Ohio State Med- ical Society and the Northwestern Ohio Medical So- ciety. He was formerly a member of the State medical societies in Massachusetts, Vermont, and New York. He has been physician-in-charge of the Protestant Orphans' Home of Toledo ever since its organization, fourteen years ago, and was himself one of the original organizers and founders of the institution. He was also physician of the Lucas County Infirmary for ten years, and is at present, and has been for years, consulting physician for St. Vincent Hospital, Toledo. Dr. Bergen is at present United States pension examiner, and is one of the United States Pension Board, of which he is treasurer. He was for ten years president of the Toledo Mutual Life Insurance Company, of which he was a charter member. The company, however, dissolved in 1881. He has been an Odd Fellow for years, having held several positions in the order ; and has, for twenty-four years, been a member of the Congregational Church, of Toledo. In politics he is a Republican, having formerly been a Whig. November 28th, 1860, Dr. Bergen married Miss Mary S. Lalor, daughter of Jeremiah and Elizabeth Lalor, of Trenton, New Jersey.
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FORAN, MARTIN A., M. C., attorney at law, Cleve- land, was born in Choconut Township, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, November I Ith, 1844. His father, James Foran, was a farmer and cooper. Young Foran spent the first six- teen years of his life on his father's farm, learning the trade of a cooper, and attending the public school. This school, however, was but a very primitive affair, where nothing fur- ther than the mere rudiments of an education were attempted. Martin's ambition rose above this, and from books alone he acquired a knowledge of mathematics and grammar. At the age of sixteen, he entered St. Joseph's College, near Montrose, the county seat of Susquehanna, where, by dili- gent study, for which he was by nature and taste admirably adapted, he obtained a good English education. For two years he taught public and select schools in his native Choco- nut. March 21st, 1864, he entered the Union army, enlisting in Co. E, Fourth Pennsylvania Cavalry, being at the time but nineteen years of age. With his regiment he partici- pated in all the hard-fought engagements of the Army of the Potomac from the time of his joining it to the fall of Rich- mond and the surrender of Lee. In August, 1865, he was honor- ably mustered out of service with his regiment and returned to his native place, exchanging the saber and canteen for the ferule and pen. After teaching school for a few months, he started westward in search of employment, which he failed to obtain until all his money was gone, when he secured work in a coal oil refinery at Meadville, and by rigid econ- omy saved enough of his wages to purchase a set of cooper's tools, with which he went to work at his old trade. In the Spring of 1868, he removed to Cleveland, where he found em- ployment as a journeyman cooper, though at a time when the trade had become demoralized through the failure of a strike. In the Spring of 1869 he succeeded in organizing the coopers of the city into a "Coopers' Union," and was by ac- lamation chosen its president. His next step was to urge the formation of a State union, which was formed the following year, and was soon supplemented by the organization of an international union, the call for which was drawn up by him- self, and of which he was made president at the first meeting in Cleveland. In the Fall of 1871, the second session of the International Coopers' Union was held in Baltimore, and he was again chosen president by a decisive vote. In the fol- lowing year the meeting was held in New York; the sessions were made biennial, and he was retained as chief executive. He was largely instrumental in bringing about the Industrial Congress, held in Cleveland, which succeeded in establishing a community of interests among the several labor unions. While president of the International Coopers' Union, he ed- ited the Coopers' International Journal, the official organ of the organization, and to its columns he contributed many able articles on trade subjects and questions of political econ- omy. In April, 1873, he was elected by the workingmen of Cuyahoga County of all political opinions their delegate to the Ohio Constitutional Convention, and was an indus- trious and valuable member of that body, speaking on nearly all the important subjects which came before them. His speeches which commanded the most attention were those on "Usury," "Protection for miners," "The employment of children in factories and mines," "On the establishment of a bureau of labor statistics," and "On minority representa- tion." In the Spring of 1874, he was admitted to the practice of law in the District Court of Ohio, at Cincinnati, and resigned his position in the Coopers' Union to enter on his new field
of labor. The law firm of Foran & Hossack was formed at Cleveland, and speedily secured an extensive and valu- able practice. In the Spring of 1875 he was elected city prose- cutor, which position he held two years, and was considered one of the best, if not the very best, prosecutor Cleveland ever had. In the Spring of 1881 he was nominated for Judge of the Police Court, and although failing in election, ran ahead of his ticket over 1, 100 votes. In the Fall of 1882 he was nom- inated on the Democratic ticket for Congressman, to repre- sent in Congress the important Twenty-first Congressional District of Ohio. He is a man of ideas, and'has the ability to put them in form and present them in a logical and for- cible manner. Many of his speeches during the campaign were remarkable for their terseness and the able manner in which he presented various issues. His popularity and the estimation in which he was held was evinced by the over- whelming number of votes cast for him on the 10th of Octo- ber, 1882, when he was elected to Congress by a majority of 4,547, and that in a district which had been for many years so strongly Republican. He has truly made his own posi- tion, and that by his untiring energy, industry, and pluck. As a boy, a hard worker and student; as a soldier, brave, dauntless, and true ; as a lawyer, well-versed in the law, successful; as a politician, honorable, he has been found equal to whatever occasion or position he has been placed in. Mr. Foran is a man who has been highly successful in all he has undertaken. He is a diligent student, a hard worker, and a man who gives his whole energy to what- ever business he engages in. He is a man whose private character is without a blemish. Of fine physique, com- manding presence, and quick intelligence, combined with affable and courteous manners, he is a man who wins many friends. Bold and fearless in his denunciation of wrong and his advocacy of the right, he is for his sterling qualities ad- mired by many of his political opponents. In politics he has always been a staunch Democrat. Having risen from the ranks of manual labor himself, he has always been the advo- cate and defender of the workingman, always seeking to improve his position, and is a strong advocate of his rights. The record of his past life gives promise of a brilliant future.
MUENSCHER, REV. JOSEPH, D. D., Mount Ver- non, Ohio, was born December 21st, 1798, at Providence, Rhode Island. His father, John Muenscher, was a native of Ger- many, and was born November 20th, 1748. He died April 13th, 1830, in Providence, where he had been for many years organist of St. John's Church. His mother, Johanna Sophia, though of German parentage, was born in Boston, Massa- chusetts. Her father, John Ernst Knoechell, was born in Hesse Darmstadt, Germany, educated at the University of Leipsig, and after occupying several honorable and respon- sible positions in his native country, removed to the United States in 1753, and settled in Newport, Rhode Island, where he taught a classical school, and died in 1769. Dr. Joseph Muenscher was the youngest of several children, and is the only one now surviving. Early in life he cherished the de- sire to become a minister of the gospel, and with that view prepared to enter college at Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, of which at that time Mr. John Adams was the honored principal. In 1817 he was admitted to Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, from which he was graduated in 1821. After graduation he returned to Andover and prosecuted his theological studies in the Congregational
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Seminary in that place. During the entire course of his prep- aration for the ministry he performed the duties of organist in some church-at Bristol (Rhode Island), Salem (Massachu- setts), Pawtucket, or Providence (Rhode Island). He was admitted to the order of deacons March 10, 1824, and to that of priest in the Protestant Episcopal Church on the 13th of March in the following year, by the Right Rev. Alexander V. Griswold, D. D., Bishop of the Eastern Diocese. Imme- diately after his ordination, in 1824, he took charge of Christ Church, in the southern part of Leicester, Massachusetts, now called Rochdale. Here he remained till 1827, when he resigned, and after temporarily residing in West Brookfield, in charge of the female seminary in that village, he removed with his family to Northampton, Massachusetts, and became rector of St. John's Church, which position he held till 1831, during which time the church edifice was erected. Resigning the charge of the Church in Northampton, he removed to Saco, Maine, and became rector of Trinity Church. In 1833 he was chosen professor of sacred literature in the Episcopal Theological Seminary of Ohio, and resigning the charge of the Church in Saco, he removed to Gambier, Ohio, and en- tered upon his professional duties in the seminary. In con- nection with these, he for two years taught Latin in Kenyon College, and preached the larger part of the time in the col- lege chapel. In 1841 he resigned his professorship, and accepted a call to the rectorship of St. Paul's Church, Mount Vernon, Ohio, though continuing for two years to give in- struction in Hebrew to the theological students in the semi- nary. He resigned the rectorship of St. Paul's Church in 1855, and has since remained without parochial charge. Dr. Muenscher edited the Gambier Observer and Western Epis- copalian for several years ; was several times chosen a deputy to the General Convention of the Church, and was elected for ten successive years secretary of the Diocesan Convention of the Church in Ohio, when he declined a re-election. While at Gambier, Dr. Muenscher published "The Church Choir," a collection of Church music which has been extensively used in the Episcopal Church. He has since published a volume of "Notes on the Proverbs of Solomon," a "Manual of Biblical Interpretation," and a small work on the "Orthog- raphy and Pronunciation of the English Language," besides contributing largely to several theological reviews and other religious periodicals. He was the principal founder of the " Society for the Relief of the Widows and Children of De- ceased Clergymen of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the State of Ohio," and has been its secretary most of the time since its organization in 1845. Dr. Muenscher was married in November, 1825, to Miss Ruth Washburn, a sister of the Hon. Emory Washburn, ex-Governor of Massachusetts, and a daughter of Joseph and Ruth Washburn, of Leicester, Massachusetts. They have had a family of seven children, three of whom survive. In 1849 the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon Mr. Muenscher by Kenyon College, and the same degree in 1852 by his Alma Mater. Dr. Muenscher is now near the close of his eighty- fifth year, and is yet quite active, both mentally and physically. He takes his daily walks, and on occasional Sabbaths fills the pulpit. His time is now chiefly occupied in literary work, being a constant contributor to periodicals, especially of a religious character. He is a man of extended knowledge and of a high order of education, and keeps his pen busily employed in leaving to the world the bequests of his diversi- fied experience and observation and the sound judgments of
a matured and cultured mind. He believes " 'tis better to wear out than to rust out."
DOAN, WILLIAM HALSEY, manufacturer and phil- anthropist, Cleveland, was born in Cuyahoga County, July 3, 1828. His father, the Hon. Job Doan, a man who was identi- fied with the county from the time of its formation, and a mem- ber of the State Legislature, was the son of Nathaniel Doan, who migrated with his family from Connecticut to what is now the site of the city of Cleveland as early as 1798. Where this great, bustling city, with her population of two hundred thousand, now stands, was then a wilderness, a mere trading post, with a few straggling houses, whose inhabitants num- bered less than twenty souls. Around them was the un- broken forest, where the savage red man dwelt. The maiden name of the mother of William H. Doan was Harriet Wood- ruff-a woman of most estimable traits of character. She was known far and wide for her deeds of kindness, and it is, perhaps, owing to the teachings and careful training when a child, by his mother, that his chief characteristic trait is charitableness, and desire to assist the needy and to comfort the afflicted. On his paternal side Mr. Doan traces his line- age to one of the Pilgrim fathers who first landed at Plymouth rock. The traditions of the family extend as far back as to the time of King John, and many of its members, in their time, became men of note. In those old days of feuds and discord, they were a race of warriors. The subject of this sketch received his earliest scholastic education at the district school, but being ambitious for a higher and broader educa- tion than there afforded, he attended the Shaw Academy, at Collamer, and afterward entered Professor Beatty's School, on Euclid Avenue, in Cleveland. After leaving school he entered a store as clerk. There, however, he did not long remain, but sought a wider field. California, at that time, was attracting considerable attention, and thither he deter- mined to go. In September, 1849, at the age of twenty-one, he, in company with some sixty others, among whom was John P. Jones, now United States Senator from Nevada, formed an expedition to migrate to the gold fields, and sailed from Cleveland in the bark Eureka, via Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, St. Lawrence River, down the Atlantic, and around Cape Horn. After making stops at Rio Janiero and Valpar- aiso, the Eureka reached San Francisco in June, 1850, after a wearisome voyage of nine months. On his arrival at San Francisco he had not a dollar left, and was obliged to work with a shovel on the streets of the city, for the corporation, in order to procure means with which to reach the mines. He worked with the energy characteristic of his family, and after a few months made one of a party bound for Feather River. He purchased his miner's suit, and set off with the party on their long and toilsome journey. Ten years he spent in this arduous life, his only reward being the neces- saries of life, when he turned his face toward the home of his childhood. He arrived in Cleveland, September, 1860, poorer than when he left it eleven years before, but far richer in ex- perience. In 1862 he obtained employment as brakeman on the Oil Creek Railroad, and was soon after promoted to "tally-man." In this position he brought order out of con- fusion, and proved himself capable of doing a vast amount of work, and doing it well. In 1864 he embarked in the commission business, in Corry, Pennsylvania, in company with G. W. N. Yost and Oliver Young. In 1866 he removed to Cleveland, and formed the firm of Harkness & Doan, for
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the purpose of supplying crude petroleum to the refiners, which they did with great energy and profit. From that time his rise in wealth and prosperity was rapid. It was then the custom to deliver all crude oil in barrels, but the demand being greater than they could supply in this way, other means were sought, and they were among the first to use wooden tanks, which have since been almost wholly supereded by iron ones in the transportation of the crude oil. In 1870 he bought out the interest of Mr. Harkness, and pushed the business with still greater energy and success, until the Spring of 1873, when the Standard Oil Company bought out most of the Cleveland refineries. That year he entered into partnership with George N. Chase, for the manufacture and sale of kerosene oil and naphtha. In the year following he purchased Mr. Chase's interest. He is now engaged in the naphtha business exclusively, and is among the largest manufacturers in this country, and probably in the world, for the refining and purifying of the light products of petroleum. Such is the brief record of the career of one of our most successful busi- ness men. Indomitable pluck, energy, perseverance, honesty, and business integrity have contributed to make him what he is. His private record is as brilliant in good deeds as has been his business career in success. As riches have in- creased, so have his charities and noble acts. He has known poverty with all its hardships, and is one of those noble men who know how to use their wealth. His acquisition of riches has not spoilt him ; he uses them as a trust for the good of others, feeling that he is but an instrument in the hand of Him who rules our destiny. To elevate his fellow beings is the great work of his life. His deeds of charity and benevo- lence are innumerable. The welfare of the people is his heart's work, and to it he devotes most liberally both time and money. The cause of temperance finds in him one of its strongest advocates and warmest workers. A few years since he built the East Cleveland Armory. In 1876 the Doan Cadets were organized-a temperance organization composed of sober, religious young men. For their instruction he en- gaged a military professor, and they were disciplined in the manual of arms and military evolutions. In 1877 he erected the People's Tabernacle, at an outlay of nine thousand dol- lars, of which he paid seven thousand three hundred dollars, the balance being contributed by his friends. The building has a seating capacity of thirty-five hundred, and is free to all denominations for religious and temperance work, and for benevolent purposes, only occasionally being rented for con- certs and other entertainments. The revenue derived from this building is merely nominal, every thing, with but few excep- tions, being free to all. The annual deficit for its maintenance is about three thousand dollars. As a previous writer re- marks : "This amount Mr. Doan cheerfully liquidates-pays it with a smile, and doesn't consider it a loss." A truly grand work is carried on in that building in furthering the cause of religion and temperance among the masses of the people. It is under the immediate care of Mr. Doan and the evangelist, William Johnson, to whom Mr. Doan has delegated the charge. During the Winter of 1881-2 a series of twelve lectures and literary entertainments were given, at a nominal cost of one dollar for the course. Some of the finest speakers in the country were engaged. These proved a magnificent success, the building, each time, being densely crowded. The writer has witnessed on two or three occasions something like four thousand persons present. So popular and powerful for good has this tabernacle become, that Mr.
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