USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume I > Part 57
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Doan, with Captain Thomas Wilson, has bought another large and desirable plot of ground, on which it is intended to build a new tabernacle. Such men build their monuments while living. Mr. Doan also helps bear the expenses of the Floating Bethel, besides a number of other humane and charitable institutions. He has been for many years a mem- ber of the Euclid Avenue Congregational Church, of which he is a deacon. In 1878 he was nominated by the Prohib- ition party for Member of Congress, and received 2,085 votes. In 1882 he was nominated by the Prohibition party, and afterward indorsed by the Independent Republicans, to represent in Congress the Twenty-first Congressional District of Ohio, and on the Ioth of October he again received a large vote. To Mr. Doan and his co-laborers must be largely attributed the grand stride that is being made by the Pro- hibition party in Ohio. He is a man of genial social quali- ties, business probity, warm-hearted in his charities and labors of love, sincere in his espousal of a cause he believes to be just, honored, respected, admired, and beloved.
TIBBALS, NEWELL D., lawyer and jurist, of Akron, Ohio, was born at Deerfield, Portage County, Ohio, September 18, 1833. He is the son of Alfred M. and Martha (Swem) Tibbals. His father and grandfather, Moses Tibbals, for- merly resided at Granville, Massachusetts. His mother be- longed to an intelligent family in New Jersey, and is an aunt of the General Swaim who attended President Garfield at his death. His father being a farmer, he attended the country school near his home until about sixteen years of age. Then, after spending a short time at a select school at Deerfield, he took an academic course at Salem, Ohio. This school, which was kept by William McLain, was an excellent one in its day, and had acquired considerable notoriety. With him as schoolmates there were Hon. Milton Barnes, General Swaim, Hon. J. Twing Brooks, of Salem, and Hon. J. K. Rukenbrod, of the Salem Republican. Soon after leaving the academy he entered the law office of H. H. Willard, of Palmyra, Ohio, in the Spring of 1853, and re- mained with him as a student of law about five months. He then came to Akron, and studied for about two years in the office of Otis & Wolcott. The junior member of this firm was the Hon. C. P. Wolcott, once Attorney-general of Ohio, and subsequently Assistant-secretary of War under Mr. Stanton. On Mr. Otis's retirement from the firm, Hon. Will- iam H. Upson became a partner, and Mr. Tibbals completed his law studies with Wolcott & Upson. In early life young Tibbals delighted in the excitement of forensic contest, and while in school at Salem he became an active member of the debating club there. In this he gained his first experience as a public debater. While still at school he would fre- quently ask to be excused that he might attend the pleading of lawsuits, and upon an affirmative answer to his preceptor's inquiry, whether he expected to be a lawyer, his request was seldom denied. After his course of legal study, he was ad- mitted to the bar by the District Court at Akron, in 1855, be- ing examined principally by Judge Sherlock J. Andrews, of Cleveland, who complimented him on the thoroughness of his knowledge. Immediately after his admission to the bar he began practice in Akron, following the advice of Mr. Wolcott, who said that if success were due at all it would come whether he located here or elsewhere. His first partnership was with D. B. Hadley, which continued until Mr. Hadley went to the West, in 1857. He next associated with himself D. C. Carr,
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with whom he remained as senior partner until Mr. Carr en- tered the army. Mr. Tibbals continued practice alone until he also entered the army, in 1864. After coming from the war he formed a partnership with Henry Mckinney, now Common Pleas Judge in Cleveland, with whom he continued. from 1865 to 1872. This firm, under the name of Mckinney & Tibbals, was very successful, conducting an immense legal business. On Mckinney's removal to Cleveland, he took as a partner F. S. Hanford, and they continued in a very suc- cessful practice, until Mr. Tibbals went on to the Common Pleas Bench, in May, 1876. He was re-elected Judge in 1880, being nominated without opposition, and running far ahead of his ticket in the district, and is now serving his second term as Common Pleas Judge for the Fourth Judicial District, confining his labors mainly to the second subdivision, com- posed of the counties of Summit, Medina, and Lorain. In the Fall of 1865 he was elected to the State Senate, on the Republican ticket, from Summit and Portage Counties, and served one term, declining to be a candidate for a sec- ond nomination. In the Senate he was very active and in- dustrious, and soon became recognized as one of its leading members. He was chairman of the Committee on Public Works, and as such had charge of the investigation pre- ceding the leasing of the works, which has resulted in great benefit to the State. He was also a member of the Com- mittee on Railroads, and assisted in the legislation prepar- atory to the appointment of a State Railroad Commissioner. He took an active part in the revision of the highway laws, originated and framed the general road law known as the Tibbals Road Law, and was also a very active participant in the debate on the question of striking the word white from the State constitution. Earlier in life Mr. Tibbals was prominently connected with public affairs in his own county and town ; was Prosecuting Attorney for two terms, from 1860 to 1864, in the discharge of which office he was remarkably active and successful in prosecuting cases of all grades, from murder in the first degree down. He secured the conviction of one Henry Kerst for murder in the first degree, and was instrumental in breaking up an organized band of burglars who for a long time had been operating in his own and adjacent localities, and was eminently faithful and successful in the general discharge of his duties, by ridding the community of many sources of evil, thus conducting the office, so com- monly of little importance, with dignity and usefulness. He held the office of City Solicitor for a like number of years, and other local trusts, all of which he discharged with de- cided ability. During the war he was a member of the Ohio National Guard, when it was tendered by Governor Brough to President Lincoln for one hundred days; went with it to Virginia, where it was stationed on the right bank of the Potomac, to guard Washington, and was there at the time of the attack on that city in 1864. On his return home, in the Fall of 1864, he was elected by the three companies in his county composing the Fifty-fourth Battalion, and commis- sioned by Governor Brough, as major, December 6th, 1864. In politics he has figured conspicuously as a supporter and promoter of the principles of the Republican party in North- eastern Ohio; has acted on the Republican Central Com- mittee for his county, as its secretary, and was a member of the Convention that nominated J. A. Garfield for the Ohio Senate on his first entrance to public life, in 1859. As a lawyer he was accurate and exact; in practice was dis- tinguished for his clear discernment and appreciation of
legal principles, and for his power of clearly and forcibly stating the facts and law of a case to a court or jury. On the bench he has also distinguished himself by his char- acteristic power of clear discernment of legal principles and their correct application to facts. When, in 1879, the Atlantic and Great Western (now the New York, Penn- sylvania and Ohio) Railroad was reorganized, it was de- cided by the parties concerned to try the disputed legal questions arising therefrom in Summit County. This placed under Judge Tibbals's jurisdiction some of the most important and hotly contested legal questions ever tried in the State. The contesting parties presented a formidable array of legal talent. Such men as Judge R. P. Ranney, Stevenson Burke, W. W. MacFarland (of New York), Judge A. G. Thurman, General Durbin Ward, J. Twing Brooks, Judge George Hoadly, and Justice . Stanley Matthews, besides a number of other distinguished lawyers, were engaged in the case ; and the intricacy and difficulty of questions continually aris- ing for the decision of the presiding judge can easily be con- ceived. It is sufficient to say of Judge Tibbals that in all this litigation no decision of his was ever reversed, nor any of the cases carried beyond the District Court. Similar questions were tried in his court, growing out of the sale of the Cleveland, Mount Vernon, and Columbus Railroad, in 1881. By his ability, shown in these cases, and his un- swerving integrity in the fearless discharge of duty, he com- mands the respect and confidence of all concerned, both in civil and criminal cases. He has thus acquired a reputa- tion as a judge ranking with the best who have ever occu- pied the bench in Northern Ohio. He was married October 22, 1856, to Lucy A. Morse, of Akron. They have five chil- dren living; the oldest, a daughter (being the only one mar- ried), is the wife of W. M. Day, associate editor of the Akron Daily Beacon.
COOPER, COLONEL WILLIAM C., lawyer, of Mt. Vernon, was born December 18, 1832, in Mt. Vernon, Ohio, of American parentage on his father's side. His maternal ancestors were of Scotch-Irish extraction. His paternal grandfather, Daniel Cooper, moved from Butler County, Pennsylvania, and settled in Knox County in 1806, being one of the very earliest pioneers of that county. He served as Captain of a volunteer company in the war of 1812, and was once Commissioner of Knox County. He died about 1841. Thompson Cooper, the father of William C., and a native of Butler County, Pennsylvania, followed farm- ing the early part of his life, but lived for ten years prior to his death in Mt. Vernon. He was a Justice of the Peace for thirty years, and for eight years served as Mayor of Mt. Ver- non, which office he filled at the time of his death in 1863, aged fifty-eight. He was a man of influence and usefulness, and a gentleman of high respectability and honor. His widow, Rebecca (Kraig) Cooper, a native of Washington County, Pennsylvania, still survives, at the age of sixty-eight. William attended an academy at Mt. Vernon and other private schools until he was nineteen years of age, working on the farm during his vacations. Equipped with a good English education, he then began the study of law with Col. Joseph W. Vance and James Smith, Jr. Under the direction of these gentlemen, he applied himself assiduously to his books, and was admitted to the bar when twenty-two years old. He afterwards became associated with Col. Vance in the practice of his profession, which connection continued until the death of
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the latter in 1864. He was killed at Sabine Cross-roads. During the continuance of this co-partnership they had the largest practice in Knox County. At the outbreak of the Rebellion Mr. Cooper enlisted in the 4th Ohio Volunteer In- fantry, and was elected first lieutenant of Company B. He served with that command until January, 1862, when he re- turned home. He was then appointed Adjutant of the 121st Regiment, which he was obliged to decline on account of his law business. His partner had gone out as Colonel of the 96th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, leaving all their extensive practice in his charge. In 1864, immediately after the death of Col. Vance, Mr. Cooper was appointed Colonel of the 142d Regi- ment of Ohio Volunteers, and was at Petersburg for the period of one hundred days' service. At this time he had three other brothers in the army, all the sons of his widowed mother. Coming home he remained a short time, but again returned to the South, where he spent the year 1865 in travel- ing, three months of this being in North Carolina. None of this time, however, was he engaged in the service. During this period the Colonel had been nominated by the Republicans for the Ohio State Legislature against the late General H. B. Banning, and lost the election by only two votes. This pro- ceeding, however, was unknown to him until his return to Mt. Vernon the following Winter. He afterwards associated himself with Henry T. Porter, with whom he practiced two years, when Lewis H. Mitchell was received as a partner in the firm, which became Cooper, Porter & Mitchell. This partnership was dissolved in June, 1875, since which time he has been alone, enjoying a very extensive and lucrative practice. During his professional career he has filled several offices. In 1858, when only twenty-six years old, he was elected prosecuting attorney of his county, and re-elected in 1860, filling the office with credit for four years. In 1860 he was also elected Mayor of Mt. Vernon, and re-elected in 1862, his official term expiring in 1864. In 1871 he was, against his personal wishes, sent to the State Legislature, where he served two years, but declined a nomination for a second term. In politics he is an earnest and consistent Republican, and was Chairman of the Republican State Central Committee for the years 1876, 1877, and 1878, in which capacity he rendered valuable service to his party. He is also a member of the National Republican Executive Committee, a position he has held since 1876. He was a delegate to the National Repub- lican Convention at Philadelphia that nominated Grant in 1872, and also at Chicago in 1880. In February, 1877, Col. Cooper was appointed Judge Advocate-general of the State of Ohio, with the rank of Brigadier-general, a position he held until January, 1878, when he was succeeded by Gen. Samuel F. Hunt, of Cincinnati. In January, 1880, he in turn succeeded Gen. Hunt in the same office, and was re- appointed in the Spring of 1882. Mr. Cooper has been repeatedly urged by his friends to become a candidate for Congress, but it was not until 1880 that he would allow his name to go before a convention. The other leading candi- date was General James S. Robinson, who succeeded in securing the nomination by one and a half votes. Again in 1882 he was urged as a candidate, but put to silence all such intimations on the part of his friends, and instead made a brilliant speech in convention in behalf of the nominee, General Robinson. As a lawyer Mr. Cooper enjoys an en- viable reputation, both for his legal acumen and brilliancy as an advocate. He is an indefatigable worker and close student, and whenever he engages in a legal contest he goes
fully equipped in law and facts, which, supplemented by earnestness, candor, and an effective power of speech, gener- ally secures to him a victory. His practice has for years been very extensive, and undoubtedly is the largest in Knox County. He is a man of the strictest integrity and honor in every relation in life, public or private, in his profession and out of his profession. Mr. Cooper has been a Mason since 1860. He is also an Odd Fellow, a Knight of Pythias, and a member of the Grand Army of the Republic. He was married January 8th, 1864, to Miss Eliza, only daughter of Dr. John W. Russell, of Mt. Vernon, one of the oldest and most distinguished physicians in Ohio, who was born in 1804. He has been in constant practice for over half a century, and now in the seventy-ninth year of his age, he attends diligently to a very extensive business, sometimes riding fifty and sixty miles a day. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Cooper, Eliza R. and Sarah C.
TOWNSEND, OSCAR, of Cleveland, railroad manager, is of English ancestry, being descended from a Puritan family of New England. He is the son of Hiram and Eliza (Fancher) Townsend, and was born in Greenwich, Huron County, Ohio, March 22d, 1835. His father was a farmer who had settled there in 1816, at a time when the country was a wilderness, inhabited by Indians and infested with wild beasts. He died December 9th, 1870, at the advanced age of seventy-two, universally honored and esteemed. Oscar Townsend was reared on his father's farm, inured to all the hardships of a pioneer life. His early educational advan- tages were few, being limited to the county schools, with the exception of a short period in 1852, when he attended the old Prospect Street Grammar School, at Cleveland. This institution was then under charge of L. M. Oviatt, afterward superintendent of the Cleveland public schools, and of his instructions and attentive guidance Mr. Townsend has ever since cherished the most grateful recollections. The circum- stances and surroundings of his early life tended to bring out and develop his natural resources, both mental and physical, and to them he largely owes his subsequent success in life. The example of his parents in honor, integrity, industry, perseverance, and self-reliance failed not to produce a bene- ficial effect on their children. In 1848 the Cleveland, Colum- bus and Cincinnati Railroad was built, crossing his father's farm, he being then but thirteen years of age. His ambition was aroused by this fact, and he determined to find a wider and more congenial sphere of action than his farm life afforded him. He entered the employ of the railroad company, and his earnest and constant endeavor was to secure the best interests of his employers by unswerving faithfulness to every assigned duty. This trait was soon observed by those who could both appreciate and reward it, and in 1856 he was, through the instrumentality of Messrs. E. S. Flint and Addison Hills, transferred from the Shelby Station to the freight office at Cleveland. In 1862 he was invited to a position in the Second National Bank of Cleveland, where he remained for three years, when he was tendered the position of superintendent of the Empire Transportation Company, and assumed charge of the Western Department of that line. The energy and ability which had characterized Mr. Townsend in every position which he had hitherto occupied were by this time so fully recognized that in August, 1868, he was tendered, and accepted the office of director and vice-president of the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and
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Indianapolis Railroad Company. A few months afterward Mr. L. M. Hubby, the president of the company, met with an accident which disabled him from performing the duties ~ of his position, and Mr. Townsend became the acting ex- ecutive officer, and in September, 1870, at the age of thirty- five, he was elected president of the corporation. In this position his executive and financial abilities had a wider scope for their display than ever before. He can certainly point to that term of five years-from 1868 to 1873-under his management, as embracing the most prosperous period in the history of the road. His successors, as well as the railway company, fully indorsed all his official acts, and highly complimented him on his management and success. After spending a few years in comparative leisure, he was induced to accept the position of general manager of the Cleveland, Tuscarawas Valley and Wheeling Railroad, by its board of directors, many of whom were his personal friends, among them Selah Chamberlain, Amasa Stone and W. S. Streator. He was married, December 22, 1856, to Elizabeth Martin, daughter of Thomas Martin, Esq., of Huron County. They have had born to them four sons. Himself, wife, and eldest son are members of the Baptist Church. A man of sterling character and fine ability, he enjoys the confidence and respect of all who know him.
EVERETT, SYLVESTER T., banker and financier, Cleveland, was born in Liberty Township, Trumbull County, Ohio, November 27th, 1838. His early boyhood was spent on his father's farm, and in attending the district school. At the age of twelve he removed to Cleveland. where he resided with his elder brother, Dr. Henry Everett, and attended pub- lic school until 1853, when he entered the employment of S. Raymond & Co., dry goods merchants. In the following year he was admitted to a clerkship in the banking house of Brockway, Wason, Everett & Co., and by diligent and intel- ligent attention to business he was within three years pro- moted to the position of cashier, Mr. Brockway having retired from the firm. In 1859 he was called to Philadelphia, to aid in settling up the affairs of his uncle, Charles Everett, Esq., a prominent merchant, who was retiring from business. This occupied him about one year, and there, in 1860, he was married to Miss Mary M. Everett, of Philadelphia. He then returned to Cleveland, and resumed his position in the bank- ing house. In 1867 the composition of the firm having changed by the retirement of two of the partners, he was admitted to the house, the firm then being Everett, Weddell & Co., of which he still continues a member. In May, 1876, he was elected a director and vice-president of the Second National Bank of Cleveland, the third largest bank in the State, with a capital of one million dollars, and within a year he was elected to the presidency of the bank. The charter of the Second National Bank expiring May 15th, 1882, its affairs were wound up, and the National Bank of Commerce was organized, with a capital of one million five hundred thousand dollars, and commenced business May Ist, 1882, Mr. S. T. Everett having been elected its president. This bank, the largest in the State, is a designated depository of the United States. In 1869 he was first nominated by the Republicans, and elected by a large majority, as city Treas- urer. This office he has held ever since, being nominated and elected at each consecutive term. In 1871 his nomina- tion was a Republican one; in 1873 he was the choice of both parties, and received at that election the largest vote
ever polled for a candidate in the city of Cleveland. This compliment has been repeated by his nomination and elec- tion in 1875, 1877, 1879, and 1881. During the seven terms of his holding the office Cleveland has had four Republican and three Democratic mayors. In this department Mr. Everett has done much for the welfare and prosperity of Cleveland. He reduced the outlay of interest, and con- tributed largely in raising the value of the city's bonds and its credit, Cleveland's municipal bonds becoming so far de- sirable that they very soon commanded a premium. This was a feature entirely new in the financial experience of the city, and the position is still maintained, the credit of Cleveland being equal to that of any municipality of the country. Mr. Everett takes a prominent part in many other of Cleveland's important affairs, among which may be men- tioned the Northern Ohio Fair Association, of which he was one of the originators and promoters, and has been a director and treasurer from its organization. He is a director in the Cleveland Rolling Mill Company, the largest company of its kind in the country, a company with an investment of some ten millions of dollars, giving employment to six thousand men, the annual value of its products being some fifteen mill- ions of dollars. Mr. Everett is also a director in the Union Steel Screw Company, another of Cleveland's truly immense enterprises. He is a director in the Citizens' Savings and Loan Association, a large financial institution ; a director in the Saginaw Mining Company, with mines at Naguanee, Lake Superior ; president of the Humboldt Iron Mining Company, with mines at Humboldt, Michigan ; president and director of the Buckeye Stove Company ; vice-president and treasurer of the Valley Railway Company, in the con- struction and extension of which road he has taken prom- inent part ; treasurer of the Lake Shore and Tuscarawas Valley Railway Company, during its construction and early operation ; a director and one of the executive committee of the Pittsburg, Youngstown and Chicago Railway Company ; and a director of the American District Telegraphª Com- pany. He is also interested in several other corporations of lesser note. In his financial investments and business en- terprises he has been eminently successful. In politics Mr. Everett is a Republican. In 1872 he was alternate at large to the National Convention held in Philadelphia, which nom- inated Grant and Wilson. He represented his congressional district as a delegate in the National Convention held in Chicago, June, 1880, the convention which, after its his- torical and protracted struggle, nominated our late lamented President, General Garfield, for the presidency. The nomi- nation being made, General Garfield returned in special car to Cleveland, when, after an informal reception at the Ken- nard House, he was driven to the residence of Mr. Everett, and remained his guest until the following day. Mr. Everett was a member of the executive committee, and treasurer of the obsequies fund, on the occasion of the burial of President Garfield. Thus, it will be seen, he took part in nominating him, aiding in his election, and in the performance of the last sad rites. He was appointed by the President, in April, 1881, United States director of the Union Pacific Railroad, which position he still holds. In the fall of 1882 he was" nominated to represent his district in Congress, the important Twenty-first Congressional District of Ohio, but his own per- sonal popularity proved insufficient to save him from sharing in the unprecedented, overwhelming, and almost universal defeat of the Republican party in Ohio, in the October elec-
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