USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume I > Part 59
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tory through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. His children were: Caroline, who married Prof. T. P. Beers, M. D .;
Eliza, who died early in life; Augusta A., married to John Anketell, Esq .; Aurelia Dwight, married to the Rev. S. R. Wynkoop; Isaac Augustus, who married Sophia Lyman ; and William Henry, who married Caroline Hurd.
BURNS, BARNABAS, a lawyer, of Mansfield, Ohio, was born June 29th, 1817, in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. His parents, Andrew and Sarah (Caldwell) Burns, were both natives of Ireland, where they lived till grown to manhood and womanhood. Andrew Burns came to America in 1800, and Miss Caldwell, whom he afterward married, came two years later. Though born in the same county in Ireland, they were not acquainted with each other there, but met in Philadelphia, where they both resided. After their mar- riage they lived in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, then in Berks County, the same State, where Mr. Burns conducted a farm for some time. The family next removed to Fayette County, and after a few years' residence there, moved, in 1820, to Ohio, settling in Richland County, where a rented farm was carried on for some years. The last thirty years of his life he owned and conducted a farm of his own. He died September, 1857, at the age of seventy-seven, having sur- vived his wife for over six years. She died April, 1851, at the age of seventy-thrce. Barnabas was educated chiefly in the common country schools, except about one year of sup- plementary study at Ashland Academy (not now in existence) and the Grammar Schools of Mansfield. Early inclined to educational work, he followed school-teaching winters, work- ing on the farm summers. His time was thus employed till 1839, when he received the appointment as deputy-clerk of the Common Pleas and the Supreme Court, which position he filled ably for seven years, going out of office with his principal. Though deputy, nearly the entire duties and re- sponsibilities of the office devolved upon him. It was seven years of incessant labor, but afforded a schooling and ex- perience of great value to him in his subsequent professional career. Mr. Burns immediately entered the law office of Bartley & Kirkwood, as student. After reading law for one year, he was elected, in 1847, to the State Senate, though at the time of his nomination he was not eligible to that posi- tion, on account of his age. This obstacle, however, was removed by the time of his election, as he had then reached the required age. Mr. Burns was re-elected to the Senate in 1849, thus serving four years in that body. At the close of his last term in the Senate, in 1851, he returned to Mans- field, and became a partner (having been admitted to the bar in 1848) of Samuel J. Kirkwood, T. W. Bartley having been elected to the Supreme Bench of the State. The firm of Kirkwood & Burns continued till 1855, when the former went to Iowa, of which State he was several times Governor, and which he subsequently represented in the United States Sen- ate until appointed Secretary of Interior by President Garfield. Since the dissolution of this firm Mr. Burns has been asso- ciated with various partners in the law, and for over a quar- ter of a century has been one of the leading lights of the bar in Richland County. He has been a politician all his life, having begun at the age of fifteen to participate in politi- cal affairs. Much of his valuable time, and a respectable fortune, has been devoted to the cause of the Democratic party in Ohio. Probably no member of that party is more widely or more favorably known throughout Ohio than Colonel Burns, both as a speaker and politician. In 1852 he was Presidential Elector for the State at large on the Dem-
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ocratic ticket. For forty-two years he has been an attendant of State Conventions, usually as delegate, and in 1865 was its chairman. In the War of the Rebellion he served as colonel of the Eighty-sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. In 1868 he was nominated for Congress, to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Dr. Hamilton at the hands of his insane son, while at home enjoying a holiday vacation of Congress. It was a two weeks' campaign, in the January of an exceedingly cold winter. Colonel Burns made twenty- six speeches in twelve days, and succeeded in reducing a Republican majority in his district of twenty-seven hundred down to seven hundred. He has been a candidate for nom- ination for Congress at various times. In 1873 he was elected a member of the Constitutional Convention, and the same year was nominated on the Democratic ticket as Lieu- tenant-governor. Out of a vote of nearly five hundred thou- sand he was defeated by only about five hundred votes. William Allen, who was the candidate for Governor, was the only one on the ticket that was elected. In 1876 Colonel Burns was one of the Ohio Commissioners at the Centen- nial Exposition, filling that office, like all others, satisfac- torily to all the interests concerned therein. He served for about six years as trustee of the Ohio Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' Home, at Xenia, having been appointed by Governors Hayes, Noyes, and Bishop. Colonel Burns was married September 16th, 1841, to Miss Urath Gore, of Mans- field, though formerly of Baltimore, where her father died many years ago, though her mother lived till 1880, dying at the advanced age of ninety-four. Seven children have been born to Colonel and Mrs. Burns, five of whom still survive. Mary is the wife of Dr. George Mitchell, of Mansfield, and was born November, 1844; John Caldwell (a partner of his father) was born January 20th, 1847; Kate was born in 1851 , Jerry was born 1854, and is now in the lumber and manu- facturing business, at Mansfield; and Barnabas was born October, 1860. He is now a student at the Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio.
THOMPSON, JOHN D., of Mt. Vernon, Ohio, was born August 8, 1821, in the county of Fermanagh, Ireland, being the fourth son of Irvine and Elizabeth (Dunlap) Thomp- son. The family having emigrated to America in 1831, they proceeded to Ohio, and settled near Mt. Vernon, where they resumed farming, a vocation which they had followed in Ireland. The paternal grandfather of John D., Matthew Thompson, lived to the advanced age of one hundred and two, up to which time he retained remarkable physical vigor, which enabled him even at that age personally to oversee his men and conduct the business on his farm. Although far from being a wealthy man, Irvine Thompson had each of his five sons well educated, three of them being fitted at his expense for the several professions of their choice-the ministry, medicine, and the law. Matthew Thompson, whose chosen profession was that of medicine, was one of the most prominent and successful physicians of Mt. Vernon. He came to an un- timely end by the running away of a horse in 1867. John D. is the only son now living. After receiving a good edu- cation he continued to work on his father's farm, and did so until he became a farmer on his own land. In 1852 he went to California, where he engaged in mining and in the sale of merchandise. He returned in 1854 and resumed the culti- vation of his farm. While thus engaged, he was nominated and elected County Auditor in 1862, a position he filled with
credit to himself and profit to the State. He was the first Democrat that had been elected in Knox County for the previous ten years. He was nominated to this office with- out his knowledge, and in like manner was nominated in 1869 as representative to the State Legislature. He was elected, and served with credit during his term of office, at the expiration of which he declined a proffered renomina- tion, and devoted himself to the interests of the railroad company whose Treasurer he had been recently made. Mr. Thompson was one of the prime movers in securing the admission of the Cleveland, Mt. Vernon and Delaware Rail- road to Mt. Vernon by assisting in raising a subscription of $100,000, the required amount to consummate the project. Upon the establishing of the road in 1869, Mr. Thompson was made Treasurer of the company, a position which he ably and satisfactorily filled until the Fall of 1881. The road was then sold to its bondholders, and a new company organized. Mr. Thompson was again appointed Treasurer of the road, but he respectfully declined to accept it. Inter- ested in the road and also for the good of his city, he, in company with other citizens, raised a large subscription, which was given to the new company for the equipment of the car shops formerly built in Mt. Vernon, to which place this department is now being transferred from Akron. Something may be learned of Mr. Thompson's activity in business from the number of responsible positions he held, for while he was Treasurer of the railroad he was and is at present also Treasurer and Director of the Knox County Savings Bank, which he aided in founding. He was one of the organizers of the Mt. Vernon Savings, Loan and Building Association, established in 1874, of which he was Treasurer during its successful existence of ten years, and likewise Treasurer of the Knox County Agricultural As- sociation for eight years, and was chiefly instrumental in - establishing the society upon a prosperous basis, having found it in a disorganized and inefficient condition. He has been for years Treasurer of the Eagle Mutual Fire Insurance Company, and President of the Ohio Mutual Aid Association. In politics Mr. Thompson is a decided and popular Democrat, and has been for years one of the most influential members of and effective workers in his party in Knox County. He was Chairman of the Knox County Democratic Central Committee for about twelve years in succession. He was a delegate to the Democratic Na- tional Convention at St. Louis in 1876, and also a delegate to the Cincinnati Convention of .1880. Mr. Thompson has been repeatedly urged by his political friends to become a candidate for Congress. In 1876, 1878, and again in 1880 he received urgent requests from all parts of his Congressional District to accept a nomination as Representative to Congress as one of the staunch supporters of the Democratic party. His great modesty of bearing has caused him to decline all such proffers, though no less appreciative of the public con- fidence in his ability and integrity thus evinced. The only office he has seen fit to accept, though against his protest, was that of Mayor of Mt. Vernon in the Spring of 1882, hav- ing been elected on the Democratic ticket, though there was in the city a standing Republican majority of four hun- dred. It is proper to say that no citizen of Mt. Vernon enjoys the esteem and confidence of his fellow-citizens more generally, irrespective of party or creed, than Mr. Thompson. He and six other citizens of Mount Vernon and Coshocton have just organized the Mount Vernon, Coshocton and Wheel-
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ing Railroad Company ; when built, it will connect the above- named cities with the vast coal fields of South-eastern Ohio. Although not a professor of religion, he practices the precepts of Christianity in his daily life, being a man of generous and benevolent impulses, a liberal contrib- utor to all laudable objects and enterprises, and a true sub- stantial friend of the weak and unfortunate. On the 18th of February, 1864, Mr. Thompson was married to Miss Pris- cilla, second daughter of James S. and Eliza (Blackstone) Banning, and sister to the late General H. B. Banning, of Cincinnati. Mrs. Thompson's parents, who are now both dead, were natives of Fayette County, Pennsylvania.
WALKER, JOSEPH PIERCE, M. D., was born in Wilton, Maine, April 12th, 1820. His father, Asa Walker, had his birth in Rindge, New Hampshire, in 1777, but spent most of his early life in Acton, Massachusetts. In 1803 he married Elizabetlı White, of Acton, a lineal descendant from one of the Mayflower Pilgrims. They removed to Wilton, Maine, where he had previously purchased a farm on the borders of a beautiful lake surrounded by mountains. The country was new, and the land rough and rocky. Here, in the cold climate of this northern latitude, he brought up and edu- cated, as best he could, a family of eight children. He was a descendant of Richard Walker, who came to this country in 1630-supposed to be one of the three hundred Puritans who left England about that time. History notices them as belonging to the best Puritan families of the kingdom. He settled in Lynn, Massachusetts, where he spent several years. Removing to Reading, Massachusetts, he was elected Repre- sentative of that town in the Colonial Legislature. He re- turned to Lynn, and died in 1687, aged ninety-five years. Richard Walker was a captain and a very prominent man, his early descendants being among the most eminent of the name in this country. His sons, Richard and Samuel, settled in Reading, and their descendants were found in Woburn, Concord, and Weston, Massachusetts. In 1770 Samuel Walker, of Weston (one of these descendants), married Jo- hanna Pierce, of Concord, of the same State. They were the father and mother of Asa Walker. Captain Asa Walker was a man of excellent judgment, a devoted Christian, and an ear- nest supporter of the public schools. Politically he was a Whig, of the old school, though for a time an Anti-mason, after the death of John Morgan. Dr. Walker was his fifth son, and spent his early years on the farm, attending school in the local and adjoining districts. At the age of seventeen his father died, and he was left to his own efforts for a livelihood. His primary education was limited to the public schools, the academy, and to private instructors. He became a very popular school-teacher, and served as school visitor in his native town. In 1843 he entered the office of Dr. William Kilbourne, of Wilton, Maine, an eminent physician of the place, with whom he studied medicine three years. He lived with the family of his preceptor, and being a favorite, young Walker had a fine opportunity for clinical experience. In the Spring of 1844 he attended his first course of lectures in the medical school connected with Bowdoin College, Maine. Here instruction was received from Professors Cleveland, the great chemist, E. R. Peaslee, Sweetzer, and others. In the Fall of 1844-5-6 he attended Dartmouth Medical College, New Hampshire, where he was graduated October 16th, 1846. Be- ng threatened with consumption, he raised a little money and came to Cincinnati, a city of strangers, then containing a
population of less than sixty thousand. After regaining his health he attended lectures in the Ohio Medical College, during the Winter of 1847-8. He also attended the hos- pital clinics, thus preparing himself for treating the diseases of the climate. Immediately after leaving college he com- menced the practice of medicine in Cincinnati, and on October 19, 1848, he united himself in marriage with Miss Ann Haughton, daughter of the late Rev. John Haughton, of Cincinnati, but formerly of England. Six children were the fruits of this marriage-three of them now living. The doc- tor was very ambitious, and the Asiatic cholera of 1849-50 gave him full opportunity of testing his skill. He became very popular. as a practical obstetrician, so much so that his constant attention at the bedside seriously impaired his health. In 1854-6 he attended four hundred and thirty- nine cases of child-birth. Dr. Walker has devoted consider- able study to the operation of cephalic version in obstetrics, an operation which requires very careful manipulation to in- sure success. He reports three cases of successful version, in one of which he was assisted by the late Professor M. B. Wright, the originator of the method of manipulating now generally adopted by the profession. He has on different occasions written very acceptable papers for the medical journals. At one time he was on the editorial staff of the Cincinnati Lancet, when it was conducted by Dr. Thomas Wood. His connection with the Cincinnati Medical Society at that time, as recording secretary, afforded him an excellent opportunity of reporting their discussions, which he did with credit to himself and the society. His articles on "Vaccina- tion and Revaccination " and on "Epidemic Small-pox in Cincinnati " have, perhaps, attracted more attention than any others. He is a firm believer in old and tried remedies, and slow to experiment with the new, as he finds it difficult to select victims for the sacrifice. He is a permanent mem- ber of the American Medical Association, and has on several occasions represented the local societies of the city at its annual meetings. Politically he has been a life-long Abo- litionist, acting with the old Liberty party, and continuing this activity, perhaps, to his injury, financially, until the negro race was on a plane with himself, politically. He was tem- porary chairman at the organization of the first Republican Association of Hamilton County, of which he was vice- president, and Hon. Alphonzo Taft (at present minister to Austria) president. In 1852 he assisted in organizing the Reform Book and Tract Society, now the popular Western Tract Society, of Cincinnati. The Cincinnati Young Men's Bible Society has found in him a faithful manager for twenty- eight years, four of which he was vice-president, and six years president. During the war for the Union he was very active in enlisting soldiers, and not being required to do military duty himself he furnished, at his own expense, a representative recruit for his infant son Charles. He re- sponded promptly to the call of the Sanitary Commissions in their visits to the battle-fields, and in the transportation of the sick and wounded. In 1863 he assisted in the organ- ization and was a director of the Western Freedmen's Aid Commission, the first organized society of the kind west of the mountains, which combined education with temporal re- lief. This commission expended large amounts of money for the relief of the freedmen, establishing schools through- out the South, one of which, Fisk University, at Nashville, Tennessee, ranks with the best institutions of learning in the country. In response to the personal appeals of Friend
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Levi Coffin, the reputed president of the so-called "under- ground railroad," large amounts were received from England of money, clothing, blankets, dry goods, agricultural imple- ments, etc. It was organized in January, 1863, continuing some years after the close of the war, when its work and re- sources were surrendered to the American Missionary Asso- ciation, which is doing so great a work for the elevation of the down-trodden of both races throughout the South. Dr. Walker was physician to the Freedmen's Home, established by the government, at Cincinnati, where thousands were sent by the advancing armies. He is an official member of the Cincinnati Relief Union, which relieves more suffering of the worthy poor than all other agencies of the city combined. He was for three years physician to the City Hospital for Small-pox Cases. Dr. Walker was, in his early Church rela- tions, a Free-will Baptist, but on settling in Cincinnati (there being no Church of that denomination in the city) he united with the Vine Street Congregational Church, and has held the office of deacon in it for twenty- five years. One of his reasons for uniting with this Church was that it was the only one in the city, at that time, openly opposed as a body to American slavery. This Church was faithful, through its pastors (Rev. J. Blanchard and Rev. C. B. Boynton), in openly treating slavery as any other sin should be treated. Dr. Walker has never devoted himself to any specialty in medi- cine, but in a quiet, unostentatious, and conscientious manner, carefully regarding the rights of his medical brethren, labors as a general practitioner.
ROBINSON, JAMES S., of Kenton, Hardin County, Ohio, was born on a farm in Franklin Township, Rich- land County, Ohio, October 14th, 1827. He is a son of Francis and Jane (Dickens) Robinson, natives of England, who emigrated to this country about 1817, and settled in the above-named township. The subject of this biography passed his early life on the farm, attending the country schools a few weeks in winter until he was sixteen years old, when he began an apprenticeship to type-setting in the office of the Richland Bugle, at Mansfield, Ohio, pub- lished by Watson & Johnson. December, 1844, he began work in the office of the Richland Jeffersonian, now the Mansfield Herald, where he remained till June, 1846, when he went to Tiffin, Ohio, remaining until December of the same year. His next move was to Kenton, Ohio, where he estab- lished the Kenton Republican, January, 1847, and continued its publication as editor and manager until the beginning of the war in 1861, when he laid aside the pen to take up the sword in defense of the Union. In 1864 he sold the Re pub- lican office and discontinued newspaper work entirely. At the breaking out of the Rebellion he entered the service as a private in the 4th Ohio Infantry, being chosen first lieutenant of his company and being . soon after promoted to captain. He accompanied his regiment to West Virginia in June, 1861, and participated in the Rich Mountain campaign. In Oc- tober Captain Robinson was appointed major of the 82d Ohio. He assisted in organizing the regiment at Camp Simon Kenton, at the town of Kenton, and in February, 1862, he moved with it into West Virginia. He served in the Shenan- doah Valley campaign under Fremont; in General Pope's campaign, including the second battle of Bull Run; in the Chancellorsville campaign; in the Gettysburg campaign; in the Atlanta campaign; in the Georgia campaign ; and in the campaign of the Carolinas-terminating in the march to
Washington City and the grand review. During his term of enlistment he participated in the following battles: Rich Mountain, Cross Keys, second battle of Bull Run, Chancel- lorsville, Gettysburg (in which he was severely wounded), Resaca, Dallas, New Hope Church, Culp's Farm, Peachtree Creek, Averysboro, and Bentonville. He commanded the 3d brigade, Ist division, of the 20th army corps, from the Ist of May, 1864, until the dissolution of the corps at Wash- ington City in June, 1865. He was recommended for promo- tion while a colonel for the manner in which he had handled his brigade at Resaca, New Hope Church, and Peachtree Creek. At the place first mentioned, when one division of the 4th corps had been routed, Colonel Robinson brought up his brigade on the double-quick, and by a few well-directed volleys checked the enemy and prevented the capture of an Indiana battery. When the Secretary of War visited the army after the capture of Savannah, it was decided to appoint one brigadier-general from each of the corps, and Colonel Rob- inson was appointed from the 20th. General Robinson was a private April 17th, 1861; a first lieutenant April 18th; a captain April 27th ; a major October 26th ; lieutenant-colonel April, 1862; a colonel August 29th ; a brevet brigadier-gen- eral December 12th, 1864; a brigadier-general January 12th, 1865; and a brevet major-general March 13th, 1865. Gen- eral Robinson was clerk of the Ohio House of Representa- tives during the sessions of 1855 and 1856. After the close of the war he was elected chairman of the Republican State Central Committee, and filled the place in an efficient and acceptable manner for several years. He was chairman of the Republican State Executive Committee during the cam- paign of 1877, 1878, and 1879. In 1879 General Robinson conducted one of the most brilliant and aggressive State campaigns ever witnessed in this country. The result of that campaign, which was the election of Governor Foster and the remainder of the Republican State ticket, astonished the whole country in its overwhelming magnitude. This result was due very largely to the political skill and sagacity of General Robinson, and entitles him to the gratitude of Repub- licans everywhere. It placed Ohio securely in the ranks of Republican States, as shown by the election of 1880. and 1881. He was appointed Commissioner of Railroads and Telegraphs, January 23d, 1880, resigning the position Feb- ruary 24th, 1881. October, 1880, he was elected to the Forty- seventh Congress by the people of the Ninth District, com- posed of the counties of Hardin, Marion, Union, Delaware, Morrow, and Knox. General Robinson was married to Miss Helen M. Spaulding, daughter of Dr. Spaulding, at Marion, Ohio, June 28th, 1848. The issue of this union is one son, William S. Robinson. March 23d, 1853, the father was left companionless on account of his wife's death. His second marriage was to Miss Hester A. Carlin, daughter of Hon. Parly Carlin, of Findlay, Ohio, November 8th, 1858. This marriage has been blessed with two children, Parlee C. and Jennie S. Robinson. General Robinson was connected with and interested in the construction of the Chicago and At- lantic Railroad from Chicago to Marion, Ohio, and the New York, Pittsburg, and Chicago Railroad, from Pittsburg to Marion. He has always been a steadfast member of the Republican party, and was secretary of the first Republican State Convention ever held in Ohio, of which Salmon P. Chase was president. The social qualities of General Rob- inson are most excellent. He is well informed on current topics, is affable and courteous in manner, and a highly
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