USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume I > Part 60
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agreeable and entertaining conversationalist. His commend- able traits of character, his candor and freedom from every phase of hypocrisy, have made him greatly esteemed by his fellow-man. He is widely known in business circles as an untiring worker and a man of strict personal honesty and in- tegrity. The people of the ninth district did themselves great credit in selecting him to represent them in the Forty-seventh Congress, which convened in December, 1881. To the posi- tion of representative he was again chosen at the election held in October, 1882.
MCBRIDE, THOMAS, lawyer, of Mansfield, Ohio, was born November 20th, 1827, in Monroe Township, Richland County, Ohio. His father, Alexander McBride, was a native of Virginia, but came to Ohio with his parents when a young man. He followed farming all his life, and died in June, 1880, in the eighty-third year of his age. He was a man highly respected by all who knew him. During his lifetime he filled nearly all the township offices, being for a series of years justice of the peace, township clerk, etc. Ruth J. (Barnes) McBride, the mother of Thomas, was born in Steubenville, Ohio, and is still living at the advanced age of seventy-eight. After acquiring what education he could at the country schools, Thomas went to Missouri, where he attended for one and a half years Chapel Hill College. The remaining part of two and a half years' residence in Missouri was occupied in teaching school. In the fall of 1853 he re- turned to Richland County, and continued teaching school, which occupation he followed chiefly till the spring of 1856. He had improved his spare hours by studying law for nearly 1 two years, and at that time entered, as a student of law, the office of Kirkwood & Burns. The former was afterward United States Senator Kirkwood, from Iowa, and a member of Garfield's cabinet. This firm soon dissolved, Mr. Kirk- wood going to Iowa, but Mr. McBride remained with Mr. Burns and other partners till June, 1857, when he was ad- mitted to the bar by the District Court at Mount Vernon. He now left the scenes of his youth and boyhood, equipped for the realities which now awaited him, especially at the inception of his professional career. The month following his admission to the bar he located at Defiance, Ohio, and opened a law office. Success followed his efforts, and two years afterward he was elected prosecuting attorney of De- fiance County. This office he filled with credit for two suc- cessive terms, till 1863. He was also corporation treasurer of that place for several years. In 1865 Mr. McBride re- turned to Mansfield, and in company with Mr. Manuel May established himself in practice, under the firm name of May & McBride. This partnership was continued for nearly three .. " years, or till April, 1868. He then took as a partner Mr. A. M. Burns (now of Cleveland), and the firm of McBride & Burns existed until April, 1874. A law firm consisting of Messrs. Barnabas Burns, John C. Burns, and Thomas Mc- Bride was then formed, known as Burns, McBride & Burns. In April, 1877, John C. Burns, having been elected prose- cuting attorney, withdrew. The two other members remained in partnership until February 4th, 1881. Mr. McBride then practiced alone till March, 1882, at which time his oldest son, C. V. McBride, and a nephew, C. E. McBride, were admitted to the bar, and were received as partners. Mr. McBride's whole life since he settled in Mansfield has been devoted to the duties of his chosen profession. He has filled no public office, being unambitious in that direction. The only office
he ever held in his city was that of treasurer, for about three years, until the city treasury was transferred to that of the county, in 1870. He is a man of great probity of character in every relation. As a trial lawyer of facts he has no equal in Richland County, a truth recognized by all the other prom- inent members of the bar. He has extraordinary ability in this branch of the law, and in the trial of cases coming under this head he is a remarkable success. In a jury trial he has no superior at the bar, having remarkable shrewdness and tact in examining witnesses, in eliciting facts from them in both direct and cross-examination, which in his arguments he presents to the jury and court in a most effective and convincing manner. Mr. McBride has been active in politics for many years, not only as a worker but as a speaker, hav- ing stumped throughout Ohio in behalf of the Democratic party, to which he has always given his support, though of late years somewhat liberal in the exercise of the ballot. He has been a member of the Presbyterian Church of Mans- field for the past twelve years, and since 1873 has been one of its elders and leaders. Mr. McBride has been an Odd Fellow since 1864. He was married September 17th, 1857, to Miss Ellen B. Brandt, of Springfield Township, Richland County, Ohio, daughter of David and Catherine Brandt, farmers. Mr. Brandt is still living, having survived his wife for many years. Six children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. McBride, five of whom are still living. Curtis V. was born August 24th, 1858. He is a partner of his father. Willie E. was born September 18th, 1860; and the others are Minnie B., Florence M., and Thomas H. McBride.
COWEN, BENJAMIN SPRAGUE, jurist and states- man, was born in Washington County, New York, September 27th, 1792, and died at his home in St. Clairsville, Ohio, September 27th, 1869, in his seventy-seventh year. His parents were Joseph and Anne (Sprague) Cowen, the one of New York parentage, the other a native of Providence, Rhode Island. Benjamin S. Cowen was of Scotch-Irish ex- traction on the paternal side of his house, and inherited the mental vigor and energetic character of his paternal pro- genitors-the qualities which distinguished the Cowen family. Representatives of this family were prominent in their day and generation, and some of them were distinguished by a desire to inaugurate reforms of a social or political character ; thus we read that one Joseph Cowen, a Scotchman, for pro- mulgating sentiments alleged to be seditious and damaging to the perpetuity of English institutions, was apprehended and tried for treason against the British government. He was acquitted, as history records, and his alleged revolution- ary efforts were incited by a desire to correct local grievances and abuses, rather than to impair the stability of the British government. His earnest and combative disposition is indi- cated in a later generation, as witness the present Joseph Cowen, a member of the British Parliament, whose name is intimately associated with English legislation touching the adustment of the great land question. The experience of Mr. Cowen in early life was in a manner identical with that of the majority of Ohio's representative men who have acquired prominence in the direction of public affairs, in that he had the great incentives to success-disadvantages. His early education was fragmentary, and this circumstance, no doubt, had much to do with his disposition in later life to patronize and encourage institutions of learning. This feeling was given expression in the establishment of a seminary in
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the town of his adoption, St. Clairsville, an enterprise the successful establishment of which was due mainly to his efforts. Here were educated his sons, Judge D. D. T. Cowen and General B. R. Cowen, who have since played important parts in the business and politics of Ohio, the former as a judge and lawyer of distinction, and the latter as a soldier in the late war, and more recently as the editor of the Ohio State Journal. He moved to Ohio in 1825, and located in the little village of Moorefield, Harrison County, where he applied himself to the study of medicine, and later com- menced the general practice of his profession. Becoming attracted to the law, he commenced his preparation for the bar under the auspices of Chauncey Dewey, Esq., of Cadiz. He was admitted in 1830, and shortly afterward appointed prosecutor for Monroe County, Ohio, which position he filled for a time, continuing his residence in Moorefield. In 1832 he removed to St. Clairsville, and there entered actively into practice in company with William B. Hubbard, where he established, in a very short time, an extended reputation as a counselor and advocate. In 1840 he was elected by the Whig party to the Twenty-seventh Congress. Here he took a leading and active part in the legislative proceedings of that body, springing almost immediately into prominence, with such of his contemporaries as John Quincy Adams and Joshua R. Giddings. When Mr. Giddings, piqued at being censured by the House for certain of his memorable utterances on the floor, resigned the chairmanship of the Committee on Claims, Mr. Cowen was the unanimous choice for his successor. While filling this post he discharged his duties with signal ability and zeal. His further service in Congress was marked by the intelligent and able exposition of his views on the tariff. Returning from Congress, he was elected to the State Legislature, in 1844, where he was the acknowledged leader and mouth-piece of the Whig party in the Lower House. He was Chairman of the Committee on Finance, and in com- pany with Alfred Kelly, Chairman of the Finance Committee of the Senate, drafted the Ohio State banking law, which was used to some extent in founding the present national banking system. He was elected, in 1847, to the Common Pleas Bench, and presided on the bench until 1853. During the late war he was a member of a special judicial commis- sion, appointed by President Lincoln to investigate charges pending against persons in the State of Missouri for alleged treasonable acts. On the dissolution of the Whig party, Mr. Cowen identified himself with the new Republican party, an organization which he was largely instrumental in forming. He was present at the Pittsburg Convention in 1856, as a delegate, and preserved his political convictions until his death. As a lawyer and politician his memory occupies an important place in the pioneer recollections of his State.
THOMPSON, JOHN G., of Columbus, Ohio, is the oldest.son of James and Catherine (Gamble) Thompson. He was born in Millcreek Township, Union County, Ohio, Feb- ruary 17, 1833. His father is a native of Virginia. He is a man of marked character, and is rooted and grounded in the principles of Democracy as taught by Thomas Jefferson. He has devoted a good deal of attention to the study of questions which relate to self-government, and has always taken a deep interest in politics, though he could never be prevailed upon to accept office, except that of postmaster of his village, which he held through many administrations, preferring rather to enjoy his leisure hours with old books and old friends. He
has been an active and successful business man, and, aside from other varied interests, he owns extensive and valuable landed properties in Union County. The elder Thompson is a gentleman of the old school, is fluent as a speaker, enter- taining and earnest in conversation, hospitable to all, open- handed to his neighbors, and is opposed to isms of every kind and character. He is as firm in his religious faith as he is in his political principles, and he shapes his life according to the precepts of the Bible as expounded by that great evangelist, Alexander Campbell. He is now in his seventy-third year, enjoying comparatively good health, and lives at his pleasant home in Dover, Union County, Ohio. Mr. Thompson's mother descends from a family of some note in the north of Ireland. She joined her husband's fortunes in a new country, and proved a noble wife and mother. The valley of Millcreek, which now yields abundantly of the fruits of the earth where there had been but forests and brambles, attest the impress which this man and woman left upon the country. The subject of this sketch lived with his father during his minority, and attended the village school during intervals of labor upon the farm and in his father's store. When twelve years of age, he carried the United States mail on horseback, over routes next to impassable, never failing, however, to receive and deliver his mail-bags on time, even though in midwinter, when the weather was so cold that the hardiest men did not care to venture far from their hearth-stones. He spent about eighteen months at the Marysville, Ohio, Academy, and sub- sequently taught school in his native county. He was an apt scholar, especially in mathematics, and it is said to this day by those living upon the scene of his early career, "that he was one of the most thorough and able teachers that ever taught school in Union County." His health was not rugged when he was twenty years of age, which fact deterred him from adopting the pursuit of a civil engineer, upon which he had previously determined. He, however, entered the dry- goods store of his father as a partner, where he remained until he reached his majority, when he dissolved his con- nection with the firm, and came to Columbus. He secured employment as a clerk and book-keeper in the dry-goods store of A. P. Stone & Co., and in 1855 was taken into the firm as a partner, and remained until 1859-60. The Demo- crats of Franklin County in the mean time had nominated him as their candidate for county treasurer. Upon his elec- tion to that office, he severed his connection with the firm. He was re-elected to a second term by an unusually large majority, leading all the candidates on the State and county tickets. While holding the position of treasurer, he became a member of the banking firm of Bailey, Thompson & Co., and was subsequently connected with other business enter- prises. Mr. Thompson inherited his democracy from his excellent father, and being energetic in both mind and body, he was at once recognized as a local leader in the party, a position which he has not only steadily held ever since, but has extended it, until he has gained a deserved national reputation. He was made the chief officer of city and county organizations for several years, and in 1860 he was elected secretary of the State Central Committee, and again in 1862. The next year, when but thirty years of age, he was unanimously chosen chairman, which position he has held ever since, save during the intervals of a few years. He has been continuously, ever since 1860, either chairman of the State Central or Executive Committee, excepting a period of five years. He was a delegate at large from
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Ohio to the Democratic National Convention in New York, in 1868. In 1872 he was chosen as a delegate from his dis- trict to the Baltimore Convention, and in 1876 was a dele- gate to the St. Louis Convention, which nominated Sam- uel J. Tilden for President, and in 1880 was a delegate to the Cincinnati Convention which nominated General Han- cock. Since 1868 he has been the member for Ohio of the National Democratic Committee up to 1880, serving continuously during the same time on the State Executive Committee as chairman, except two years. In 1862 he was elected to the city council from the fourth ward of Colum- bus, and was made chairman of the police committee. It was a period of turbulence and excitement, owing to the presence, in and about the city, of large numbers of soldiers, and the chairman of that committee had, by reason of local legislation, almost exclusive control of the city government, and he administered it with signal ability. He declined a re-election until 1869, when he was returned to the council, where he rendered important service to the city by aiding in the overthrow of the conservatism which had so long hampered and retarded its growth. Water-works and other needful improvements were the results of the persistent efforts and influence of progressive men like Mr. Thomp- son. In 1871 he was elected to the State Senate by the Democrats of Franklin and Pickaway Counties, and re- elected in 1873. He rendered important service in that body, as chairman of the Finance Committee, until the Spring of 1874, when he resigned, to accept from Governor . Allen the appointment of State Commissioner of Railroads and Telegraphs. The Democracy having gained the ascend- ency in the Lower House of the Forty-fourth Congress, Mr. Thompson was nominated and elected, almost without oppo- sition, by the Democrats, as Sergeant-at-arms of that body, and he thereupon resigned the position of Commissioner of Railroads and Telegraphs, to accept the high honor which his party had conferred upon him. He discharged his duties as Sergeant-at-arms of the House with promptness and ability, and with an impartiality that secured him the high regard of his political foes and the unanimous support of the Demo- crats of the House for re-election to the same position in the Forty-fifth and in the Forty-sixth Congresses. When the death of President Garfield was announced Mr. Thompson at once repaired to Long Branch to make arrangements for the funeral. After a brief consultation with James G. Blaine and the members of the Cabinet, he hurried to Washington, riding all night, to carry into execution the programme that had been agreed upon. He immediately summoned all the members of Congress that were in and near Washington to meet and prepare for the reception of the remains, which arrived that day from Long Branch. He also telegraphed the absent members of the Forty-sixth and Forty-seventh Congresses to attend the obsequies at Washington and Cleve- land. He had the Hall of the House and the Rotunda draped in a fitting manner, and supervised all that was done for the House members in going to and returning from Cleveland, where the remains were placed in Lake View Cemetery. The members were so highly pleased with the completeness of the arrangements that, upon their return to Washington, they voted him their thanks. Mr. Thompson was a member of the State Fencibles up to the breaking out of the late civil war, when the company was disbanded, and most of its members went into the service. He being county treasurer at the time, could not join his comrades in
the struggle for the preservation of the Union, of which cause he was a strong defender with his means and influence. He was one of the first men of his city to give one hundred dol- lars at a public meeting held at the west front of the State- house to raise money for the support of the families of the three months' soldiers who were first called out by President Lincoln. He was a prominent candidate before the congres- sional convention which met at Lancaster in 1874. The con- vention was the most remarkable that ever met in the district, lasting five days, and over five hundred ballots were had before a nomination was made. The final result was that A. T. Walling, a close personal friend of Mr. Thompson, was nominated. The other candidates before the convention were General Thomas Ewing, George L. Converse, and W. E. Finck. Upon the seventeenth of February, 1857, he was married to Miss Fannie, daughter of Hosea S. High, one of the pioneers of Franklin County. Two sons and two daughters are the offspring of this union. In 1880 he pur- chased an interest in the Daily Evening Times and Ohio Statesman of the Hon. John H. Putnam, and is now asso- ciated with that gentleman in their publication. The charac- ter of Mr. Thompson was illustrated during the time he was a teacher in the principal school of his native village. His dignity of bearing, determination of purpose, and well-defined ideas of organization compelled obedience from stalwart young men who attempted to override the rules laid down by their young master. It was the same rule of conduct and the application of the same principle to political organiza- tions that brought Mr. Thompson to the front as a manager at an early age, and at a time, too, when such distinguished men as Allen G. Thurman, George H. Pendleton, General George W. Morgan, William S. Groesbeck, General George W. McCook, George E. Pugh, Washington McLean, James J. Faran, General George B. Smythe, Henry B. Payne, Ru- fus P. Ranney, Hugh J. Jewett, C. L. Vallandigham, George W. Manypenny, Alex. Long, General James B. Steedman, General Durbin Ward, Judge James Mackenzie, Samuel Me- dary, James R. Morris, Judge W. J. Gilmore, General Barna- bas Burns, Lewis Glessner, Frederick W. Thornhill, Wm. D. Morgan, Governor Medill, Colonel J. R. Cockerill, Ralph Leete, Jacob Reinhard, George Rex, Dan. Rhodes, Christo- pher Hughes, Chas. N. Allen, Jefferson Palm, and Wal- ter C. Hood were among the ablest chiefs in Democratic councils. He felt, when the Democracy of Ohio placed him at the head of the State organization, that it was his duty first to organize its forces thoroughly, and then insist upon strict discipline. Though he was well aware that discontent might follow in some localities by thus firmly insisting that the rank and file comply with the mandates of their chief officer, he believed that it was the only method by which the party could succeed. It is possible that the memorable campaign of 1867, as well as that of 1877, each of which resulted in giving the Democracy a majority in both branches of the State Legislature, the first of which sent Allen G. Thurman to the United States Senate, and the second the Hon. George H. Pendleton, might not have been different with some of the factors to those great victories left out. The writer of this sketch, however, from a long and varied experience in State politics and political campaigns, is of the opinion that Mr. Thompson was a factor which could not have been omitted in either without working an entirely different result. Had his generalship, his untiring industry, and his zeal in the cause been wanting, the country would, in all
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probability, have been deprived of the services of two of the most conspicuous statesmen of the age. The Democracy of Ohio have been successful in the last twenty odd years only when Mr. Thompson managed the campaigns. In 1876 Mr. Thompson, though hampered by the duties incident to his position as Sergeant-at-arms of the United States House of Representatives, entered heartily upon the labor of again organizing the Democracy preparatory to the presidential contest which came off in November of that year. As the Deinocratic forces began to show signs of great strength and compactness the Republican chiefs became alarmed, and at once caused the best speaking talent and the ablest political managers of the country to be called to Ohio to save their presidential candidate from overwhelming defeat in his own State. The final announcement of the result of the vote in Ohio showed that their fears were well founded ; for out of a total vote of 659,771 Samuel J. Tilden, the Democratic can- didate for President, was defeated by only 7,516 votes. Dur- ing the progress of a campaign he was always at head- quarters early in the morning, and he was the last man to leave his desk at night. Making himself the example of a close, hard, and persistent worker, he imbued his lieutenants, clerks, and other co-laborers in the cause of Democracy with the same energetic, hopeful, and cheerful spirit with which he was liimself animated. In consequence, he was enabled to draw upon those who came in contact with him to the full ex- tent of the physical energy and capacity which each possessed. Hence, no man in this part of the country, in or out of poli- tics, could produce as great results with the same laboring force as John G. Thompson. When younger men than him- self were exhausted after the steady labor of the day and the night, he seemed to be as good as new. Though Mr. Thompson possesses a thorough knowledge of the political situation in the cities, townships, and counties of the State, though extensively acquainted with the county Democracy as well as the prominent men of the party, though he is a keen judge of men, it must nevertheless be said that among the prime causes of his success as an organizer are his stay- ing qualities. The fact that he came to the capital of the State a mere boy, from an obscure hamlet in Union County, without means and without influence, save that which he commanded by his own good sense and personal address, and gained social and political prominence in a brief period of time, is a sufficient testimonial to his ability, his worth, and his popularity. His career ever since has only added additional proof to the foregoing statement ; for whenever he has been before the people for office or honors he led all other candidates upon the ticket. He has been reasonably successful as a business man, but has always given largely of his means to public enterprises, charities, and politics, and has paid out more than he ever gained by virtue of holding office. He also possesses those attributes which make him feel as self-possessed in the company of great jurists, journal- ists, and gentlemen high in the professions as he would were he in the company of his Fourth Ward constituents when re- joicing over his election as an alderman. Mr. Thompson has not been spoiled by office, because he is a plain and unas- suming citizen, and whether a clerk in a store, county treas- urer, banker and business man, or State or United States officer, he was ever, and is, the same genial and approach- able gentleman. And, withal, he is in many respects a for- tunate man, because he has done a great deal for others, and is blessed with a disposition and that constitution of
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