USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume I > Part 61
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mind by reason of which he sees only the bright side of the things of this life, and is enabled thereby happily to adjust himself to existing circumstances and conditions.
CONGER, COLONEL ARTHUR L., manufacturer, Akron, Ohio, was born in the village of Boston, Summit County, Ohio, February 19th, 1838. His ancestry was of rugged Ver- mont extraction, traced in direct line from his great-grand- father, Deacon Job Conger, who is believed to have been the first of that name on this side of the Atlantic. His father, John Conger, was a brickmaker and farmer, of St. Albans, Vermont, and also captain of an artillery company there. His mother, Hannah Beales, was likewise a native of St. Albans. From their native town John and Hannah Conger removed to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1833. Remaining there only six months, they settled in Boston. Here they resided until his death, in 1853, and here she survives, now the wife of her husband's former partner, Erastus Jackson. With long- ings for a collegiate education, which the straitened cir- cumstances of the family (composed of three brothers and one sister) did not permit to be gratified, the subject of this sketch spent the first twenty years of life on his father's farm and in his brick-yard. Then he boated two summers on the Ohio Canal. Meanwhile he had taken such advan- tage of the winter schoolings that, in the opinion of others, he became qualified to teach, and this vocation he followed for three years. His labors were suddenly interrupted by the shock of civil war. Closing his school, he devoted his ener- gies successfully to recruiting, enlisted himself as a private in the One Hundred and Fifteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, but was soon elected Second Lieutenant, and served afterward with his company, successively as First Lieutenant and Captain, down to 1865, when he was mustered out. His regiment was first assigned to duty in Kentucky, and afterward to the Army of the Cumberland, under General Thomas. Much of his term of service was spent on important detached duty. His first detail was as Assistant Adjutant-general on the staff of General Ammen, at Covington, Kentucky. Here also he served acceptably as Provost Marshal under General Jacob D. Cox, and was member of a court-martial under Judge- advocate R. M. Corwine, which continued in session over one hundred days, and disposed of a large number of im- portant cases. At a later period he was again detached for duty on court-martial, at the special request of Judge-advo- cate Corwine, and served for a shorter period. His regiment being sent to the front, he was, shortly after reaching the Department of the Cumberland, detailed for service in the Engineer Corps, as Assistant Inspector of Railroad Defenses, under Major James R. Willett, First United States Engineers. The task of keeping open the railroad communication was at this time of critical importance to the army. The specific duty laid upon Lieutenant Conger was the construction and maintenance of defenses on the line " the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad, between Nashville and Murfreesboro. The energy and promptness with which he accomplished his difficult task, and the excellence of his reports, drew the favorable notice of his commanding officer to the strong executive ability, which has been the distinguishing feature of his character then and since. He was thereupon made First Assistant Inspector, under Major Willett, and placed in almost entire charge of his office business, including the di- rection of the now completed defenses of the Department. While in this position, his organizing capacity became known
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to General Thomas, and he was recommended by that officer for appointment as Captain and Commissary of Subsistence, with the intention of having him issue supplies by special trains to the garrisons of the block-houses and railroad de- fenses throughout the department, in addition to his duties as inspector. With this recommendation only just made, the surrender at Appomattox took place, the war closed, and Captain Conger returned to Boston, for a year of needed rest. In 1866 he received the Republican nomination, and was elected Treasurer of Summit County. He was re-elected in 1868, holding the position in all four years. The duties of the place required his removal to Akron, where he has since resided, and where his present home, Irving Lawn, is noted for its beauty and hospitality. On retiring from office, in 1870, Mr. Conger became connected with the Whitman & Miles Manufacturing Company as traveling salesman, and shortly afterward as a stockholder and director of the same. The home office of this company was Fitchburg, Massachu- setts, with branch works at Akron; their business, the manu- facture of mower-knives, reaper-sickles, etc. By ceaseless personal efforts, business sagacity, and energy, Mr. Conger built up for the concern a Western business of enviable proportions. In 1877 the company was consolidated, under the laws of Ohio, with George Barnes & Co., of Syracuse, New York, under the name of the Whitman & Barnes Man- ufacturing Company, with works at Syracuse and Akron. Of the new organization he was made Vice-president, with increased responsibilities. The company now has additional works at Canton, Ohio, and St. Catherine's, Ontario, Canada. From the latter works their extensive trade north of the great lakes is handled. The company makes a specialty of the manufacture of mower and reaper knives, sickles, sections, guard-plates, spring-keys, cotters, and complete cutting apparatus for mowers and reapers. It does the largest business in its line, not only in the United States, but in the world. The works at Akron are known as the largest of their kind in existence. The capital stock of the company is a million and a half of dollars. It has a branch office in Boston, Massachusetts, and general agencies in Cin- cinnati, Chicago, Kansas City, Denver, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, and Portland, Oregon. Its business reaches every State and Territory in the Union, and it has besides a large foreign trade. All of the Western trade, from Western Penn- sylvania to the Pacific Coast, is in charge of Mr. Conger-a trust commensurate with his executive grasp, and so ably dis- charged as to win the approval and admiration of his business associates and connections. Mr. Conger is also President of the Akron Steam Forge Company, director of the Akron Water Works Company, and stockholder in the Diamond Match Works, of Akron. He has been as active in the promotion of common local interests as in other directions, has served on the Board of Education, of which he was secretary ; as Treasurer of the city; and has held numerous other public trusts, discharged invariably with fidelity to the people and credit to himself. Not the least of his local work was performed as Secretary of the Board of Trustees under whose direction the beautiful Soldiers' Memorial Chapel was erected in Akron Rural Cemetery. Mr. Conger drafted the resolutions by which this board was created, and was a liberal contributor of time and money for the accomplishment of this cherished object. An ardent, active, and sagacious Repub- lican, his counsel and assistance is sought in the highest political circles of his party, with whose principles he is
deeply imbued. Serving upon State and local committees untiringly and almost without intermission for years, he was, in 1880, elected Chairman of the Republican State Central Committee. He was again elected to that honor in 1882, and is Chairman at the present time. In July, 1881, the Eighth Regiment, Ohio National Guard, to which the Sixth Ohio Battery is also attached, unanimously elected him to the colonelcy, and he was duly commissioned by Governor Fos- ter. At the obsequies of President Garfield, at Cleveland, in the fall of 1881, Colonel Conger's regiment was assigned to the post of honor in guarding the Public Square and cata- falque, a laborious duty, so well performed as to win the en- comiums of- the press and public officials for himself and command. Colonel Conger was married November Ist, 1864, to Miss Emily Bronson, of Boston, daughter of Hiram V. Bronson, and granddaughter of Harmon Bronson, one of the original proprietors of the Western Reserve, who has been a faithful helpmeet in much more than the general acceptation of that term. Of this union four sons were born-Kenyon Bronson, Erastus Irving (deceased), Arthur Whitman, and Latham Hubbard. Colonel Conger is a member, supporter, and vestryman of St. Paul's Episcopal Church. Cordial and generous in the domestic circle, honorable with his fellow- men, liberal with his associates and the public, he well de- serves the esteem in which he is held as a useful citizen and a gentleman.
OKEY, JOHN WATERMAN, lawyer and jurist, Co- lumbus, was born near Woodsfield, Monroe County, Ohio, January 3d, 1827, and is of English parentage on the paternal, and Scotch-Irish on the maternal side. His grandfather, Leven Okey, emigrated to Ohio before it became a State, and on the organization of Monroe County was elected an associate judge. His father, Colonel Cornelius Okey, rep- resented Monroe County in the lower house of the General Assembly for several years, and was a man held in high repute by all who knew him. He died in 1859, at the age of seventy-seven years. The mother and maternal grand- mother and great-grandmother of Judge Okey are buried at Woodsfield, and the inscription on the tomb of the latter shows that she died at the advanced age of one hundred and three years. The only institution of learning Judge Okey ever attended was the Monroe Academy, but that was a school which in its infancy was of much promise, its first president and professors of mathematics being Andrew F. Ross and James P. Mason, who subsequently occupied, with great distinction, the same positions in Bethany College. He also had the advantage of private instruction from teachers of acknowledged learning and ability. After completing his early studies he accepted a place as a deputy in the county clerk's office of Monroe County, which position he held two years. He afterward read law with Nathan Hollister, at Woodsfield, and was admitted to the bar, at Cambridge, Ohio, by Judges Hitchcock and Caldwell, October 22d, 1849, being subsequently admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of the United States. In 1853 he was appointed probate judge of his native county, and the following year was elected to the same office. In 1856 he was elected Judge of the Court of Common Pleas in the Belmont District, and was re-elected without opposition in 1861, when he removed to Guernsey County. In 1865 he resigned the office of Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, to which he had been elected for a sec- ond term, and removed to Cincinnati, where he entered
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the law office of the Hon. W. Y. Gholson, and was jointly engaged with that distinguished lawyer, for nearly two years, in the preparation of the "Ohio Digest." After the com- pletion of that work, Judge Okey, in connection with S. A. Miller, for some time devoted a share of his attention in preparing for publication a volume known as "Okey and Miller's Municipal Law," which was first published in 1869. In 1875, Governor William Allen appointed Judge Okey, with M. A. Daugherty and Judge Day, members of a com- mission for the purpose of revising and codifying the general laws of the State. In 1877 he was the choice of the Democracy of the State as its candidate for Supreme Judge, and was elected, with Governor R. M. Bishop, in October of the same year. Having thus been raised to the supreme bench by the electors of the State, he resigned his position as a mem- ber of the Codifying Commission in 1877, and took his seat on the supreme bench, February 9th, 1878. Judge Boynton, then one of the associate judges on the supreme bench, re- signed his seat, November 9th, 1881, and Judge Okey became Chief-justice, under the provision of the statute by which it is enacted that the judge holding office for the shortest period, by election, for a full term, shall be Chief-justice. It will thus be seen that the greatest portion of his time has been given to judicial work. While in practice at the bar, he was ex- ceedingly active in the trial of causes, and was noted for his readiness and resource. His matchless memory enabled him to recall at will the cases in point and the rules of evidence which were applicable, so that he was ready on the moment for whatever turn the case might take. In dis- cussions of law he was always fair, candid, and explicit. In discussions of fact he was frank, manly, and to the point, and by these qualities often secured verdicts when a more graceful advocate might have failed. But judicial work is more suited to his talents and his tastes. He loves the study of the law and the investigation of judicial questions ; and to this passion-for with him it is a passion-all considerations of personal advantage have been sacrificed. He has never sought to reap the emoluments of the profession, but has been well satisfied if his ordinary wants were supplied while he pursued his legal studies and investigations. When he resigned the office of Common Pleas Judge in 1865, it was not so much for the purpose of securing the advantages of an active practice as to enable him to complete the great work, before that time begun, of preparing a digest of the Ohio Reports. The work was subsequently issued under the names of Gholson and Okey; but Judge Gholson was engaged in the practice of law in causes of great importance, and hence much of the labor of preparing the work was per- formed by Judge Okey. It is sufficient to say that it could not have been better done, and the merits of no legal publi- cation have been more universally acknowledged by the legal profession throughout the State. It will remain a last- ing monument to the genius and industry of its authors, and will form the basis of all future digests. His long service upon the Common Pleas bench, the years of labor given to the study and analysis of the Supreme Court decisions and the codification of the laws, pre-eminently fit him for a proper discharge of the duties of the high office of Judge of the Supreme Court. He brought to this position a more ample and more accurate knowledge of our statutory law and of the decisions of our courts than was ever possessed by any person of whom we have any knowledge or tradition. This was the result of great labor, supplemented by a mem-
ory truly phenomenal. There is not a single case in the whole fifty-seven volumes of Ohio Reports with which he is not familiar, and scarcely a case which he can not accurately state from memory. This vast knowledge has greatly facil- itated his judicial labors, and has been of service to his brethren at the bar and on the bench. While pursuing these special branches he has not neglected the broader and more liberal studies of the law. The common law, the civil law, the literature of the law, have all claimed his serious atten- tion. He has in the true sense been a student of the law, and has boldly entered all the rich fields of her vast do- mains. To this one great subject he has concentrated the best energies of his mind, and it is no doubt well that it has been so. But few minds can master many branches of knowledge. "The finger-marks of but few are upon all human learning." Great variety far more often leads to diffusiveness than to strength. It may be said of a few, like Bacon or Humboldt, that they encompassed all knowledge ; but they are of the few exceptions in human history. With most men concentration is strength. His manner upon the bench is quiet and courteous, and he accords to all who come before him a patient and attentive hearing. He seldom interrupts counsel in argument; and when once a case has been submitted to him it is not dismissed from his mind until all doubts are resolved in respect to it. He is cautious in arriving at his conclusions, but when once settled in his mind he is firm in their maintenance. His opinions as Judge of the Supreme Court, so far as published, will be found in Vols. XXX1, XXXIV, XXXV, XXXVI, and XXXVII of the Ohio Reports, and are distinguished for clearness of state- ment, purity of style, soundness of learning, and precision of doctrine. In 1849 Judge Okey was married to Miss Bloor, of Belmont County. Four children were born of this union, two sons and two daughters,-George B., Trevitt W., Mary I. (now the wife of Charles N. Danenhower, of Washington, D. C.), and Inez. Judge Okey's brother James represented Monroe County for several years in the General Assembly of Ohio. His brother William was a member of the Constitu- tional Convention of 1873, and is now Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of the Belmont District. At the October election, 1882, Judge Okey was elected to the Supreme Court for a term of five years, by a 'majority of sixteen thousand five hundred votes over his principal competitor, the Hon. John H. Doyle, of Toledo.
CULVER, LAWRENCE A., banker and real estate dealer, was born near Logan, Hocking County, Ohio, October 9th, 1834. His parents were Reuben and Hannah (Brooke) Culver, pioneers, for many years identified with the early history of Hocking County, and people of culture and influ- ence. His mother, formerly a member of a prominent family in Baltimore, was the daughter of Clement Brooke, a mer- chant and ship-owner of that city, for a number of years en- gaged in trade with the East Indies. He removed with his family to Zanesville, Ohio, in 1807, where his daughter was subsequently married to Dr. Culver, then a practicing physi- cian at Thornville, Ohio. The many excellent traits and commendable career of Reuben Culver, the father of the subject of our sketch, are too valuable in historic importance to be passed over in silence. He was born October 4th, 1798, at Waterford, Ohio, then a mere hamlet on the Mus- kingum River, eighteen miles north of Marietta. His parents were descended directly from the Pilgrims, and to the last
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faithful supporters of the principles of the Puritanic creed. Here, in the forest of the "Territory Northwest of the Ohio," in a time when all about him was wild and destitute of any but desultory civilization, young Culver spent his boyhood. In the total lack of schools, and almost total lack of books, to- gether with the hardships and privations incident to pioneer life, he underwent many trials in his efforts to obtain an edu- cation, for which his young mind continually thirsted. He managed, however, by diligent application and the aid of older friends, to acquire a fair education for one of his age, and at the age of fifteen set out in the world for himself. Of his early life at Waterford, and his subsequent adventures, many interesting incidents might be related, had we space, illustrative of his trials and his heroic courage in overcoming them. Leaving the homestead a mere boy, with no fortune aside from a good judgment and what he carried on his back, with no recommendation other than habits of industry and a slender education, he ventured forth to brave the un- certainties of so young a life, with no assurance of ever again returning to those he loved. Thus equipped, fortune was not far distant, and he soon found employment in a printing office at Marietta, where he remained faithful to his duties for five years. Having acquired some pecuniary means, he left the printing office at the age of twenty, and began the study of the languages, under the direction of the Rev. Cal- vin Chaddock, an eminent teacher and divine, with whom he enjoyed an intimate friendship until the latter's death. In 1819 he went to Charleston, Virginia, to study medicine, taking charge of an academy a portion of the time, as a means of support. At the end of five years thus occupied, having completed his professional studies, he returned to Ohio, and began the practice of his profession, at Logan. He practiced here awhile, but thinking the neighboring town of Thornville offered a better field for his professional career, he removed thither, where he continued successfully in the practice of medicine. He returned to Logan with his family in 1831, but this time to blend with his professional work. the more arduous pursuit of farming, which he did success- fully throughout most of his remaining life. Disposing of his farm, some distance from Logan, after a few years' resi- dence upon it, and giving up his design to become an ex- tensive landowner in the county, he purchased and removed to a more desirable property adjoining the village, where he continued to live in the enjoyment of society and books until his death. With this last change in his circumstances came a corresponding change in his studies and pursuits. Being relieved from the necessity of pressing exertion, he was enabled to devote more time to study and general read- ing. How well his time was thus employed is evinced by the veneration in which he was held by those about him, and the fact that he was twice appointed by the Legislature of Ohio to the office of Associate Judge for his county. He was much sought after by those about him for advice on legal subjects, and frequently was urged to accept positions of political preferment, which would have given him a State reputation ; but although willing to do all in his power as a private citizen for the benefit of his fellow-men, he modestly declined to be more than a private citizen. He was a lover of the sciences, making a special study of geology, and by taking advantage of the opportunity afforded by his pro- fessional travels, to become acquainted with the geological and mineralogical features of the surrounding country, he was doubtless (though unconsciously) a contributor of many
practical hints which have aided in the subsequent develop- ment of the mineral resources of the Hocking Valley. The feature in this man's history, however, which is best pre- served by his friends, and for which he is remembered with marked gratitude by all who knew him, is the magnanimous generosity with which he treated his less fortunate neighbors. Always charitable in giving to the poor, he often labored with them in his professional capacity when he had no prospect of remuneration, except pleasure in the consciousness of having done his duty. But in all this, the feature still more beautiful in his history is the fact that he never coveted notoriety ; and years after, when this generous man had passed · from among them, many who had received aid from an un- known hand were surprised to learn that Dr. Culver had been their benefactor. Having been judicious and careful in all his enterprises, he enjoyed a considerable fortune during the latter portion of his life, from which he often drew in the aid of home institutions, among them the Logan Branch Bank, of which he was President for several years, until he resigned this position to organize, in connection with other capitalists, the Citizens' Bank, of which he was President until his death, April 2d, 1861. He was twice married; first to a daughter of Judge Biddle, soon after his first location in Logan, who died within a year after their marriage ; and then to Miss Brooke, of Zanesville, as already mentioned. The fruits of this latter marriage were four sons and two daughters; two of the sons and a daughter still living. The two elder sons-C. V. and L. H. Culver-after receiving a liberal edu- cation at the Ohio Wesleyan University, resided awhile in Logan, the former as Cashier of the Citizens' Bank, and the latter as a lawyer of considerable distinction ; but subse- quently both removed to Pennsylvania, where they were to- gether engaged in extensive land and mineral transactions, until the death of the younger, in 1881, and where the other brother, C. V. Culver, continues in business at the present time. This latter has, for the last twenty years, been one of the prominent and active business men of Western Pennsyl- vania, and although not a political aspirant, has been hon- ored with the representation of his district in the National Congress. The third son, Lawrence A. Culver, the subject of this sketch, did not receive a collegiate education, being dis- appointed in a promised academic course at Columbus by the appearance of the cholera in that city. Thus deprived, and at once entering his father's store, he began his business career with no educational advantages other than those re- ceived at home and in the village school. These were suf- ficient, however, for his immediate convenience, and as he went on in business he continued to acquire, aside from gen- eral reading and observation, practical knowledge from that school most valuable to the business man-the school of ex- perience. Inheriting the practical traits of his father, he was always apt in business transactions, and never desired to turn his attention from that channel. The first enterprise which he carried on in his own name was that of druggist, which he pursued successfully in Logan from 1856 to 1859, when he sold out, and, together with his father, invested largely in Missouri lands. In 1859 he purchased and stocked a dry goods store, and carried on a general dry goods and clothing business until 1861. At this time, finding that the confinement to which his business held him was injuring his health, he purchased and moved on a farm, five miles east of Logan, where he remained about two years, at the same time continuing his interest in the Western lands. In 1863
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