USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume I > Part 63
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He continued teaching as a means of support, at the same time continuing his education as best he could by self-appli- cation until the beginning of the late war. The natural bent of his mind was always toward the legal calling, also evincing great interest in all the public political questions of the day, but his private cares prevented him from early engaging in a regular study of the profession. In 1861 he entered the mil- itary service, enlisting October 5th, as a private, but was at once promoted to a subordinate office, which he held until early in 1863, when he received the commission of first lieutenant and quartermaster of the Fifty-eighth Ohio Reg- iment, in which capacity he acted until mustered from the service, January 17th, 1865. He was in Grant's army at Fort Henry and Shiloh, after which he was sent, as a recruiting officer, to Cincinnati, where he spent eight months. On re- turning he was transferred to Sherman's army, in which he served until the close of the war. Immediately after the war he was elected to the office of justice of the peace in a town- ship strongly opposed to him politically, and although not an office seeker, he has been in a public position most of the time since. Twice, in 1875 and 1878, he was elected Clerk of the County Courts, both times running from six hundred to ten thousand ahead of his ticket. While in this office he completed his legal studies, and on retiring formed a law partnership with L. J. Burgess, under the style of Burgess & Hansen, immediately entering upon an active practice in the County Courts. He was a leader in the organization of the County Children's Home, of which he has been a trustee since its organization ; is President of the Logan Joint Life Protection and Relief Association ; and has been prominent in various public enterprises during most of his life. In pol- itics he is a Democrat, and has been a leading member of the Methodist Episcopal Church from boyhood. He was married September 19th, 1858, to Mary M. McBroom, a daughter of Robert McBroom, a pioneer and leading man in his day, for a number of years holding the office of County Commissioner. In physical appearance Mr. Hansen is tall, well-proportioned, and genteel in his bearing. Cautious in his conduct and courteous to his fellow-men, he enjoys a high popularity, both socially and politically, at home, and the fact that he was the leading candidate in the convention, through forty-eight bal- lots, for State Senator from his district in 1881, shows that his popularity is not confined to his own county.
GLESSNER, JOHN Y., journalist, Mansfield, Ohio, was born in Somerset, Somerset County, Pennsylvania, Oc- tober 27th, 1805. He was nearly half a century prominently identified with the newspaper history of Ohio as printer, editor, and publisher. The Glessners of this country are all the lineal descendants of four brothers, who at an early day came to America from some place along the Rhine, in Ger- many. Their descendants are scattered all over the United States. Their natural turn of mind seems to be in a literary and educational direction. Independently of each other dif- ferent members of this family have embarked in the editing and publishing business in Philadelphia, Illinois, Virginia City ; Americus, Georgia ; Findlay, Ohio; Mansfield, Ohio ; and elsewhere. Jacob Glessner, the father of John Y., was the son of one of these four brothers. After his marriage with Margaret Young, the daughter of a Lutheran minister of Hagerstown, Maryland, he settled in Somerset, Pennsyl- vania. Here they continued to reside till after the birth of all their children, thirteen in number. Their names are
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Samuel, John Y., Eliza, Margaret, Laura, Jacob, Augustus, Ross A., Henry and George, twins; Chauncey and Morrison, twins; and Andrew. Of these, seven are still living. Jacob, now residing in Zanesville, Ohio, was, for a number of years, editor and proprietor of the Zanesville Aurora, a Democratic paper, and afterwards editor and proprietor of the City Times,
and was subsequently a member of the Ohio Legislature, and
is at present engaged in the paper manufacturing business in
Zanesville under the firm name of Glessner & Gilbert; Ross A., Chauncey, and Morrison now residing in Urbana, Ohio; Augustus residing in Coldwater, Michigan; and their two sisters, one of whom is the wife of Isaac Smucker, of Newark,
a man of literary tastes and attainments, while the other,
Laura, is living in Norwich, Muskingum County, Ohio; An-
drew, a young man of fine ability, an apt writer and ready correspondent, who went into the Mexican war, but was at- tacked by the Mexican fever and died about a year after his return. While in Mexico he was the war correspondent
of the paper published by his brother, John Y. Glessner. The
latter early chose the printing business and editorial life as most congenial to his tastes. After acquiring a practical knowledge of the trade, he, in connection with his younger brother, Jacob, purchased the Democratic paper of their native town in 1828, the Somerset Whig, which they edited and pub- lished for about three years and a half, when they sold out to
Daniel Weyand. They then removed to St. Clairsville, Ohio, in 1833, and purchased of George H. Manypenny the St. Clairsville Gazette, which they edited and published for four and a half years. In the meantime they also started the Cadiz Sentinel, which was conducted by Jacob until both offices were disposed of. In the ever-memorable log-cabin and hard-cider campaign of 1840, when General Harrison was elected President, Mr. Glessner was connected with the busi- ness department of the Ohio Statesman, then edited by Colonel Samuel Medary. In May, 1841, he purchased the Mansfield Shield and Banner of Mr. John Meredith, which he edited and published continuously for over forty-one years. For upwards of forty-five years he was in active editorial life in this State; adding the three and a half years in Som- erset, Pennsylvania, he edited Democratic papers for nearly half a century. At the time of his death, which occurred September 18th, 1882, he was the oldest editor in Ohio. He was married May Ist, 1832, to Miss Henrietta M. Young, of Charlestown, Jefferson County, Virginia. Her grandfather Young was a minister in Hagerstown, Maryland. Her father was Samuel Young, son of the minister ; her mother, Maria E. Young, was the daughter of Henry Koontz, a merchant in Fred- ericktown, Maryland. To John Y. and Henrietta M. Glessner nine children were born, six of whom are now living. Hen- rietta M. remained at home till her father's death ; Laura was married to Charles H. Childs, of Cleveland, Ohio ; Jessie to C. T. Kimball, of Columbus, Ohio; Samuel, a practical job printer, resides in Marion, Ohio; Ross A. and John Y., Jr., are in Mansfield, in charge of their late father's paper; Ed- ward and Lucy died in early childhood, and George when a bright and promising boy of eleven summers. Mr. Glessner was a member of Grace Episcopal Church. In politics he was always a prominent and consistent Democrat of the Jef- fersonian school and Jackson faith. He supported and voted for Jackson at his second election. No higher tribute could be paid to a man, and especially to an editor, than the Herald, of Mansfield, a Republican paper, paid to Mr. Glessner in No- vember, 1881. In speaking of Mr. Glessner the Herald said :
"We are moved to put on record in the columns of the Herald something of the history and career of an old citizen, and one who for over forty years has been constantly in pub- lic life and yet never held a public office of any grade. His efforts have made many of our public men. He has largely aided since 1841 the several aspirants for places of honor
and profit, year after year, from the ranks of the dominant , political party in Richland County. .
to Mansfield the wife of his youth, a queen-like lady in With him came
appearance, and as queenly in all the relations of life.
Among the acquaintances of her younger days was Gen-
eral D. H. Strother, the well-known Porte-Crayon of Har-
political views and advocated the political doctrines of the chiase of the newspaper establishment which reflected the field with his good wife is within our memory. The pur- pers' Magazine. The coming of this gentleman to Mans-
dominant party at that time in the State and in the county by one in the vigor of young manhood, with a repu- tation already established in his native State of Pennsylvania
and in Eastern Ohio, was a marked event. His association
the young newspaper man to a large circle of friends, and exciting struggle of the campaign of 1840, had introduced with Colonel Medary, of the Ohio Statesman, during the
enlarged that acquaintance beyond the limits of Belmont and Harrison, and he was warmly welcomed by the people
of Richland County, both by political friends and opponents.
deceased. The Campbells, of the old Sandusky Clarion, the of Stark and the other of Champaign, have retired or are Now he is the Nestor of the Ohio press. The Saxtons, one
ment, and now and then appears in the columns of the propagation. Manypenny entered the service of the govern- ing-knife amid the grape-vines of his own selection and abandoned the scissors editorial for the more profitable prun- father long since departed to the better country, and the son
newspapers of the State, but only in the advocacy of the rights of the rapidly diminishing tribes of the forest, for
bered only with the dead. The Gilkisons, father and son, Cleveland Leader, and Gray, of the Plaindealer, are num- mond and Wright, of the Cincinnati Gazette, Harris, of the Dr. Thrall, of the Ohio State Journal, is no more. Ham- paternal care. Medary, of the Statesman, years ago died. whom, as an Indian Commissioner, he exercised the greatest
of the Jeffersonian, forerunner of the Herald, slumber their last sleep in our beautiful cemetery on the hill-and still John
Y. Glessner lives, and from week to week, as he did in 1830
in Somerset, in 1833 in St. Clairsville, and in 1841 in Mans- field, presents his compliments to the people in the weekly
issue of his paper. What a panoramic retrospect he may in- dulge in. Here he has resided ever since May, 1841, a long period of over forty years. Time came on apace, and there
grew up in his home sons and daughters. We remember the first sad bereavement of the family, the death of the eldest son, a beautiful boy with ruddy face, large blue eyes, and curling locks. Years have intervened since we, with other school-
boys and girls, with our fathers and mothers, elder brothers
and sisters, attended the funeral rites of this first-born son of
the family. We recall, at this distance, the sorrow and sad-
so bright, and so beautiful, should die. Once again, but ness of his playmates. It was indeed sad, that one so young,
when age had crept on the heads of the family, death en- tered the household and bore off the wife and mother. It was on the 16th of February, 1875. We will be pardoned for referring to these incidents, and yet a life is not complete
without them, for their office and influence is to smooth the
for the political party he has so long and ably served, more Happily for himself and his surviving family, fortunately rough places of the long road from the cradle to the grave.
fortunately for our community, of which he has for so many
years been a most worthy member, the life of John Y. Gless- ner is still spared. When he first settled in Mansfield it was but a hamlet-without railroads, without manufacturing estab-
lishments; the telegraph was unknown and unthought of-
blocks, no jobbing-houses-the old court-house and the old no paved streets, no gas lights, no water-works, no brick
jail were then in use; the school-houses were two in num- ber, only one story, single rooms. Not a church building, now in use as such, was then built, nor a school-house ; and yet while he has grown old, the little hamlet has grown into
Lavida Sintent
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BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA AND PORTRAIT GALLERY.
a thriving, bustling, busy city. When he first became a citi- zen of Mansfield Jacob Brinkerhoff and Thomas W. Bartley and James Stewart and Charles T. Sherman were young men, and Barnabas Burns and George W. Geddes and John Sher- man were hardly full grown. On his advent Eben P. Stur- ges, Edward Sturges, Sen., Simeon Bowman, Hugh McFall, Robert McComb, and Ellzey Hedges were the active mer- chants of Mansfield. Now each and all of them are in their graves. Then Purdy was in his prime at the bar, and Bush- nell at his best by the bedside of the sick and weary. They still with him live, but like him, and farther on than he, they are rapidly traveling to the country beyond the dark river."
Industry, application, and energy were ever inseparable companions of Mr. Glessner all through his long life. Faith- fulness to friends and devotion to the party of his choice were leading principles in his character. As a friend he was always constant, as a neighbor kind, as a citizen enterprising, as a partisan sleepless and vigilant. As an editor he was ever courteous and generous to his opponents. They enter- tained for him the most profound regard and respect, and one who knew him well declared it as his conviction that "there was not a man whom Mr. Glessner would not befriend, nor lives there one who was his personal enemy."
SINTON, DAVID, of Cincinnati, was born in the county of Armagh, Ireland. His father was John Sinton, a linen man- ufacturer, and was of Anglo-Saxon origin. The original family name was Swinton, a name borne by not a few men of distinc- tion in the history of Great Britain. His mother was of Scotch extraction, her maiden name being McDonnell. Mr. Sinton came with his father's family to the United States when he was but three years old, and settled at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. In his boyhood he gave promise that his success in life would be rapid. He attended the school, at irregular intervals, and by close application to private study he gained a fair educa- tion. Leaving home at the age of thirteen, he became sales- man at Sinking Springs, in the State of Ohio, at four dollars a month. Two years later he went to Cincinnati, but soon returned to the former place, where his business talents shortly afterward secured him an engagement. Having succeeded in adding materially to his savings, he again went to Cin- cinnati, and embarked in the commission business; but this venture not proving profitable, he sold out, and went to Wash- ington, Fayette County, where he took charge of and man- aged successfully an extensive dry goods establishment. His next removal was to the Hanging Rock iron region, where he assumed the management of the landing and river busi- ness for James Rogers & Co., and afterward of the manu-
facture of pig-iron, hollow-ware, etc., of John Sparks & Co., at Union Furnace, Lawrence County, Ohio. Within two years he was appointed manager of their entire works, of which he soon became part owner. He afterward built the Ohio Furnace, and rebuilt the Union Furnace, which together did a large business in the manufacture of iron. In 1849 he returned to Cincinnati (which has since been his permanent residence), and opened an office for the sale of the products of the furnaces in which he was interested. Since engaging in the manufacture of iron, Mr. Sinton has been especially successful, and the great ability and good judgment exercised in his subsequent numerous manufacturing and real estate operations have resulted very profitably. He meanwhile took an active part in many of the leading enterprises of Cincinnati, and added to its wealth and beauty by the erec- tion of many substantial and elegant buildings. He dis-
tinguished himself by several munificent gifts. After pre- senting one hundred thousand dollars to the Union Bethel, and thirty-three thousand dollars to the Young Men's Christian Association (in order that a debt might be removed from their property), he proposed, in 1876, an additional and still more munificent gift to the city of his adoption-the erection on Fifth Street, between Main and Walnut Streets, of a granite esplanade and rostrum, estimated to cost, when completed, not less than two hundred thousand dollars, as a place for public speaking and entertainments-a work which would have been a lasting monument of Mr. Sinton's public spirit and liberality. Obstacles, raised by politicians and others, prevented its construction. In addition to Mr. Sinton's iron interests, which are very extensive, he has large interests in cotton mills in the South. In 1882 Mr. Sinton purchased the Grand Opera House, in Cincinnati, at a cost of two hundred thousand dollars, and expended over thirty thousand dollars for improvements. It is now one of the finest buildings of the kind in the United States. Mr. Sinton is entirely a self- made man. He has always been remarkable for strong common sense, sound judgment, and self-reliance. One of the striking features of his character is his originality in re- gard to business matters; he always refers to facts, and draws his own deductions. Chiefly self-educated, his reading has embraced a wide range of subjects in all departments of literature. His memory was always extraordinary, and has retained whatever to him seemed valuable. He has never been a politician, but aimed to cast his vote for the election of good men. During the war Mr. Sinton was a strong Union man, and did his full share for the support of the government, both by the use of means and influence. Mr. Sinton married Miss Jane Ellison, of Manchester, Ohio, and had two children-Edward and Annie. The former died in 1869, and the latter was married December 4th, 1873, to Charles P. Taft, of Cincinnati, son of Hon. Alphonso Taft.
WILDES, THOMAS F., soldier and lawyer, of Akron, Ohio, was born at Lacine, Canada West, June Ist, 1834. His parents, Patrick and Mary Wildes, were both natives of Ire- land, who, coming to Canada soon after their marriage, set- tled at Lacine, in 1832. The members of his father's family belonged to the class of Irish patriots, and his grandfather, Thomas Wildes, was so earnest a participant in the Irish Rebellion of 1798 that his goods were confiscated, and him- self obliged to escape to France, to save his life. Young Wildes came with his father's family to Portage County, Ohio, in 1839, where he remained on a farm until he was seventeen years of age. Up to this time his opportunities for obtaining an education had been very much limited, and at this age he was only able to read and write. He was ardent, how- ever, in his desire for knowledge, and managed, by working for the neighboring farmers in the summers, to support him- self and begin an education by attending the public schools at Ravenna in the winter seasons. He showed a promising native ability, and this, together with his assiduous application,
soon enabled him to repair the loss of early advantages. He attended the Twinsburg Academy, also the academy at Marl- boro, in Stark County, Ohio, and afterward spent two years (1857-58) at Wittenberg College, Springfield. After leaving the college, he took charge of the public schools at Wooster, for two years, as superintendent. January Ist, 1861, he bought from N. H. Van Vorhes the Athens Messenger, and took
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charge of it as editor and proprietor, thus gratifying one of his earliest ambitions-to become a newspaper editor. He disposed of this paper in 1862, to become lieutenant-colonel of the One Hundred and Sixteenth Ohio Volunteers, and was almost constantly in command of this regiment, from August 25th, 1862, until February, 1865, when he was promoted to the colonelcy of the One Hundred and Eighty-sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. The One Hundred and Sixteenth was in twenty-eight battles, and according to the report of the War Department, made in 1865, it stood fourth among Ohio regiments in point of number of men and officers killed in action. In all of these engagements General Wildes was in command of the regiment, or of the brigade to which it was attached. In the battle of Piedmont, on the Lynch- burg raid, near Staunton, Virginia, June 5th, 1864, the One Hundred and Sixteenth lost one hundred and seventy-four killed and wounded. In this engagement General Wildes was injured in the foot by a passing shell, and by the con- cussion and windage of the shell suffered permanent injury to the abdominal nerves, and was besides wounded in the knee by gun-shot. On the 18th of June, at Lynchburg, a grape-shot struck his sword, for a time paralyzing the sword-arm; and July the 18th, at Snicker's Ferry, he re- ceived a slight wound in the left thigh. Following these en- gagements were those of August 26th, near Halltown ; Sep- tember 3d, at Berryville ; September 19th, at Opequan Creek, near Winchester; September 22d, at Fisher's Hill; and Octo- ber 13th, near Cedar Creek, where Colonel Wells, of the Thirty-fourth Massachusetts, the brigade commander, was killed. Colonel Wildes, being next in rank, was put in com- mand of the brigade. October the 19th came the battle of Cedar Creek, "with Sheridan twenty miles away." In this hot fight he was wounded in the right thigh, but got off his horse and bound a handkerchief around the limb to prevent bleeding, and. returned to the saddle, where he remained until evening, when the battle was over and won. Wildes's brigade was the only one of General Crook's corps which remained unbroken when the rebel General Gordon struck and flanked it that memorable morning. This brigade was composed of the One Hundred and Sixteenth and One Hun- dred and Twenty-third Ohio, Thirty-fourth Massachusetts, and a battalion of the Fifth New York Heavy Artillery, the bat- talion being captured on the picket line. The other three reg- iments remained together through that awful flank fire, made four separate charges during the day, and at night camped in their old quarters. This was the only brigade in the corps which saved its camp equipage and stores from the disaster of the carly morning, and it was done only by hard fighting. In Reid's "Ohio in the War," the author says Lieutenant- colonel Wildes "was commissioned brevet brigadier-general for gallant conduct at Cedar Creek, Virginia, October 19th, 1864." General Wildes was promoted to colonel of the One Hundred and Eighty-sixth Ohio, and at the same time was sent to Chattanooga; at the head of a brigade, and afterward to Nashville, where the close of the war found him. He was mustered out September 19th, 1865, having served over three years, much of the time as a brigade commander in the Army of West Virginia, the Army of the James, and the Army of the Tennessee. The service thus undergone has left its mark on the brave and meritorious general, and he has been a continual sufferer from the wound in the foot and neuralgia of the abdominal nerves. In the winter of 1872-3 an interesting operation was performed upon the right heel,
and a portion of the bone removed, thus reducing the ne- crosis, but leaving the foot weak and tender. The injuries to the thigh, although flesh wounds, cut through the muscles, weakening the limbs. The knee wound fractured the inner border of the patella. The abdominal injury from windage of the shell has left him subject to frequent neuralgic attacks, some of which are so serious as to threaten life. Coming out of the army, General Wildes attended the Cincinnati Law School for one year, and being admitted to the bar in 1866, began practice in Athens, in connection with A. G. and H. T. Brown, but removed to Akron in 1872, and has since practiced his profession with such vigor as his health would permit. In 1866 he was a candidate before the Republican State Convention, and lacked but three votes of a nomination for Secretary of State. He was also made a candidate by his friends for the same office in 1880. Added to his brilliant services in the war are his no less valuable and continued efforts in behalf of the Republican party, and his cordial sup- port of its principles and its best men. A pleasing speaker, logical reasoner, and enthusiastic advocate, he is almost con- stantly on the stump, in every campaign, and is well known throughout the State for his political and patriotic oratory. In his private character General Wildes is courteous and cordial to his friends, and with a generosity almost unbounded. He is dignified and outspoken in his nature, but is characterized by motives of kindness and sympathy for his fellowmen. He married August, 1860, Elizabeth M. Robinson, of Ravenna, with whom he became associated, and from whom he received much aid, while he was a young man struggling so earnestly for an education. She was a daughter of George Robinson, the eminent civil engineer, so well known to the railroad inter- ests of Northern Ohio. He has one child living, a daughter, Frances, a young lady of fourteen, now living with her parents, at their home in Akron.
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