USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume II > Part 10
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covered, however, and again reported for duty at the front, receiving new staff appointments and promotions, and was with his command in all the battles in which it was engaged, including Grant's campaign of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Petersburg, etc. He was recommended as major by Gen- erals Joseph Hooker and Nelson Taylor. At the close of the war General Young was rewarded with a commission of brevet lieutenant-colonel of New York Volunteers, "for gal- lant and meritorious services during the war of the Rebel- lion." In 1866 General Young located in business at Buffalo, New York, continuing till 1869, when he settled in Toledo, Ohio, as the representative of the extensive lumber house of Sears, Holland & Co., a firm established in 1835, and second to none in wealth and the magnitude of its opera- tions, having mills and salt works at East Saginaw, Michi- gan, with distributing points at Buffalo (the residence of Mr. Holland) and other large cities, both in the United States and England. General Young at once became manager in inter- est of the Toledo house. In 1873, on the death of Franklin P. Sears, of East Saginaw, the Toledo house was reorgan- ized, and now bears the firm name of Nelson Holland & Co., the junior, resident, and managing partner being Gen- eral Young. The business carried on by the Toledo estab- lishment is very extensive, giving employment to a large force of men, and its present prosperous condition is very largely, if not wholly, due to the enterprise, energy, and thorough business qualifications of General Young. Since his residence in Toledo he has been urged as a candidate for numerous important preferments, both State and muni- cipal-honors he has been obliged to decline on account of the magnitude of his business. However, the least of all he accepted, that of park commissioner, an office he now fills as president of the board, having been appointed in 1874. In 1877, after the election of R. M. Bishop as governor of Ohio, General Young was tendered and accepted a position on his military staff as quartermaster-general and commis- sary-general of subsistence, with the rank of brigadier-gen- eral. General Young was one of those selected to accompany Governor Bishop on his official international visit to the capital of the Dominion of Canada, in response to an invita- tion by the vice-regal authorities, on the occasion of the opening of the Dominion Exposition. They were entertained at Rideau Hall, Ottawa, by the governor-general (Lorne) and the Princess Louise, and received the hospitalities of the provincial and municipal officers, as well as club and social privileges, during the week of their sojourn as guests. Dur- ing the great railroad and mining riots of 1877 General Young was again found conspicuous on the side of law and order, and at once gave his influence and means towards organ- izing and maintaining the present efficient military system of Ohio. As an evidence of the appreciation in which he is held by his comrades, friends, and neighbors, the following incident may be related: On January 9th, 1880, just before the close of Governor Bishop's administration, his associates of the G. A. R. and the Ohio National Guard, and other citizens, presented him with a valuable testimonial, consisting of a general officer's sword, sash, and belt, of the finest material and workmanship, appropriately inscribed. Re- ferring to the presentation, the Toledo Sunday Journal, of January 11th, 1880, contained the following just tribute : "The testimonial to General C. L. Young is handsome in its intrinsic worth, but gains its real value as a mark of esteem from citizens, comrades, and warm personal friends.
General Young belongs to the highest type of American citi- zenship, the brave soldier in war, the earnest, generous, and public-spirited citizen in peace, and a warm, true friend in every relation. His military career has been brilliant, and he has been among the most efficient of the able men with whom the retiring kind-hearted and business governor surrounded himself during his administration, which closes to-morrow. He has been an honor to Toledo, and the only recompense for his loss to the State is the selfish gain we shall receive from his returning exclusive allegiance." Upon the death of General Hooker the family presented General Young with the sash worn by that hero throughout the war, as a memento to this former staff officer of "Fighting Joe." General Young recently became a pensioner in consequence of wounds received, having suffered more or less from their effects ever since the war, though not until lately asking from the Gov- ernment any recompense for his misfortune. The Toledo Blade, of August 18th, 1881, referring to this, contains the following: "Among the names of the gallant men who bore a conspicuous part in the late war, that of General Charles L. Young shines with a luster that will not be dimmed by time. Our heroes are justly admired and held in grateful esteem by our people, and so long as our Government exists bravery will be rewarded, not alone. that it is the sustaining power of the country in time of peril and brings lasting admiration, but also as an incentive to the young men who are reaching the years of manhood to give their energies and skill to the Government when called upon in time of the na- tion's need. The many friends of General Young will be pleased to learn that his record during the war has not gone unrecognized. He has just received a check from the United States Government amounting to nearly two thousand five hundred dollars, as part pension and arrearages, on account of gun-shot wounds received during the late war. This is as it should be." General Young is an active member of the fol- lowing military organizations and societies, viz : The G. A. R., of which he is senior vice-commander-in-chief, the Ohio National Guard, "Third Army Corps Union," "The Society of the Army of the Potomac," a companion in the "New York Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States," and a trustee of the " Toledo Soldiers' Memorial Association." He is also a member of the De Molay Masonic Lodge 498, Buffalo, New York. In the spring of 1862, upon the field of battle at Bottom Bridge, on the day of the battles of the Seven Pines and Fair Oaks, and just before his corps was ordered in, General Young was made Master Mason, being the only Mason upon whom was conferred such a degree under a limited dispensation to Scott Lodge, granted by the Grand Lodge of the State of New York, as shown by the special dimit now in his posses- sion. January 18th, 1871, General Young married in Green- wood, Boston, Miss Cora M., daughter of Hon. Albert Day, M. D., a very eminent physician of Boston. Dr. Day is a graduate of Harvard Medical College, and is known among the profession as a great specialist of nervous diseases, and a colleague of Drs. Bowditch and Storer. Dr. Day has repre- sented the city of Boston in the legislature of the Common- wealth of Massachusetts. He also served for many years as a member of the board of education of the city of Boston. Mrs. Young is a graduate of the Boston High-school, and is a lady of rare culture and literary attainments. It may be stated here, that since her residence in Toledo she has been very zealous and liberal in contributions of time and money
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designed to aid works of Christian charity and benevolence. One of the institutions with which she is particularly iden- tified is the "Home for Friendless Women," of which she has been secretary ever since its organization in 1872. Mrs. Young's maternal ancestry were among the most illustrious of those recorded in the annals of the New England States, and were among the founders of the State of Maine. Her great-grandfather was General Jotham Moulton, of York, a character of Revolutionary fame. Three children have been born to General and Mrs. Young-Emma Day (deceased), Nelson Holland, and Eleanor Martha. General Young was at one time a member of the Episcopalian Church, but at pres- ent is actively associated with the Central Congregational Church, under the charge of the Rev. Dr. Bacon. His pa- ternal ancestors were among the earliest and longest attend- ants of the "Reformed Dutch Church," of New York, while his maternal were equally as firm adherents of the Meth- odist Episcopal. Politically General Young has always been a zealous and consistent democrat. In all public enter- prises and charities he is an open-handed and efficient worker. He was one of the founders of the "Merchants' and Manufacturers' Exchange," an organization which has resulted most beneficially to the general industries of To- ledo. General Young is particularly public-spirited, doing all in his power for the good of Toledo-always foremost in any work that gains for the city a wider and fairer name, kind and courteous, giving to the stranger a hearty welcome. Notwithstanding the pressure of every-day duties, General Young has possessed himself of an unusual amount of lit- erary culture, and among his large circle of acquaintances can count many names of those who have won distinction for themselves in the world of literature and art.
MCGUFFEY, JOHN, Groveport, Madison township, Franklin county, Ohio, was born near the site of his present residence, August 26th, 1810. He is a son of John and Eliza- beth (Sworden) McGuffey. The former came from Lime- stone (now Maysville), Kentucky, in 1803, and settled in Madison township. His mother was a native of Virginia, coming to Ohio in 1805. He is descended, on his father's side, from the McGuffeys and McDowells who emigrated from Scotland about the year 1746, and settled in the mount- ains of Pennsylvania, going from there to Kentucky imme- diately after the close of the Revolutionary war. His paternal grandfather, Henry McGuffey, was slain in a hand-to-hand conflict with a band of thirteen Indians, near the line of Ten- nessee, in Logan county, Kentucky, in 1787. He was a pow- erful man physically, and proved to be a formidable foe in this last struggle, killing six of his assailants before yielding up his own life. His wife was Jane McDowell. After the death of her husband she removed, with three children, to Limestone, Kentucky. These children were John McGuffey, the father of the subject of this sketch; Henry McGuffey, who was killed by the Indians in the war of 1812; and Mar- garet, who subsequently married a man by the name of Lafferty. Jane McDowell was a woman of great physical strength, of remarkable presence of mind, and undaunted courage and bravery. Her father, Colonel John McDowell, was a Scotchman who settled in Pennsylvania about 1745, and was a colonel of Pennsylvania and Virginia troops. The mother of Mr. McGuffey was a great-granddaughter of Robert Kile, a Scotchman, who had settled on the Potomac River, and later served in the war of the Revolution. Her grand-
father, William Kile, came to Ohio, settling at Chillicothe in 1799. At the time of John McGuffey's birth, in 1810, there were very few families in his section of the State, the In- dians being more numerous than the whites, and all the wild animals that were common before the advent of the white man being still abundant and troublesome. The streams were full of drift, and there were no bridges or highways. Mills and other conveniences were exceedingly scarce. The subject of this biography endured all the privations and hardships that were the common lot of the children of the poor at that early day, and grew up in the midst of the wilds of the magnificent forests of that fertile region, with but little opportunity for obtaining scholastic training. From the age of nine years he had to rely entirely upon his own exertions for support. Being naturally strong, industrious, and intelli- gent, he found abundant employment; and by the use of hickory bark for a light, while others slept, he acquired suf- ficient knowledge of the common branches of education at seventeen to engage during the winter in teaching school. During the spring, summer, and autumn he performed the severest manual labor. At nineteen years of age he was married to Pamalia, daughter of Richard Courtright, Esq. This he esteems as the great good fortune of his life. His wife was two years his junior, and a most industrious, mod- est, and intelligent lady ; and was descended from a superior family of Holland Dutch. The young couple engaged at once in farming leased lands, with great success. The hus- band spent his evenings and leisure hours in reading books and papers, while his wife busied herself with the household cares. They had born to them eleven children-eight of whom grew to man and womanhood-to whom they were enabled to give the advantages of academic and collegiate educations. By integrity, industry, and economy, from ten- ants they became owners of thousands of acres of land in Franklin and other counties in Ohio. . They lived together, as man and wife, for nearly forty years, when, on the 13th of September, 1869, the dear wife and mother passed to her last rest. Mr. McGuffey, now in his seventy-second year, is a vigorous, intelligent, strong man. While he has acquired a large landed estate, he has not neglected the cultivation of his mind by the study of mathematics, astronomy, phi- losophy, chemistry, and other branches of natural science, and the careful study of ancient and modern history and current events. He is really, although a quiet farmer, one of the learned men of his time. He has given great attention to the subject of underdraining and the reclaiming of wet and low lands. Indeed, he is a pioneer in this mode of improvement, having commenced in 1839. He has given much thought and had large experience in both surface and underdraining. He has long advocated that it is the duty of the State and local authorities to organize such a system of drainage as would prevent all water from becoming stag- nant, thereby making all land productive, and thus removing all miasms, which have been man's greatest enemy, from our beautiful State. From his childhood, until he arrived at the age of thirty years, he was intimately associated with grand- parents who had taken a prominent and active part in all the stirring scenes, and had vivid recollections of all the inci- dents and hardships of pioneer life in Western Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and Ohio, from 1770. They were strong, brave, and hopeful people, knowing no fear, and shrinking from no dif- culties. Descended from such parentage, and under such influences, he naturally sought great and difficult undertak-
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ings, and is best satisfied when he has on hand some enter- prise taxing to their utmost extent his mental and physical abilities. His latest great enterprise was to deepen and widen the bed of the Scioto River, in Hardin county, Ohio, thereby reclaiming many thousands of acres of very rich soil, which, to be successful, his clear mind saw must be done by a slow and gradual process. For twenty years he has devoted his time, his thoughts, and large sums of money to his favorite undertaking, until now he can pasture five thousand head of cattle, and he confidently expects to see three hundred thousand bushels of corn produced annually upon his lands, and that in future generations that which he has reclaimed from the waste of waters shall make homes for and sustain five hundred families. Mr. McGuffey has seven children still living, John G., Cyrus, Gustavus S., Clemuel R., Mrs. Minerva M. Spangler, Panthea M., and Grac- chus McGuffey. The oldest living son, John G. McGuffey, is a leading member of the Columbus bar. Mr. and Mrs. Spangler are living in Jackson county, Arkansas; Cyrus, Gus- tavus, and Gracchus reside in Hardin county, Ohio; Clemuel R. lives in Franklin county; and Panthea is living with her aged father on the old homestead in Madison township, a few miles southeast of the city of Columbus. There are also living with Mr. McGuffey two grandchildren, John V. and Edsond McGuffey, children of Richard C. McGuffey, who died March 20th, 1870. Mr. McGuffey has an extensive acquaint- ance in Central Ohio, and is greatly esteemed for his many excellencies of head and heart.
NEWTON, EBEN, lawyer, born at Goshen, Connecti- cut, October 16th, 1795, was the son of Isaac Newton, a farmer at Goshen. In his early years he worked on the farm and attended the schools of the neighborhood. In 1814 he removed to Portage county, Ohio, and devoted himself for the next four years to farming. In 1818, he commenced the study of law at Ravenna. He returned to Connecticut in 1822, and continued his studies there, but soon returned to Ohio, and in August, 1823, was admitted to practice in Trum- bull county. He was immediately taken into partnership with the Hon. Elisha Whittlesey, a sketch of whose life appears elsewhere in this work, and the association thus formed continued for twenty years, whilst their friendship lasted through life. The firm soon established a large prac- tice in northern Ohio. For three-fourths of the time the asso- ciation continued, his partner was a member of Congress, and the whole conduct and management of the law business mainly rested on himself. He was, in this time, engaged in the most important cases in the northern part of Ohio, and took rank among the foremost lawyers of the State. In 1842 he was elected to the State senate by whig votes; and in the heated discussions then going on between the supporters of the banks and the advocates of hard money, he championed the cause of the banks, and his speeches attracted much attention throughout the State, being widely published and circulated. Whilst in the senate he was elected president judge of the third judicial district, and filled that position with marked ability. In 1850 he was elected representative to Congress for the term from 1851 to 1853, but before taking his seat visited Europe. During this term in Congress he made the first speech on the establishment of a national agricultural bureau, and the house voted to have five thou- sand copies printed and circulated. His efforts in this cause were largely instrumental in the establishment of that import-
ant bureau of government. He also made one of the first speeches in Congress in favor of bridging navigable streams, and especially bridging the Ohio river at Wheeling, the Su- preme court having decided against bridging navigable rivers. He was an active and earnest supporter of Andrew Johnson's homestead bill, and his speech in support of that measure was widely published. In Congress he was, like his law partner, the Hon. Elisha Whittlesey, an earnest worker, a conscientious representative of his constituents, and a con- servator of the public interests, on whose integrity not a breath of suspicion ever rested. Returning from Congress he resumed the practice of his profession, and took but little active part in political life until, in 1862, he was again elected to the State senate, being the nominee of the Republican party. He was made chairman of the committee on benevo- lent institutions, and one of the first objects to engage his attention was the formation of an asylum for idiots. For seven or eight years there had been unsuccessful efforts to establish such an institution. He introduced a bill for the formation of an asylum for idiots at Columbus, but it met with violent opposition. He persisted in his purpose, made extensive researches into the history, practice and results of all the idiotic asylums of the world, and presented the sum of the information obtained in a report which was printed in a pamphlet, and became an authority on the subject. He maintained that idiots can be educated and trained so as to be able to earn their living. His efforts were successful, the asylum was established at Columbus as proposed, and the position he took was found to be correct. During his sena- torial term was held the caucus of republican members of the Ohio legislature that exercised a decisive influence on the nomination of President Lincoln for a second term. The friends of Salmon P. Chase were pushing his claims strongly in opposition to President Lincoln, and Ohio being Mr. Chase's State, was depended on to support those claims. A caucus of republican members of the legislature was held, of which he was chairman, and which, largely through his efforts, declared strongly in favor of Mr. Lincoln's renomina- tion. After leaving the State senate, in 1865, he was called on to manage the Jennings estate, a difficult and laborious task that occupied him for the next ten years. The property at the time of the death of Mr. Jennings, amounted to two millions, invested in real estate in many States of the Union. Mr. Jennings kept no books or systematized ac- counts, and the affairs of the estate were involved in seem- ingly inextricable confusion. The original executors resigned the hopeless task, and he was appointed administrator. The management and settling up of this vast and intricate estate gained for him a high reputation as a shrewd and able lawyer and business man, of the strictest integrity and honor. He enhanced the value of the property to the relatives, and pro- tected it successfully against many attempted frauds. One of these was a fictitious claim against the estate for $50,000, said to have been loaned to Jennings. Witnesses stood ready to swear to the fact of the loan, but after some years of hard work, the conspiracy was exposed and the claim de- feated. This case, which became widely known, and for the successful management of which he received between $25,000 and $30,000, was conducted while he was between seventy and eighty years of age, the most active and laborious period of his life. In one settlement made with the court he charged himself with the large sum of $570,308, as being ready to be distributed among nearly forty heirs in different States, and
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at one time he was allowed for extra services above the regu- lar per cent., $10, 169. During his long legal practice he had twenty-seven students, more than half of whom became hon- orably prominent as public men, in Congress or in the legis- lature, and others were numbered among the foremost mem- bers of the Ohio bar. Although at an advanced age at the breaking out of the Rebellion, he became active in the Union cause at home, working to fill the quota of troops by raising money and men. He took a strong interest in the construc- tion of local railroads and plank roads, and was president and one of the most efficient supporters of the Ashtabula and New Lisbon Railroad. He was very liberal to the poor, and gave freely to the support of churches, schools, and colleges. His religious connection was with the Presbyterian church, of which he was a valuable member. Throughout his life he took a strong interest in agriculture, had large farms in various parts of the United States, raised thorough-bred stock, and was extensively known as a stock-breeder and agriculturist. He was a very interesting and able speaker; his speeches in the State senate and in Congress were widely circulated and read. His published eulogy on the life and services of Governor Tod attracted much attention, it being, like his speeches generally, noticeable for clear diction, strong Saxon language, and pure and simple style. He twice visited Europe, once in the interest of the Jennings estate, and once on other business, and on his return after each trip delivered lectures of much merit on the manners and customs of European society, as compared with American, and to the credit of the latter. In 1874, at the age of seventy-nine, he was traveling alone in Italy. For the ten years previous to that date he had been obliged to write with his left hand, the right having been disabled by continuous work. At eighty- three he was hale, hearty, and clear-headed, still engaged in the business of the Jennings estate, and possessed the esteem of all who knew him. He married in May, 1826, Miss Mary Church, of Canfield, grand-daughter of Nathaniel Church, one of the original proprietors of the extensive tract of land known as the Western Reserve of Ohio, and had one son and three daughters.
DAVIS, GEORGE, farmer, banker, and manufacturer, Portsmouth, Ohio, was born in Ross county, Ohio, October 9th, 1832. His parents were Charles Davis and Elizabeth Hays. It is claimed that his mother's family belongs to a branch of the same stock represented by President R. B. Hayes. George Davis is the second son in a family of six children, only three of whom are now living. He was reared on a farm, and from a youth has been connected with agri- cultural interests. His education was obtained in the common- school and in Delaware College, Delaware, Ohio. He began life for himself at the age of sixteen, when, in connection with his brother, James Davis, he rented a farm in his native county and engaged in its cultivation. Some two years sub- sequent, in company with his younger brother, Charles Davis, he purchased a farm in Fayette county, Ohio, and after car- rying it on for about a year, sold it, as also his interest in the rented property in Ross county. He soon afterwards, in 1850, came to Scioto county, Ohio, and, with his brother Charles, purchased a farm near Portsmouth, of six hundred and twenty acres, for $27,250. This partnership proving profitable and harmonious, the two brothers continued this association until the death of Mr. Charles Davis, in 1862. Not long after this first purchase other farms joining them were added to their
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