USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume II > Part 12
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74
E. G. Mono
"00 мест
Warren Proble
347
BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPÆDIA AND PORTRAIT GALLERY.
He was one of a committee appointed by the citizens of Athens to confer with a committee of the legislature to select an eligible site for the proposed building. Through his advo- cacy of the claims of Athens the building was erected there, by which many advantages accrued to the town. He has served on the board of directors of the asylum, and has also been a member of the board of trustees of the Ohio Univer- sity. In educational matters his public spiritedness has often been given expression. He took the first step to organize a school district in Athens under the Akron law, and was a member of the first board of education organized in Athens. He was married at Athens to Amy Barker, a descendant of an old New England family. Four children were the fruit of this union, of whom one only is living, a son, David H., a minis- ter of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and formerly president of the Cincinnati Wesleyan College, Cincinnati, and the present head of Denver University, the leading educational institu- tion of Colorado, in which capacity he has served two years.
NOBLE, WARREN P., a prominent lawyer, and pres- ident of the Commercial Bank of Tiffin, comes of Connecti- cut and Pennsylvania families, and more remotely of English ancestry. William Noble, of the former State, married Re- becca Lytle, a native of the latter, and became the father of ten children, among whom was the subject of this sketch, who was born in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, June 14th, 1820. While a mere lad young Noble moved with his parents to Ohio. His father owned lands in Medina County, and also in the county of Seneca. In the one the family resided until 1836, when the other was adopted as their permanent home. Warren embraced all the educational advantages within his reach. He was a diligent student, a persistent reader, and, at the age of eighteen, had acquired the reputation of a scholar. Like most of the competent young men of his time, he became a teacher. He taught the school of Fostoria, and among his pupils who in after life became conspicuous were the late John Febles, lawyer and editor, of Denver, Colorado ; Rev. Jacob Caples, the eloquent and eminent divine ; John Lawrence, a distinguished lawyer and author, of Tennessee; J. V. Janes, a successful member of the bar ; and Charles Foster, the present Governor of Ohio. Choosing for a profession the law, Mr. Noble entered the office of Raw- son & Pennington, a leading law firm of Tiffin. He was then twenty-two. Two years later he was admitted to the bar, and he commenced the practice of his profession in 1844. He was successful from the start, and his adaptability for public life was soon recognized by his fellow-citizens. In 1846, having just attained the age to be eligible, he was elected to the Legislature of Ohio. Active and efficient in that body, his constituents expressed their approval of his services by sending him back to the Legislature in 1847. The year fol- lowing he was chosen Prosecuting Attorney, and after faith- fully discharging the duties of that office for two years, he was rechosen for it in 1850. But his other legal business accumulating, he resigned the position of the State's Attorney before the expiration of his second term. In 1860 Mr. Noble was elected to the National Congress, and again in 1862. The Thirty-seventh and Thirty-eighth Congresses, of which he was a member, were the most momentous and eventful in the country's history. Eleven States, renouncing the Union, seized, within their borders, the forts and arsenals, took pos- session of immense stores of war materials belonging to the general government, and inaugurated military operations 6-B
that menaced the national capital. During all those dark years of the Rebellion, while others wavered, Mr. Noble, as a "war Democrat," stood firmly by the old flag, and in all measures looking to a speedy restoration of the Union, gave cordial support, by voice and vote, to the administration of Lincoln. Among other Members of Congress during the two terms of Mr. Noble, were James A. Garfield, William Windom, James G. Blaine, George H. Pendleton, and Roscoe Conkling. Mr. Noble has always been devotedly attached to his pro- fession. Industrious, painstaking, and capable, he has taken a leading place among the foremost lawyers of the Tiffin bar. He has enjoyed a large and lucrative practice, and has always been of counsel in a large part of the most important litigations in the courts of his county and judicial district. Appointed Receiver of the First National Bank, of Tiffin, the assets of which were curiously mixed, he skillfully un- raveled the entanglement, and with promptness and marked economy liquidated a quarter million dollars of claims, and performed all the duties of that important trust in a manner highly creditable to himself and satisfactory to the creditors. He has taken an active part in all the public improvements, and especially in the railroad enterprises, of his neighborhood. He was an efficient director of the Tiffin, Toledo and Eastern Railroad .(now the Northwestern) until that road was merged in the system or became a link in the chain of railways of the Pennsylvania Company. For ten years Mr. Noble was a trustee of the State University of Ohio; and from its incor- poration, in 1876, to the present time, 1883, he has continued to be the president of the Commercial Bank of Tiffin. In politics he has at all times been a steadfast adherent of the Democratic party. In the days of Secession he belonged to the war wing of that party, and being loyal to the Union, he heartily indorsed the policy and measures of the federal gov- ernment. Mr. Noble was twice married, and he has had five children-all living. His first wife, Mary E. Singer, daughter of Frederick Singer, died in 1853, leaving two daughters and a son. One of these daughters is the wife of William L. Bates, of Dayton, Ohio; the other is the wife of Silas W. Graff, of Tiffin. The son, Warren F. Noble, a graduate of the Ohio State University, of the class of 1879, is a promis- ing young member of the Tiffin bar. His second marriage was in 1870, with Alice M. Campbell, daughter of Alexander Campbell, and the result of this marriage is two bright and interesting daughters. Not an active member of any denom- ination, he is liberal in his religious views, and attends the services of the different faiths, and contributes with his funds to the support of all the Churches of the place. He assists worthy charitable objects, and lends a helping hand to edu- cational and every useful public enterprise. Mr. Noble is over six feet in height, is well built, and straight as an arrow. He has a good head, well set on, and all his movements in- dicate energy and a vigorous constitution. In private life and personal character he is justly esteemed by all as a person of accomplished manners, strict and unbending integrity-a faithful friend and an amiable and upright man.
STANBERY, HENRY, lawyer, and, from 1866 to 1868 Attorney-general of the United States, was born in the city of New York, February 20th, 1803, the son of Jonas Stan- bery, a physician of the old school. Educated in a select school he moved with his father and family to Zanesville, Ohio, in 1814. Having spent a year in preparing to do so, he entered Washington College, Pennsylvania, in 1815, and
348
BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPÆDIA AND PORTRAIT GALLERY.
in the fall of 1819 graduated. Returning home, he went to Lancaster and there began to study law in the office of Ebenezer Granger, who dying, caused such study to be transferred to the office of Charles B. Goddard at Zanesville. The usage then preventing a student at law from graduating before he had attained the age of twenty-one years, Mr. Stanbery was not admitted to practice until 1824, when, being examined, he was admitted to the bar by the supreme court then sitting at Gallipolis, and commenced practice at Lan- caster, where he was by Hon. Thomas Ewing invited to take up his residence. In 1846, the legislature of Ohio, created the office of attorney-general of the State, and at once elected Mr. Stanbery to fill it, which he did for five years. In 1853 he removed to Cincinnati, where he continued the practice of his profession with the like success and general acceptance that had marked its course during those years he had practiced it in Lancaster. In 1850 he was a member of the Constitutional convention, and in 1866 was nominated by President Johnson to the supreme bench of the United States, but the passage of a law by Congress, limiting the number of judges, prevented this nomination from being acted upon by the Senate. Therefore President Johnson ap- pointed Mr. Stanbery Attorney-general of the United States, and this position he held until 1868 when he resigned, to become one of the counsel employed by the President to de- fond him in his impeachment trial. The trial over he was subsequently reappointed but not confirmed by the Senate to the cabinet position he had occupied previous to his resigna- tion of it. He then returned to Cincinnati and resumed the practice of law in the United States courts of southern Ohio and in the supreme court of the United States; and although more or less so employed for fifty-five years, he still continued to pass from his home in Highlands, Campbell County, Kentucky, opposite Cincinnati, to his office in the later city, quite regularly. He was always a persistent law student, while his private and professional habits were models of deportment. He never undervalued an adversary, nor allowed his attention to the whole case in hand to flag. Logical, perspicacious, and forcible, his briefs were up to the professional standard of the tribunal they were submitted to. He appeared to great advantage before court and jury, his person being tall and straight, his voice mild yet clear, and his manners courteous and dignified. His adroitness in the investigation of facts, and in supporting his case with the law were rarely excelled ; while his defense never failed to heighten the interest on behalf of his client. He attributed much of his ability in these matters to his years of intercourse and strife with Hon. Thomas Ewing, as the leader of the Lancaster bar. And this is very reason- able, for, like athletes, lawyers develop each other. Mr. Stanbery's private life corresponded with his public life, and lifted him to the highest plane of public estimation. He was an Episcopalian in religious communion. He married twice : first, Frances, daughter of Philemon Beecher, of Lan- caster ; and last, Cecilia, daughter of William Key Bond, of Cincinnati. The children of his first marriage were Philemon Beecher, George (a resident of Lexington, Ky.), and Frances, the wife of Francis Avery, of San Francisco. Mr. Stanbery acquired such a competence as enabled him to withdraw from practicing his profession, but, with the belief that it was more pleasurable to wear out than to rust out, he worked on, like his preceptor, Charles B. Goddard, and met the great destroyer almost at his desk. He died June 25th, 1881.
CHANDLER, ZACHARIAH MORRIS, educator, au- thor, and soldier, was born in Putnam, Muskingum county, Ohio, now in the corporate limits of Zanesville, August 11th, 1810. He is the son of Dr. Jesse and Henrietta (Morris) Chandler. His ancestors, on both the paternal and maternal sides, were originally English, and came to this country at an early day. But very little information relating to the early settlement of the Chandlers in this country is now ac- cessible, and much that exists is of a traditionary character. However, there is little doubt that all the Chandlers of this country are derived from a common stock, which originally located in Massachusetts and subsequently spread through the Eastern States, and latterly the West. A grandfather of our subject, Zachariah Chandler, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and was killed in the battle of Ben- nington. His son, Jesse, our subject's father, came to Put- nam as early as 1804, and was the first practicing physician to settle in that place. He continued his labors until his death, which occurred in 1814. Zachariah M. Chandler's early education was acquired under the auspices of Mr. Jotham Hobby, the first principal of the Putnam Academy. The course of study prescribed by that gentleman, supple- mented by a thorough course of self-training, secured for him an excellent equipment for his life work-teaching. He commenced, at an early age, to teach a common district school in Muskingum county, in 1829. After an engage -. ment of nine months he transferred his labors to Putnam, where he organized the first union school in Muskingum county under the Akron law, in 1846. This was about the sixth union school organized in the State. In 1872, on the admission of Putnam into the corporation of Zanes- ville, he assumed charge of a department in the high-school, and continued in that capacity until June, 1880, when he sev- ered his connection. When active hostilities were being inaugurated between the North and South, Mr. Chandler participated in the measures taken to suppress the rebellion. In the early part of the war he cooperated with M. D. Leg- gett (afterward Gen. Leggett) in the. organization of the 78th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, which regiment was attached to the army of the Tennessee. He was commissioned captain, and took part in the engagement at Fort Donelson, and subse- quently participated in other battles, including Shiloh. He was successively promoted major, lieutenant-colonel, and col- onel. Exposure to the inclemency of the weather and the hardships incidental to military life induced an attack of ill- ness which necessitated his retirement. Accordingly, in July, 1863, he received his honorable discharge. On the recovery of his health he resumed his position in the high-school. He has five children living, and it may be here noted as a matter of interest that, with one exception, all have been successful educators. His eldest, Charles W. Chandler, who is at present one of the trustees of the Peabody estate, organ- ized the Zanesville high-school in 1855. He officiated as its principal for ten years.
HOLDEN, WILLIAM HENRY, physician, lawyer, ex-legislator, and ex-superintendent of the Athens Asylum for the Insane, was born near Denton, Caroline county, Mary- land, February 20th, 1827. His parents were Captain Peter and Nancy (Row) Holden. Captain Holden was an ocean navigator in the merchant marine, and died when our sub- ject was four years old. His inopportune death leaving his his family in straitened circumstances resulted detrimentally
Westem 310%'
et fulle Jacob Kermis
A = 3 . 45 3, New York
349
BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPÆDIA AND PORTRAIT GALLERY.
to Dr. Holden's early educational opportunities. Thrown upon his own resources, at a very early age, he received very little instruction. He attended, at intervals, the sub- scription schools of the day, the common-school system not yet being in existence, and acquired the rudiments of a com- mon education. His studies were pursued under great dis- advantages, and suffered serious interruption through a ne- cessity of having to work in order to acquire means to further prosecute his studies. By dint of personal application he qualified himself to teach school, and while teaching pursued a course of reading in medicine. Subsequently he studied that science under a practitioner and began as a visiting phy- sician in 1851. After a continuous practice of nine years, he resolved upon a second course of study, and accordingly en- tered Starling Medical College, Columbus, and graduated in 1859. His practice now (1881) covers a period of thirty years, ten of which have been spent in Zanesville, where he is now located, eighteen in Perry county, Ohio, and two in California. During these years he has found time to gratify a penchant for travel ; and besides traversing the greater portion of the United States, has pushed his explorations into Central America and the West Indies and Mexico. His life has been one of varied experiences ; besides acquiring distinction in the medical profession, and adding to his knowledge of people and places in his travels, he has qualified for the bar and been admitted to practice by the Supreme Court of Ohio. This occurred in 1872, but he has never followed the calling. In politics Dr. Holden is a pronounced Democrat, and has been repeatedly solicited to accept positions of trust and re- sponsibility. In 1856, in Perry county, he was elected Justice of the Peace, filled the position acceptably for one term, and declined a continuance of the office at its expiration. In 1861, in the same county, he was elected to the General As- sembly, and served one term in that body. In 1869, he was elected to the State Senate, and was a second time nomi- nated and re-elected over his republican competitor. In May, 1879, he was appointed superintendent of the Athens Asylum for the Insane, which position he was constrained to accept by the urgent solicitations of his friends. He occupied that position for one year, when he became politically unaccept- able by reason of the accession of the republicans to power in Ohio, which caused his retirement. He then resumed practice in Zanesville. He is connected with several secret societies, the Free Masons, Odd Fellows, Ancient Order of United Workmen, Royal Arcanum, Knights of Honor, and American Legion of Honor. He was married, in 1848, to Lavina Wilson, who died in 1850, and was a second time married, in 1853, to Maria Hartley. He has three children living, one of whom, James L., is a student in the Ohio Med- ical College, Cincinnati; Mary Lavina Stewart is wife of W. C. Stewart, son of W. H. Stewart, a prominent citizen of Cleveland; and John Wesley is a student of dentistry in Zanesville.
ROMEIS, JACOB, mayor of Toledo, Ohio, was born December Ist, 1835, at Weisenbach, Bavaria, being the son of John and Elizabeth Romeis, both natives of Germany, who came to America in 1847, settling in Buffalo, New York. While in Germany, the father followed the occupation of farmer and linen-weaver. He was subsequently, and for many years, in the employment of the State of New York in its quarry interests. He died in 1868, though his widow still survives, and is at present residing in Buffalo. The son at-
tended the village school at Weisenbach, and afterwards the schools at Buffalo. His school-days were short, however, having drawn them to a close at the early age of thirteen in consequence of a boyish ambition to become a sailor, and to spend a life upon the lakes and seas. The thought of such a life grew upon his mind, so as to become almost a mania. So, at that age, though against the earnest protests of his parents, he went on the lakes, as cabin-boy on one of her large steamers. Eight years were spent upon the chain of lakes, serving in various capacities on several of the largest steamers that sail those waters. At the end of that time railroads had developed to such an extent as to greatly in- jure transportation by water, and thinking that better pros- pects towards a livelihood could be secured by connecting himself with railroads, he abandoned his chosen vocation in 1856, and accepted a position on the Wabash road, as bag- gage-master, in which he continued until 1862. In 1863 he was made conductor on regular passenger-trains, serving as such till 1870, when he was obliged to resign on account of sickness. He was then tendered the position of general bag- gage agent, having the charge of all the baggage of the entire road. In 1880 he was made depot master, which position he still fills. His duty in this department is to take charge of all passenger-train men of the Eastern division of the Wabash Railroad. Whatever might be said of him as regards his ability and integrity in the various positions he has filled in connection with railroads can best be judged from the fact that he has served without interruption for twenty-five years the same company, in various official ca- pacities, and is to-day holding one of the most responsible positions within the gift of the company. Although the chief portion of his time has been devoted to the performance of the duties attending his positions in connection with railroad interests, he has also, for years past, been one of Toledo's most prominent and public-spirited citizens, interesting him- self in the city's welfare, and working zealously as a munic- ipal official for her prosperity and the public good. In 1874 he was elected city alderman, and re-elected again in 1876, and during 1877 was president of the Board of Aldermen. As a member of the law-making power of the city, his efforts were generally on the "defensive," bitterly opposing all schemes calculated for the advantage of the few over the many. Whatever had the appearance of jobbing, or seemed an extravagant expenditure of public funds, met, in every case, his bitter opposition. He was ever found the champion of the public interests. The course pursued by him as alder- man so commended him to the confidence of the people that, in 1879, he was nominated by the nationals for mayor of the city, and was elected by a large plurality over both the other candidates. In 1881 he was renominated by the nationals, though the party was hopelessly in the minority, so that he stood, as it were, the candidate of no party ; but his personal and official popularity drew for him a large vote from both the other parties, especially the republicans, which thus elected him again by a handsome plurality. Though Mr. Romeis has spent the chief portion of his life in connec- tion with corporations, he is in principle an extreme anti- monopolist and an economist, and since entering upon the office of mayor his policy has been in accord with these views. The city had for years been accumulating an indebt- edness which had become so large as to threaten its future progress. At once, upon entering upon his duties as mayor, he insisted that no municipal indebtedness should be incurred
350
BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPÆDIA AND PORTRAIT GALLERY.
in the appropriation of property for unnecessary streets, and from that time to the present a radical change has existed over the prior order of things, in which the city debt had been on the increase for years. For all expenditures he has exacted full equivalents, and from every official in the city government the strictest accountability. Nor have his efforts been in vain ; for since his administration began, not one dollar has been added to the debt of the city ; but, on the contrary, it has been rapidly diminishing. In his official ca- pacity as mayor he has proved himself a most worthy and capable executive, and by his wise course has secured the approval of an appreciative public. Mr. Romeis is a man of the strictest honesty, unflinching in the advocacy of his views and principles, and fearless in his efforts to carry them to a successful issue. Perhaps his most prominent trait in official life is his patience in listening to all which may be advanced for or against a measure which may affect the city's interests, his zeal in investigating its merits, and the. care with which his judgment is made, after which he stands like adamant, and not the entreaties of his warmest and most trusted friends nor of general public opinion can swerve him, after he has thus satisfied himself he is right upon a measure. Withal he is affable and very courteous, and his monosyllabic "No" or "Yes," when adverse, is accepted without protest. He is a man who loves to see right and justice prevail, nor can dishonesty survive his knowledge of it, if it be within his power to eradicate. Mr. Romeis was always a democrat in politics until 1879, when he espoused the principles of the national party, to which he still adheres. He has been a Mason since 1870, and since 1871 a Knight Templar, and was for three years Royal Arch Captain. Our subject married, April, 1857, Miss Kate, daughter of Martin and Salina Schweiger, of Buffalo, New York. Lewis W., the oldest of the four children, is passenger conductor on the Wabash Railroad. Mr. Romeis is a man of many sterling qualities, and withal of great kindness of heart, yet one who keeps his own counsels.
SWAN, CHARLES J., lawyer, was born in Medina county, May 3d, 1840. He was the youngest child of Silas and Sally C. (Burroughs) Swan, who spent their lives on a farm in Medina county, Silas Swan dying in November, 1868, at the age of seventy-two. The grandfather, Joseph C. Swan, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. In boyhood, Charles J. Swan attended the district school until the age of seventeen, when he entered the academy at Medina, remain- ing there two years. At the age of nineteen he commenced the study of law with John B. Young, in Medina, and re- mained with him until March, 1861, when he entered the Ohio State and Union Law College, graduating June 29th, 1861. In October, 1861, he located at Lima, with H. B. Tif- fany, and remained there until February 19th, 1862, when he removed to Ottawa, Putnam county. In May, 1862, he joined the 87th regiment, and went in the war as quarter- master's sergeant. At the battle of Harper's Ferry they were taken prisoners, and afterward paroled. When the regiment departed, being very sick with the typhoid fever, he was left behind, as there was no hope of his recovery. He, however, improved, after a great deal of suffering, sufficient to travel, and returned to Medina, his old home, for recuperation. In December, 1862, he returned to Ottawa, where he again. opened a law office in January, 1863, continuing the profes- sion ever since. December Ist, 1866, he entered into part-
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.