USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume II > Part 16
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Edward Huber
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instantly a number of muskets were leveled at him, and but for the prompt command, " Don't fire !" by the confederate commander, who rushed forward, striking up the guns, he must have fallen. General Keifer, amid the confusion, dashed away at full run to his own command, and caused it to charge forward, and, leading the advance, he demanded and received the surrender of the whole body of men, who proved to be a marine brigade, little used to land service, commanded by Commodore J. R. Tucker, since chief-admiral of the Peruvian navy. Captain John D. Semmes and about thirty-five other officers also capitulated. Tucker and Semmes each claimed to have saved his life. General Keifer after- ward, as an act of gratitude, used his influence to obtain the parole of these officers, who, having deserted the United States navy, were not entitled, under the orders, to parole. He joined in the pursuit and capture of Lee's army, and was brevetted major-general "for gallant and distinguished ser- vices during the campaign ending in the surrender of the insurgent commander, General R. E. Lee." He went with his corps South to aid in the capture of Johnson's army in North Carolina, and learning at Danville of its contemplated surrender, he, with a portion of his staff, pushed across the country fifty miles to witness it. He left the army June 27th, 1865, and resumed the practice of law in Springfield, Ohio. On the unsolicited recommendations of Generals Grant and Meade he was appointed, November 30th, 1866, lieutenant- colonel, 26th United States infantry, which appointment he declined. He was in the Ohio senate in 1868-69; was com- mander of the department of Ohio, Grand Army of the Republic, 1868-70; was vice-commander-in-chief of that organization, 1872-73; was a trustee of the Ohio Soldiers' Orphans' Home from 15th, 1870, to March 5th, 1878-an institution that, while department commander of the society named, he was chiefly instrumental in establishing. He has been a trustee of Antioch College since June, 1873; has been president of the Lagonda National Bank, Springfield, Ohio; was a delegate at large from Ohio to the national republican convention at Cincinnati, June, 1876, and was elected in 1876, 1878, 1880, and 1882, to Congress, as a Re- publican. On December 5th, 1881, he was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives for the 47th Congress, and served through the term. He married Miss Eliza Stout, of Springfield, Ohio, and they have four children.
KURTZ, CHARLES LINDLEY, elected to the Legisla- ture of 1879 to fill an unexpired term, and re-elected in 1880 from Athens County, was born at Albany, Athens County, Ohio, May 4th, 1854. His parents, William W. and Isabella (McElroy) Kurtz, removed from Alleghany City, Pennsyl- vania, to Ohio, and engaged in farming pursuits near Albany, in Athens County, where our subject attended school from the time he became of suitable age up to the year 1865, when the family removed to Athens. Here he continued his studies in the Athens union schools. At an early age he was taken into his father's store, and the management of the establish- ment soon devolved upon him. He subsequently succeeded his father, and the business is now conducted under a firm name, it being one of the largest retail stationery stores in south-eastern Ohio. He is connected with the building and loan associations of Athens, and takes an active interest in all matters of public improvement. In politics he is an active and energetic Republican, and is a leading spirit in his section in organizing the campaigns of his party. He was
president of the young men's Republican club in 1879 and '80; was an alternate delegate to the Chicago convention which nominated James A. Garfield for President of the United States, and is almost regularly elected delegate to State con- ventions. His services in the Legislature have commended him to his constituency. He has been very successful in all the measures he has introduced in the House, and while the youngest member in that body, he is esteemed one of the ablest. He has been very earnest in advocating the claims of the Ohio University to State aid, and largely contributed to the passage of a bill making an appropriation for its sup- port, notwithstanding a strong prejudicial sentiment opposed it in both branches of the General Assembly. The oppo- nents of the bill even went to the extent of filing a protest with the auditor of the State against the payment of the amount of the appropriation out of the treasury, and the auditor was restrained from issuing the warrant on the treas- ury by the advice of the attorney-general. A proceeding in mandamus was had before the Supreme Court which resulted in establishing the constitutionality of the act of the Legis- lature in granting the appropriation, and thus established the claim of this university to State protection-a claim which has been denied and stubbornly resisted for years. He was mar- ried September 11, 1878, to Anna Jewett, daughter of Edgar Jewett, of Athens. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church.
HUBER, EDWARD, President of the Huber Manufac- turing Company, of Marion, Ohio, was born in Dearborn County, Indiana, in 1837. He is of German descent, the son of parents who were too poor to furnish him but with the most meager opportunities of securing an education. When we consider that the whole of his educational advantages consisted of thirteen months in a district log school-house, we are astonished at the intellectual grasp and inventive genius of the man. In early life he learned the trade of blacksmith and wagon-maker, and worked at the same for a little more than eight years. During this time he secured his first letters patent, on the Huber Hay Rake, of which over one hundred and fifty thousand have been manufactured and sold. As patentee of this rake, he sought a suitable location for its manufacture, where ash timber was to be found in abund- ance, and decided upon Marion, Ohio, as the point best adapted for his purpose. In 1866 the firm of Hammerlee, Howalkee & Co. was organized, which became, in 1867, Huber, Munday & Co. The manufacture of the rake, and a general planing-mill business, was conducted by Edward Huber and Lewis Gunn, with various partners, until 1875, when the foundry and machine shop property of Holmes & Seffner, with added capital, was merged into the Huber Manufacturing Company, that exists to-day. From the or- ganization of this company the Huber Works dates a re- newed prosperity. Invention has followed invention, to the number of twenty-four, upon most of which he has se- cured patents-four on boilers, eight on traction engines, three on threshing-machines, four on road-scrapers, three on hay-rakes, while others are pending, and valuable patents cover the finest threshing outfit manufactured in the country. In the far West, from Kansas to Dakota, and up the magnifi- cent valley of the Red River of the North, the Huber Thresh- ing Engines and Separators have made the name a household word. At the Centennial and Cincinnati Expositions, and at every State fair where the results of the genius and mechan-
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ical skill of the Huber Manufacturing Company have been exhibited, the name has been placed at the head of the list. In all these results the inventive ability and persistent energy of Mr. Huber has borne fruit. He has never wavered in his determination to perfect a farm and locomotive engine, or to rear a monument worthy of his life-work in the form of a successful and large manufacturing house. He stands to-day among the finest types of American inventive genius, an un- assuming, hard-working man, with the impress of labor, both of hand and brain, upon him; the friend and equal of his humblest apprentice; a man among men, without aught save a laudable pride. Mr. Huber is permitted to enjoy, to some degree, the fruit of his toil; the heat and burdens of the day are shared by trained associates. All of his em- ployés speak in terms of affection, and esteem it a privilege to be permitted to work for him. They recognize in him, not an employer only, but also a friend and a brother. His fellow-citizens mention his name with pride. His friends are legion. He lives surrounded by the comforts of home, and the blessings of domestic felicity. He has never aspired to political honors. The Huber Works are growing; the fame of their products is spreading; and a future full of golden promise is opening before the subject of our sketch, who is still in the prime of life.
MEILINK, BERNARD, merchant, manufacturer, and banker, of Toledo, was born June 7, 1823, at Dene Kamp, Holland. His parents, John M. and Elizabeth Meilink, both natives of the same place, ended their days in their native country. The mother died in 1831, and the father, whose occupation was that of a manufacturer of furniture, died in 1839. The school education of Mr. Meilink was rather lim- ited. Although he had the privileges of the village school, yet, in consequence of the inefficiency of the educational system in Holland at that time, not much advancement was made. Notwithstanding this, he is possessed of a nat- ural, if not an acquired, intelligence that more than sup- plies all the benefits the former is capable of bestowing. He early began learning the cabinet trade with his father, and also the manufacture of other wooden wares. He was afterward in the employment of other manufacturers, for one of whom he instituted a manufactory of shuttles, used in the production of silks and other fine goods. Of this depart- ment he was made manager, and succeeded in making it one of great financial benefit to his employer. On the 7th of June, 1847, his twenty-fourth birthday, he landed in America, and the same year settled in Toledo, Ohio, where he has ever since remained, witnessing the growth of the then small hamlet into the present city of sixty thousand inhabitants. Mr. Meilink's purpose was to locate in some Western town which promised future developments, so that he might take advantage of the opportunities attending its growth. Toledo was the place selected as one which would eventually become a large and prosperous city, a conclusion time has verified. Among the pioneers of that city none have been more prom- inently identified with its material welfare than Mr. Meilink. None began under more inauspicious circumstances than he, while but few, if any, now living in Toledo can revert to a more successful career-the result of personal endeavor, with no other capital than indomitable will-power and a deter- mination to succeed in his undertakings. Upon his arrival in Toledo, which was then surrounded by a forest of excellent timber, he decided to engage in the manufacture of furniture
and other wooden wares. When his purpose was made known to his friends, it caused much comment and surprise, as they well knew he had not a dollar with which to pur- chase the material necessary, without taking into considera- tion the machinery and labor required. Notwithstanding this, he was not diverted from his purpose. Upon inquiry of landowners as to the price set upon their timber, he was informed that he was welcome to all he wished for such pur- poses, which seemed to him cheap enough. All that was now left for him to do was to furnish the muscle necessary to transform the forest trees into the various articles of fur- niture. Mr. Meilink succeeded in enlisting in the enterprise a Mr. Nicholas Engel, whose financial resources were about equal to his own. With his own hands Mr. Meilink felled the trees, while friends furnished teams to haul the logs to the manufactory, which was as yet entirely destitute of ma- chinery, and to supply which was the next difficulty to over- come. His native ingenuity, however, enabled him to ex- temporize the tools most needed, even to a turning-lathe, which was propelled by a crank turned by the one while the other executed the mechanical part. Thus was the first manufactory of furniture started in Toledo, and under diffi- culties which to-day would seem insurmountable. But in- auspicious as was the inception of this enterprise the skill and untiring industry of its author soon brought success, and from time to time he enlarged the business and secured the facilities for manufacturing, until it finally became, and is to-day, the largest of its kind in Northwestern Ohio. In 1851 Mr. Meilink dissolved partnership with Mr. Engel. Some time afterward, Mr. Daniel Klappich was taken as partner, and remained with him till 1853, when he was suc- ceeded by Herman Epker, who had come with Mr. Meilink from Holland. This partnership continued till 1861, carry- ing on an extensive business in manufacturing and selling at wholesale. Several men have since been associated with him in business: George Torber, from 1861 to 1863; J. Theodore Southard, from 1863 to 1877; and Walter N. Co- nant, from 1874 till 1879. The present partners are J. M. and C. W. Small, large manufacturers, of Boston, and Jo- seph Zahule, for many years an employé of the firm, who has held an interest since 1875. The business is now con- ducted under the firm name of Meilink, Small & Co. They now manufacture nearly all their own goods, and, taken al- together, it is one of the largest institutions of its kind in the State, and has the reputation of making a quality of furni- ture second to none in the country. Mr. Meilink has done much toward developing the growth of Toledo, in the way of promoting public enterprises and manufactories. It was due chiefly to him that the renowned Milburn Wagon Works, of Toledo, were built, in 1873. It was only with the most persistent efforts and persuasive arguments that he finally aroused enough interest on the part of the leading capitalists of the city to take hold of the enterprise. And some who obstinately refused to have any thing to do with it, and even scouted his ideas, were obliged, afterward, to admit their wisdom, when they were more than verified by the great success of the institution. He, with a few others, became stockholders with Mr. Milburn, who held the greater part himself. The latter, however, sold out his interest, in 1880, to five different stockholders, of whom Mr. Meilink was ' one. At the same time he was made one of the directors. The capital of the company is about one million dollars, and the establishment is probably carrying on a business
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second only to Studebaker Bros., of South Bend, Indiana. In 1871, Mr. Meilink helped to organize the Merchants' National Bank, of Toledo, of which he has ever since been a director. He is also a stockholder and director in the Toledo Mower and Reaper Works, and a stockholder in the Tri-state Fair Association, which he was active in organizing, for some time serving as a director. While these are the most important enterprises with which he has been promi- nently identified, many others might be mentioned that, taken throughout his long career in Toledo, would aggregate a great good to the city. Mr. Meilink is a man of exemplary character, strictly honest in every relation, and of an open and benevolent nature. He is one of Toledo's most benev- olent men, giving liberally to every thing of a humane char- acter, without regard to religion, faith, or creed. In religion he is a Roman Catholic, and is the most prominent member of St. Mary's Church. He has been married twice. His first wife, Miss Elizabeth Essing, of Toledo, he married October 26, 1849. She died in 1852, and he was married to his present wife, Miss Mary A. Essing, sister to the first, in 1855. Two children were borne by his first wife, though but one, a daughter, is now living. She is engaged as a music teacher, in the convent at . Toledo. There are also four children living as the result of the last union. The two older sons are engaged in the store, and the youngest is at Canisius College, Buffalo, and one daughter at home.
PEARCE, JOHN STONEMAN, a highly reputed lawyer and judge, and an officer in the late war for the Union, living at Cadiz, was born in Harrison County, Ohio, August 18th, 1832. His parents were John and Elizabeth (Stiers) Pearce, who early settled in Harrison County. Our subject gained his education in the common schools of Harrison County ; Mount Vernon Academy, Ohio; Wooster Academy, Ohio ; and at the Liberal Institute, Marietta, Ohio. He alternated his attendance at these institutions of learning by teaching, thus acquiring the means further to prosecute his studies. An early appreciation of the difficulties which impede the progress of a young man with limited means and few influential friends served to stimulate his energies and develop habits of industry. On quitting school he com- menced a course of law readings, in the office of the Hon. John A. Bingham, a lawyer of note, who figured conspicuously in national politics, and is at present (1883) United States minister to Japan. He was admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court of Ohio, in December, 1856, and at once commenced the practice of his profession, at Cadiz, so con- tinuing till September, 1862. On the 13th of August of that year he was commissioned major in the volunteer service, and assigned to the 98th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, going out from Camp Mingo. He was promoted, October 7th, 1862, to a lieutenant-colonelcy, and in the following year was commissioned colonel of the regiment to succeed Colonel Poorman, who had resigned. This promotion, however, did not confer upon him the full rank of colonel, his regiment being numerically under the minimum quota required by the rules of the service to entitle it to a regimental officer of that rank. Colonel Pearce gave to the Union cause three years of unremitting service, and by faithful and intelligent attention to his duties commended himself to the notice of his superior officers. At Perryville, Ky., he was taken prisoner by the enemy, with about forty of his men, and incarcerated at Harrodsburgh, Ky., but was shortly afterward exchanged.
He was a participant in all the engagements attending Sherman's march between Chattanooga and Atlanta, includ- ing the historic actions at Rocky Face, Resaca, Peach-tree Creek, and Jonesboro. He was also in the famous charge at Kenesaw Mountain, in which his regiment lost 33 men killed and wounded. After the fall of Atlanta he was placed in command of the 2d brigade, 2d division, 14th army corps, and sent into Northern Alabama, with his division, in pursuit of Forrest, afterward rejoining Sherman, and continuing the march to the sea, remaining in command of the brigade until after the fall of Savannah. At the battle of Bentonville, North Carolina, he received a gun-shot, causing a severe fracture of the shoulder. He was mustered out of service at Washington City, and at Cleveland, June Ist, 1865, was honorably discharged, and was subsequently breveted brigadier-general. General Pearce returned to his home, and resumed practice, and acquired exceptional prominence as a lawyer. In 1869 he was elected Prosecuting Attorney of his county, and re-elected to the office two years later. General Pearce was originally a Democrat, and cast his first presidential vote-for Buchanan. In 1860 he voted for Douglas, and took an active part in the canvass of that year, making seventy-six speeches during the campaign, through Eastern Ohio. These speeches obtained considerable currency in the country through their publication in the newspapers, notably Mr. Forney's Philadelphia Press, in which one or two of them appeared at length. General Pearce represented his district in the National Convention which nominated James A. Gar- field for President. In the spring of 1882 he was elected Common Pleas Judge of the Third Subdivision of the Eighth Judicial District, and continues to fill the position ably and well. Judge Pearce is more particularly prominent as a jury lawyer, and in the verbal presentation of his cases brings to bear unusual powers as an orator. He was twice married, his first wife being Mary Bryden, of Columbus, Ohio. Of this union he had issue two children. His only living child is Charles Bryden Pearce, born August 13th, 1864, and at present a student at Franklin College. His second marriage was with Emma Bingham, daughter of Thomas Bingham, of Cadiz, Ohio.
KINNEY, AARON, pioneer, was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, in October, 1774, and died in Portsmouth, Ohio, April 17th, 1857. His wife was Mary Clingman. His father, Peter Kinney, and his wife's father, John Clingman, were captains in the Revolutionary War. In 1805 he crossed the Allegheny Mountains in a wagon, and brought his family to Portsmouth, Ohio. He was a tanner and farmer, and be- came the owner.of over seven hundred acres of land, paying for some portions of it five and for other portions ten dollars per acre. A part of this land lies within the incorporated limits of Portsmouth, and a part adjacent to the city. At his barn-raising there was present, among many others, the gov- ernor of the State. For nine successive years he took the produce of his farms to New Orleans on flat-boats. He had a family of thirteen children. Those surviving are Eliza- beth, widow of Wilson Gates, of Illinois ; Ann Eliza, widow of David K. Cady, of Cincinnati ; Maria, widow of Charles O. Tracy, of Iowa; Mrs. Nancy (James) Walker, of Ken- tucky ; Mrs. Sarah (John) Renshaw, of Portsmouth; Eli Kinney, of Kentucky ; Henry R. and Philander C. Kinney, of Portsmouth. Mr. Aaron Kinney was a Democrat, but not an active politician; and, although elected to several
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local positions, refused to serve. For a considerable time, however, he was a director in the Commercial Bank of Scioto. He was a man of iron nerve, indomitable will- power and energy, and was admirably fitted to brave the dangers and endure the hardships of the pioneer. He was courageous and fearless, stern and unbending in his moral principles, and in every respect one of the most substantial `leaders of his day. Mrs. Kinney was a woman of remarka- ble traits of character. A German by descent, she was also well versed in the English language, and excelled as a reader. Possessed of a wonderful memory, she could recite nearly the whole Bible. Firm, yet mild in the government of her family, she reigned queen of the household, and was respected and loved as one of the noblest of her sex. Both Mr. Kinney and his wife were pillars in the Episcopal Church of Portsmouth. Their lives were godly and consistent, and their influence for good is perceptibly felt to the present day. Mrs. Kinney died August 21st, 1849, having become the mother and grandmother of a large progeny.
KINNEY, PHILANDER CHASE, son of Aaron Kin- ney, just noticed, was born in Portsmouth, May 18th, 1821; was educated in Portsmouth and Cincinnati, and passed his minority on his father's farm. For several years subsequent he was engaged successively in clerking, farming, conducting a livery-stable, and in flat-boating between Portsmouth and New Orleans. In 1849 he embarked in banking in Ports- mouth, and so continued until 1870, when he removed to Cincinnati, and continued in the same business until 1874. For some three years that followed he was in charge of the business of the furnace in Tennessee, having his headquar- ters in Cincinnati. In 1877, on account of the failing health of his father-in-law, he returned to Portsmouth. Since 1880 he has been engaged in farming and various other kinds of business. On June 4th, 1850, he married Maria L., daughter of John Clark, and has one daughter, Eliza, wife of W. A. Cissna, of Portsmouth. Mr. Kinney has traveled extensively in America, and has visited Europe twice. He has been ex- clusively a man of business, for which he possesses fine abilities, and in which he has met with excellent success. He is a thoroughly energetic, prompt, honorable man, and is greatly respected in the community.
RICHARDS, CHANNING, United States District At- torney, Cincinnati, Ohio, was born in that city February 21st, 1838. His father, Channing Richards, was a native of New London, Connecticut. He came to Cincinnati, in about 1832, and engaged in mercantile business, which he followed most of his life. He was at one time Secretary of the Chamber of Commerce, of Cincinnati. His death occurred in 1869, at the age of sixty-three. The mother of Channing, Jr., née Lydia Williamson, was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey. She was the granddaughter of General Elias Dayton, of Revolu- tionary fame. She died in 1850. Our subject prepared for college at the Brooks Academy, in his native city, then quite a noted school. He entered Yale in 1854, and graduated in 1858. Returning to Cincinnati, he immediately entered the Cincinnati Law School, from which he was graduated in 1860. He had practiced but a few months when the war broke out, whereupon he was among the first to enroll his name in behalf of the Union cause. He enlisted in April, 1861, in the 6th Ohio Infantry, served in West Virginia till October of the same year, returned to Cincinnati, and was
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