USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume II > Part 20
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John Brown
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Infantry, and was appointed to the post of adjutant of the regiment, a position he held till April, 1862. He was then promoted to the captaincy of Company C, the color company, and served in that position until the close of the war, when he was honorably discharged with the brevet rank of major. The entire term of Major Jewett's enlistment was occupied in hazardous service. His regiment was attached to the Army of the Potomac until September 25th, 1863, when it accompanied Hooker's Corps to the Department of the Cumberland. He took part in the battle of Cedar Mount- ain, the battles on the Rappahannock under Pope, up to and including the second battle of Bull Run ; also, Fredericksburg, Chancellorville, Gettysburg, Wauhatchie, Lookout Mountain, Mission Ridge, and all the battles of the Atlanta campaign, including the capture of Atlanta, besides participating in nu- merous minor engagements. On his return from the war he commenced his preparation for the bar under his father's tuition, and was admitted to practice in the fall of 1865. He then entered into partnership with Rudolph De Steiguer, Esq., under the firm name of De Steiguer & Jewett, now one of the most prominent and best known law firms in South- eastern Ohio, with practice in all the courts of their section. In January, 1876, Major Jewett was elected Prosecuting At- torney for Athens County, and filled the office acceptably until January, 1880. In politics he is a Republican, and is active and prominent in his neighborhood in the organiza- tion of his party campaigns, and frequently represents his county in Judicial, Congressional, and State Conventions. He is a prominent member of the Masonic order, of the Grand Army of the Republic, and a member of Kappa Chap- ter, Beta Theta Pi. He married September 27th, 1871, Ella Reynolds, of Martinsville, Indiana.
BUCK, JIRAH D., M. D., Cincinnati, was born at Fredonia, New York, November 20th, 1838. The following year his parents removed to Belvidere, Illinois, and to the Belvidere Academy he is indebted for most of his early education. In 1850 his parents removed to Janesville, Wis- consin, where he attended the Janesville Academy for six months only, when the death of his father made it necessary for him, then only thirteen years old, to quit school in order to assist in earning a livelihood. He followed book-keeping until he was seventeen, when his health failed, and he went to the woods, where for three years he worked with the lum- bermen in summer, and in winter he worked still harder as a teacher in the public schools. In 1861 he enlisted in Mer- rill's Horse, a regiment recruited at Battle Creek, Michigan, and in.Company " H," of which he was made Orderly. His health, however, again failed, and he lay in the hospital at Camp Benton, Missouri, for three months, when he was hon- orably discharged, and sent home. His health again returned, and, after teaching for a short time, he began the study of medi- cine, in the spring of 1862, in the office of Dr. Smith Rogers, Battle Creek, Michigan. The following winter he attended the Hahnemann Medical College of Chicago. He then returned to Battle Creek, and was admitted to copartnership with his preceptor. The subsequent winter he attended the Homeo- pathic Hospital College, at Cleveland, Ohio, receiving his medical degree from that college in 1864. In the following October he married Miss Lissie Clough, of Fredonia, New York, his native town. The next spring he removed to Sandusky, Ohio, where he continued the practice of his pro- fession. In the fall of 1866 he accepted the chair of Physi-
ology and Histology in his alma mater, at Cleveland, leaving his business in Sandusky five days a week during the college session. Notwithstanding the fact that the duties of his pro- fessorship made it necessary for him to be absent often from his field of practice, his business rapidly increased. In August, 1870, he removed to Cincinnati, Ohio, retaining his professor- ship at Cleveland until the close of the subsequent year, and in the spring of 1872, he called the meeting of physicians which, at Dr. Pulte's office, in Cincinnati, resulted in the founding of the Pulte Medical College, of which he was reg- istrar and professor of Physiology and Histology, from its organization until 1880. He was then made Dean of the Faculty and professor of Theory and Practice of Medicine, which positions he still holds. He is an active member of the American Institute of Homeopathy, of the Western Academy of Homeopathy, and in 1874 he was made presi- dent of the Homeopathic Society of the. State of Ohio, be- fore which bodies he has presented many valuable papers on various subjects pertaining to the science of medicine. For several years he has been deeply interested and actively engaged in the study of Involution and physical phenom- ena of life, and on these and kindred subjects there are few men better versed.
CRAWFORD, JOHN M., M. A., M. D., Cincinnati, was born at Herrick, Pennsylvania, October 18th, 1845. His early education was received at the public schools at home; and at the Susquehanna Collegiate Institute, Towanda, Penn- sylvania, he was prepared for college. At the age of eighteen he taught one term in the public school, and at the early age of nineteen he was elected principal of the Dimock Academy, Dimock, Pennsylvania. This position he held for two years, when he was appointed assistant superintendent of schools for the county of Susquehanna. It will be seen from this that he had already proved himself a thorough student, lay- ing the foundation in early life for that thoroughness which has characterized his later literary labors. In 1867, when twenty-two years old, he entered the freshman class of Lafay- ette College, at Easton, Pennsylvania. During the next four years, while pursuing his collegiate course, he was obliged to devote his vacations to teaching, and to be frequently absent from college, to obtain means for defraying college expenses, but the studious habits he had already formed enabled him, by the severest application and by doing double duty, to keep up with his class, and graduate with it in 1871. In the fall of that year he was elected principal of Wyoming Institute, Wyoming, Pennsylvania, which position he resigned at the close of the first year, in order to accept the position of pro- fessor of Latin and Higher Mathematics in the Chickering Classical and Scientific Institute, Cincinnati, Ohio, which po- sition he held for ten years, devoting all his spare time to the study of medicine and collateral branches. He took up the study of natural history, and became recognized as an expert with the microscope, in the injection and mounting of objects, his slides being fully equal to the best imported mountings. His taste for and knowledge of Natural History was recognized by the Cincinnati Society of Natural History, by his election as its secretary, and president of its Microscopic section. Discharging, during all these years, his professional duties at the Institute, he found time to attend medical lectures and graduate from the Eclectic, the Pulte, and the Miami Medical Colleges, of Cincinnati, paying special attention to the subject of Physical Diagnosis. When thus thoroughly equipped, he
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resigned his professorship at Chickering Institute, to enter more fully on the duties of that profession for which he had made such thorough preparation. He was elected by the trustees of Pulte Medical College professor of Physiology, Histology, and Microscopy, in 1881, and in the following year the chair of Physical Diagnosis was also assigned him, which positions he still holds, as also that of Registrar, to which position he was elected in 1883. In April, 1883, he formed a partnership with Dr. J. D. Buck, of Cincinnati. For some time past, true to his genius for hard work, he has been devoting his spare hours to the preparation of a " Dic- tionary of Medical and Scientific Terms," which work is now well under way. In 1873, Dr. Crawford married Miss Nellie E. Baldwin, of Washington, D. C. After what has already been said, it need hardly be added that Dr. Crawford brings to his work the habits of a student and the acquirements of a thorough scholar.
WHITNEY, CALVIN, of Norwalk, Ohio, wholesale lumber dealer, and president of the A. B. Chase Organ Com- pany, was born in Townsend, Huron County, Ohio, Septem- ber 25th, 1846, and is consequently thirty-six years of age. His father, Charles Whitney, removed from Connecticut in 1819 (when only seven years old), to Richland County, Ohio. In 1840 he was united in marriage with Mrs. Roxanna Purdy, formerly Miss Roxanna Palmer. To them were born six children. Palmer, the eldest, gave great promise of a useful and honorable career, but, at the age of nineteen, he enlisted as a volunteer in Company A, Twenty-fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and after a year of gallant service, was mortally wounded at the battle of Shiloh, and died ten days thereafter ; Anne, the second child, died when less than two years old ; Calvin, the third (and now the oldest living son) ; John L .; Richard B .; and Idalia L. Whitney, are still living. Their father, being a farmer of limited means, was only able to give his children the benefit of a common school edu- cation. Calvin early developed a passionate fondness for mathematics, and when only ten years of age took great delight in studying the hardest and most complex problems in arithmetic. He received great encouragement from his mother, who often sat up with him until midnight, and by the light of a tallow candle pored over the lessons for the morrow. For whatever of success he has achieved thus far in life, and for what the hidden future may yet have in store for him, he gives great credit to that loving mother who so faithfully helped and encouraged him in his early youth. At the age of fifteen his school days were over, and the next three years were spent on the farm, in helping his father, or working for other people. When eighteen Mr. Whitney went into business for himself, by renting a farm, or rather taking a farm to work on shares. He pursued his work with his usual energy, and had the finest crops in the neighborhood, until in July they were overtaken with a destructive hail-storm, and almost utterly annihilated. Mr. Whitney afterward said that he took this as an indication that Providence did not de- sign him for a farmer. In the fall of 1865 he collected what little means he had-some four hundred dollars-and went West, and started in the hard-wood lumber business, in a small way. As his means were so small, and he had as yet no established credit, the business was at first on a very limited scale, but from the first it was a success, and grew in magnitude each year until now, and for several years past, the volume of business done has aggregated from one hun-
dred and fifty to two hundred thousand dollars annually. On November 5th, 1868, he married Miss Marian Dean, daughter of Royal Cady and Marian (Smith) Dean, of Town- send, Huron County, Ohio, and after one year of married life spent in the West, he removed in April, 1870, to Norwalk, where they have since resided. In the fall of 1875 Mr. Whit- ney helped to organize the A. B. Chase Organ Company, with a capital stock of one hundred thousand dollars, for the manufacture of reed organs. In April, 1877, upon the death of Mr. A. B. Chase, and when only thirty years of age, Mr. Whitney was unanimously elected president of the Organ Company, and has held the office continuously ever since. Under his energetic management, assisted by L. L. Doud, secretary, the organ business has grown to vast proportions, and extended from Atlantic to Pacific, and from Canada to the Gulf, besides an export trade to Europe and Australia. They are now manufacturing and selling about three thousand organs annually, with bright prospect of soon doubling that number. Mr. Whitney has for many years been a strong temperance man, but has nearly always acted with the Re- publican party, believing it to be the party of progress, and that more practical results would be obtained for the cause of temperance by working for it through that organization. In February, 1875, Mr. Whitney and wife united with the First Methodist Church of Norwalk, and have been active and zealous members of that Church ever since. Mr. Whitney has just given expression to his benevolence by giving ten thousand dollars to the Church Extension Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, to be named, in honor of his beloved wife, "The Marian Whitney Fund," to aid in build- ing new churches in the far West. For several years Mr. Whitney has been greatly interested in caring for the super- annuated and worn-out preachers of the North Ohio Con- ference. This culminated, in the fall of 1882, in an offer by Mr. Whitney to give five thousand dollars to help make up a sum of twenty-five thousand dollars, for a permanent fund to be used in support of superannuates of this conference. Mr. Whitney's parents were members of the Baptist Society for half a century, and in their zeal for the cause of the Church, imparted to him a like spirit. He is not only de- servedly regarded as a great business man, but devoid of austerity he lives beloved for his many good and pleasing qualities.
HINSDALE, BURKE AARON, teacher, Cleveland, was born in Wadsworth, Medina County, Ohio, March 31st, 1837. His father and mother were both of New England stock. The former, Albert Hinsdale, was one of the pioneers of Wadsworth Township, and selected a farm on a slight ridge that overlooks one of the most beautiful regions of Ohio. He was the seventh in direct line from Robert Hins- dale, whose name appears as one of the founders of Dedham, Massachusetts, in 1638, and who is said to be the progenitor of all the American Hinsdales. The mother of Burke A. Hinsdale was Clarinda Eyles. She was born in Ohio, but was only the third remove from an English family that came to Connecticut during the last century. The sturdy New England blood that flowed in the veins of Albert Hinsdale and Clarinda Eyles was well crossed in that of their first-born son, and characteristics of both father and mother are plainly seen in him. The early years of Mr. Hinsdale's life were spent like those of most country boys. He assisted his father on the farm in summer, and attended the district school in
Calvin Whitney
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judgment thus far displayed give promise of success. The charge of twenty-four thousand school children and the devel- opment of the best methods for their instruction, is a great responsibility, calling into requisition the best faculties and the most varied experience. Mr. Hinsdale has made modes of instruction a life study, and has made constant application of the results of his thought, and now, in the full growth of his intellectual manhood, would seem to be well prepared for the work before him. Mr. Hinsdale married Miss Mary E. Turner, of Cleveland, in May, 1862. The fruit of this mar- riage is three daughters. He is happy in his domestic life, and in his large circle of friends.
GIBBS, DAVID WILBER, was born in Somerset, on the Taunton River, Bristol County, Massachusetts, on the 22d of February, 1837. His father, John Gibbs, and his mother, Martha Anthony, both of English descent, were born and reared in the old Bay State, where they resided through life, the father closing his career in 1878, at the age of eighty- three, and the mother in 1882, at eighty-six years. The school days of Mr. Gibbs were few, three months of each year only being allotted for that purpose, and at the age of seventeen he bade adieu to the "old red school-house," located on "Methodist Hill," three and a half miles from the city of Fall River, to mingle with the busy world upon his own account. For years the sea had great attractions for him, and it was only through the earnest solicitations of his beloved mother that he consented to forego its pleasures for a life on the land. At sixteen years he started for Cleveland, Ohio, there to serve an apprenticeship at the mason's trade. Here he remained one season, returning home to prosecute his studies during the winter of 1853. In the spring of 1854 he went to Providence, Rhode Island, working at his trade until the spring of 1856, when he removed to Davenport, Iowa; and here it was he met Miss Siddie C. Westfall, of Ohio, then visiting Davenport friends, who afterward became his wife. Following the object of his admiration to her home at Plymouth, Ohio, they were married in May, 1858. At the wish of friends he decided to remain at Plymouth until there should appear signs of the country emerging from its business prostration, the effects of the great financial crisis of 1857. At once he set to work in earnest, dividing his time between farming and building, occasionally taking contracts, and not unfrequently furnishing designs and specifications, in which he became exceedingly interested, and it soon became evi- dent that, for him, herein lay the key to success. On the breaking out of the war he felt it his duty to step forward in the defense of his country, and at once set about the organ- ization of a company under President Lincoln's first call for seventy-five thousand men. Mr. Gibbs was elected second lieutenant of this company, known as the "Plymouth Morn- ing Guards." Remaining at Camp Taylor, Cleveland, until June, the company was disbanded on account of Ohio having filled her quota. Not despairing, he set about organizing a second company, for "three years, or during the war," of which he was elected captain. After several weeks' thorough drilling, this company not being full, and there being an abundance of soldiers at that time, it was likewise disbanded. Sickness in the family now put a stop to Mr. Gibbs's military career for a time, yet he never for a moment lost that en- thusiasm which pervaded the hearts of the loyal people of the North. A little incident, occurring during the war, tends to show the whole-souled manner with which he enters into any
thing he undertakes. It was during those dark days of the Rebellion when all loyal hearts were turned in dread sus- pense toward the front, lest the day's dispatches should tell of defeat to our arms. In those days war meetings were of frequent occurrence. Upon an occasion of this sort, Mr. Gibbs was engaged in racking off cider, and just as he had removed the tap from the barrel, a passing friend hallooed, "Gibbs, a war meeting to-night." As in Revolutionary times our heroes left their plows in the fields, our patriot left the cider, only to remember it upon his return from the meeting, when he was heard to exclaim, "O, my cider!" Mr. Gibbs soon after enlisted with the "squirrel-hunters'" brigade, which put a check to the notorious General Kirby Smith's raid on Cincinnati. Returning, he enlisted in the First Ohio Heavy Artillery, in June, 1863, and served until the close of the war. Upon its conclusion, it dawned upon Mr. Gibbs that if he was ever to make a start in his chosen profession, the time was at hand, and soon after returning home he re- moved with his family to the city of Toledo, Ohio. He was only in moderate circumstances, and was without personal friends to aid in his task, but pushed forward with the energy and determination that knows not defeat. He first began business in Toledo, as an architect and builder, preparing designs and erecting buildings upon monthly installments, but soon found it necessary to discard building and attend strictly to architecture. Larger and more appropriate rooms were secured, and a number of competent draughtsmen set to work, in order to meet the demands upon him. Numerous noble structures throughout different portions of the country are lasting monuments to his architectural abilities. Among a long list of public buildings, consisting of churches, school- houses, court-houses, jails, infirmaries, etc., the product of Mr. Gibbs's mind, we mention the following : City Build- ing and Opera-house, Ashland Ohio; Court-house, Fayette County, Ohio; Court-house, Huron County, Ohio; High School building, Marysville, Ohio; High School building, Bellefon- taine, Ohio; State School building, and rebuilding Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphan Home, Xenia, Ohio ; County Jail, Marion, Ohio; Children's Home, Richland County, Ohio; High School building, Massillon, Ohio; Opera-house, Bellefontaine, Ohio ; Court-house, Henry County, Ohio; City Hall and Opera- house, Xenia, Ohio; Masonic Temple, Toledo, Ohio; Court- house, Union County, Ohio ; County Jail, Sandusky, Ohio; and Court-house, Eaton County, Michigan. And we might add to this list scores of churches, school-houses, residences, etc., in various towns and cities. He has also been ap- pointed by the Secretary of the United States Treasury, Superintendent of the large government building now in course of construction in Toledo, the city in which he re- sides. A few years since, Mr. Gibbs was made a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, an association com- prised of but few members, and all of proved ability in their profession. This fact alone is an indication of the acknowledged thoroughness of the gentleman in the great art of architecture. And all this he has gained himself, through hard study and work. In Masonry, Mr. Gibbs has taken all the degrees conferred in America, including those of the York and the Scottish Rites, excepting the thirty- third degree. It is truly said, "music hath its charms," and this old saying was never more truthfully portrayed than in the case of Mr. Gibbs. Possessing a superior tenor voice from boyhood, no musical entertainment held, from the time he was a student in the "old red school-house" to the date he
Western Brogl Fuk Lo
James Robison ML,
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settled in Toledo, within the circuit where he was known, was without its special attractions in the shape of solos and duets in which Mr. Gibbs figured prominently. His stay in Davenport was one of continuous success in a musical way, he having taught vocal music in that city, and being also a prominent member of Trinity Church quartette choir. Throughout Richland and Huron Counties, Ohio, he was very successful in concert singing, and at his home, in Plymouth, was the founder and chief officer of a musical institute. He will be remembered in various States as being far above the aver- age tenor singer. It was one of the most trying hours of his life when he decided to forsake his musical studies, to give his undivided attention to his present profession. Mr. Gibbs to-day is one of Toledo's most prominent citizens, and enjoys the highest respect of all who know him, either in a business way or socially. He is a great advocate of honesty, from principle, and though his is one of the most tempting of all professions, where money buys honor, the writer is personally and privately aware that he has always met all overtures in that direction with scorn, and with a firmness that precludes all possibility of repetition. Such a man is an honor to his ancestry, to his profession, and to the world.
ROBISON, JAMES DICKEY, physician and surgeon, Wooster, Ohio, was born at Wooster, then a village of about twenty houses, April 20th, 1820. His parents, Thomas and Jemima (Dickey) Robison, were natives of Franklin County, Pennsylvania, whence they came to Wooster in 1813. Both parents (as were most of the settlers of Western Pennsylvania) were of Scotch-lrish ancestry, the elements of which sturdy race are clearly discernible in the person of our subject. His father was a cabinet-maker by trade, but subsequently owned and conducted a general merchandise store, in which young Robison spent much of his boyhood as a clerk, and in which he became well educated to the business of a mer- chant. His parents, too, especially his mother, were very zealous in the Christian religion, and were largely instru- mental in the organization of the First Presbyterian Church at Wooster, and the erection of its building. He was edu- cated in the common schools, subsequently taking private lessons in Latin and Greek as an aid toward his professional study. He began the study of medicine in February, 1840, in the office of Dr. S. N. Bissell, with whom he remained till the fall of 1841, when he went to the Jefferson Med- ical College, at Philadelphia. He spent the following sum- mer vacation as a student in the office of Dr. William Wood, of Cincinnati, after which he returned to Philadelphia, and finished the college course, graduating in the spring of 1843. In the meantime he had availed himself of a course of clinical instruction at the Alms-house Hospital, at Phila- delphia, and, while in Cincinnati, had attended lectures in the Ohio Medical College, and a clinical course at the Com- mercial Hospital, of Cincinnati. In the autumn following his graduation he located, in the practice of medicine, at Cincinnati, at once entering upon what seemed the morning of an extended and lucrative practice. He relinquished it in July, 1846, to serve his country in the war with Mexico, going, at the solicitation of its colonel, afterward General S. R. Curtis, as contract-surgeon of the 3d Ohio Volunteer In- fantry, expecting to go only to New Orleans, where he should be relieved by the regular surgeon of the regiment. But the commissioned surgeon failed to make an appearance, and after a stay of only three days in this, then the gayest city IO-B
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