USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume II > Part 26
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C. L. Boalt, of Norwalk, Mr. Birchard was so effective in advancing the success of the southern route, by the pledge of every dollar of their private fortunes, and thus raising the funds to prosecute the work, that the issue turned in their favor, and the work went on to completion that, but for their extraordinary efforts, would probably not have been finished for many years afterward. Mr. Birchard was a whig while that party existed, and, subsequently, an earnest supporter of the republican party, the administration of Lincoln, and the prosecution of the war for the Union. He was among the very first to purchase, in 1862, government bonds. Hospitable, warm-hearted and friendly, in addition to his contributions to religious and benevolent objects, he cheer- fully aided all really charitable objects. A most important benefaction, affecting the public interests of Fremont, was his donation, in 1871, of two tracts of land to be devoted to the purposes of public parks; and, in 1873, he set apart property amounting to $50,000, for the purpose of establish- ing a public library in Fremont. He appointed a board of trustees to take charge of this gift, and provided for the continuance of this board. It was estimated that, including all his bequests to the city of Fremont, he had donated one- fifth of his entire estate to the public advantage. For nearly seventeen years he had been a member, in full communion, of the Presbyterian church, and a constant contributor to its incidental expenses and benevolent objects. He also gave $7,000 to the building committee of the church in which the congregation now worships; nor did he confine his bene- factions to the church of his own choice, but freely assisted all, without distinction of denomination. Of him, it may well be said, as the faithful steward, he received the gifts of fortune and gave, in his turn, freely as he received.
GREENE, ELISHA BARTON, iron master, Ports- mouth, Ohio, was born in Hillsboro, New Hampshire, De- cember 7th, 1814. His parents, E. B. Greene and Lydia Mclaughlin, were both natives of the same State. Previous to coming West they resided for a while in Vermont, where his father was a member of the legislature. He was also a soldier in the War of 1812, and was wounded in the right leg at the battle of Chrysler's Farm, from the results of which he never recovered. In 1815 he removed to Lawrence county, Ohio, where he was engaged in various kinds of business, but chiefly in the lumber trade and boat-building. He was an active politician of the old whig party, and served for a time as associate judge. Elisha B. Greene is the third son in a family of ten children, and passed most of his minority at work in a saw-mill and on the farm of his father. When about twenty years of age he embarked in merchandising in Lawrence county, Ohio, in partnership with his brother-in- law, Benjamin Johnson, and so continued for some eight or ten years. For about three years subsequent he was associ- ated with his brother, David Greene, in steamboating on the Ohio river. On December 27th, 1838, he married Elizabeth B., daughter of Solomon Churchill, of Lawrence county, Ohio. In 1849 he embarked in the iron business at Key- stone Furnace with John Campbell and others, an arrange- ment which continued for twenty-four years. In 1857 he, with John Campbell, of Ironton, Ohio, Colonel M. Churchill, and others, founded the Ohio Iron Company at Zanesville, Ohio. In 1866 General S. Thomas, S. Churchill, and his son, Charles W. Greene, became connected with the company, all of whom have remained associated with him in that enter-
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prise to the present time. In 1875, together with his brother- in-law, S. Churchill, and his two sons, E. B. and Cyrus D. Greene, he built the Winona Furnace in Hocking county, Ohio, and is still operating it. He is also interested in the Scioto Star Fire-brick Works, at Sciotoville, Ohio. In 1854 he removed to Portsmouth. where he has since resided. He has had a family of eight children, five living. The sons, Charles W. and F. C. Greene, are connected with the Zanes- ville iron industries, already mentioned. Cyrus D. and E. B. Greene, Jr., are in business at the Winona Furnace. The daughter, Mary E., is Mrs. Captain J. J. Gist, of Ports- mouth. Captain Gist commanded a company in the 33d Ohio during our late war, which accompanied Sherman in his famous march to the sea. He is a gentleman of excellent busi- ness talents, and has been for many years a leading business man of Portsmouth, and for a considerable time a partner in the firm of Eberhardt & Co. In politics Mr. Greene is a staunch republican, and also a pronounced temperance man. Both himself and wife are connected with the First Presby- terian Church of Portsmouth, in which body he is a ruling elder. In his early life he enjoyed but very limited educa- tional privileges, but by reading, observation, and contact with the world he has acquired that practical knowledge so indispensable to success. He is one of the many self-made men in our country who have done much towards molding and shaping public sentiment, and imparting a healthy, moral influence to the community. His record, both as a business man and a citizen, is one after which the young men of the present day may safely pattern. Modest and retiring in dis- position, courteous and agreeable in manners, he is to-day one of Portsmouth's highly respected and esteemed citizens. The fathers of both Mr. and Mrs. Greene were very marked men in their day. Mr. Churchill was a native of Plymouth, Massachusetts, became a sailor at the age of twelve, and fol- lowed the sea until he was twenty-five years of age. He emigrated to Ohio in 1817, and became a land-holder in Lawrence county, where he passed the remainder of his life. Both of these pioneers were noted for their enterprising spirit and general philanthropy. They were leaders of public sen- timent in their communities, were warm and active friends to the cause of education, and took an active, prominent part in establishing schools in their respective localities. Indeed, every enterprise having for its object the advancement of the intellectual, moral, and religious interests of the people, found in them efficient and earnest supporters. They were Presby- terians in religious belief, and were descended from the Plymouth stock of Puritans.
WILLSON, HIRAM V., lawyer and jurist, was born in April, 1808, in Madison county, New York, and died No- vember IIth, 1866, at Cleveland, Ohio. He was educated at Hamilton College, where he graduated in 1832, and then commenced the study of law in the office of Hon. Jared Will- son, of Canandaigua, New York. His studies were continued in Washington, where he read law in the office of Francis S. Key, and, for a time supported himself by teaching in a class- ical school in the Shenandoah Valley. He was an earnest student, and succeeded in not only mastering the principles of law, but also storing his mind with facts and precedents that in after-life became of great service to him. In 1833, he came West and settled at first at Painesville, but with his former classmate and intimate friend, Henry B. Payne, he removed to Cleveland, and the two formed a law partnership.
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The young men had little but hope to sustain them, being almost without means. But they met with encouragement from some of the older lawyers, and after awhile business flowed in upon them, and their reputation as able and rising lawyers was widely known. Mr. Payne retired from the firm after a few years, and it became successively Willson, Wade & Hitchcock, and Willson, Wade & Wade. The business of these firms continued to increase and become more lucra- tive. In 1852, he received the democratic nomination for Congress; at the same time his partner, Edward Wade, was nominated as a free-soiler, and William Case was nominated by the whigs. In this triangular contest, Edward Wade was successful, but the democratic candidate received a heavy vote. In the winter of 1854, the members of the Cleveland bar selected him to go to Washington and labor in the inter- est of a bill dividing the State of Ohio, for judicial purposes, into two districts. Largely through his efforts the bill was successful, and the United States court for the northern dis- trict of Ohio was formed. In March, 1855, President Pierce appointed him judge of the newly-created court, an appoint- ment which gave general satisfaction to the bar. From the time of his appointment a marked change was observed in him. Up to that time he had been a strong political partisan on the democratic side. In becoming a judge he ceased to be a partisan or even a politician. The bench he considered removed from the arena of political strife, and, from his ap- pointment to his death, no purely political or personal motives swayed his mind or affected his decisions. He proved him- self an upright judge, whose decisions were made on the strict facts of the case before him, and the legal and constitu- tional provisions bearing on them. The new court was crowded with business from the start. The civil and criminal cases coming before it were numerous and important, but a large share of the most noteworthy cases were suits in admir- alty, arising on the lakes. Some of his decisions in these cases went into the books as important authority, the cases furnishing valuable precedents, and the decisions being models of deep research and lucid statement. Among his decisions in admiralty may be noted one regarding maritime liens, in which he held that the maritime lien of men for wages, or a material lien for supplies, is a proprietary inter- est in the vessel itself, and cannot be diverted by the acts of the owners or by any casualty until the claim is paid; and that such liens inhere to the ship and all her parts wherever found and whoever may be the owner. In other cases he de- cided, and supported the decisions by voluminous precedents, that the admiralty and maritime jurisdiction possessed by the district courts of the United States on the Western lakes and rivers, under the Constitution and act of 1789, was inde- pendent of the act of 1845, and was unaffected thereby ; and also, that the district courts of the United States, having, under the Constitution and acts of Congress, exclusive orig- inal cognizance of all civil causes of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction, the courts of common law are precluded from proceeding in rem to enforce such maritime claims. Another important case was known in the legal history of Cleveland as "The Bridge Case," in which the questions to be decided were the legislative authority of the city to bridge the river, and whether the bridge would be a nuisance, damaging the complainant's private property. The decision granting a preliminary injunction until further evidence could be taken was an exhaustive review of the law relating to water high- ways and their obstructions. The law of collision was set
forth with great ability in another case. Nor were his im- portant decisions of disputed points of law confined to admiralty cases. In a criminal case the question whether the action of a grand jury was legal in returning a bill of in- dictment found only by fourteen members, the fifteenth mem- ber being absent and taking no part in the proceedings. After reviewing the matter at length and citing precedents of the English and American courts for several centuries in sup- port of his view, he pronounced the action legal. His versa- tility of talent, as well as his painstaking researches, were shown in his opinion in the Parker water-wheel case, where he exhibited a clear knowledge of mechanics, and gave an exhaustive exposition of the law of patents. Circumstances brought him into relation with a number of events of national importance, and in all he exhibited the same dispassionate consideration of the legal points involved, and divested him- self utterly of political or personal feeling. In his charges to the grand juries he sought to infuse in them the same spirit. In 1858, he had before him the Oberlin-Wellington rescue case, growing out of a violation of the fugitive slave law by certain professors and leading men of Oberlin College and town, who had rescued a slave, captured in Ohio and being taken back to Kentucky under the provisions of that law. The rescuers were indicted, convicted, fined and imprisoned, the result being intense excitement and a monster demonstra- tion in front of the court building in favor of the prisoners. In this trying affair he betrayed no passion, his charges being wholly devoid of partisanship, and merely pointing out the provisions of the law and the necessity of obedience to it until repealed. During the excitement following the John Brown raid, and again at the breaking out of the war of Se- cession, he took occasion to define the law in regard to con- spiracy and treason, drawing with great skill the line of dis- tinction between a meeting for the expression of opinions hostile to the Government, and a gathering for the purpose of violently opposing or overturning the government. In all his opinions delivered before and during the war, the crimin- ality of an attempt to overthrow the Government was insisted upon. In 1865 his health gave way, and towards winter he visited New Orleans and the West Indies. The weather was unusually severe, and he returned without benefit from the trip. He hurried home to find rest and quiet, but when the term of court arrived he insisted on being taken down to the city for the purpose of opening court and setting the machin- ery in motion. The effort was too much for him ; he grad- ually sank under the attacks of the disease, consumption, and on the evening of November 11th, 1866, he died. His closing hours were peaceful. He had some months before been received into the First Presbyterian church, of which he had long been an attendant and active supporter, and passed away with the full hope of a Christian. The news of his death was received with unaffected sorrow by the bar of the district, among whom he had no enemies, and counted every man as a friend. Resolutions were adopted in which he was truthfully described as "a learned, upright, and fearless judge, ever doing right and equitably among the suitors of his court, fearing only the errors and mistakes to which a fallible human judgment is ever liable. Urbanity and courtesy to to the older members of the bar, protecting and loving kind- ness to its younger members, and deep and abiding interest in the reputation of all, were among his distinguishing char- acteristics." The feeling expressed by the members of the bar was felt by a great many other persons who knew him
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and respected him as a friend, a neighbor, a citizen, or a 1 judge. He married, in 1835, the widow of Mr. Ten Eyck, of Detroit, Michigan.
AMICK, MARION L., A M., M. D., and surgeon, of Cincinnati, was born in Jennings County, Indiana, Sep- tember 13th, 1843. He is the son of Obed Amick, a farmer, and one of the pioneers of Jennings County, Indiana. His father, who was born in Guilford County, North Carolina, July 12th, 1813, removed from that neighborhood to Jen- nings County, Indiana, in 1818, where he still resides. His parents were second cousins, both of the family name, which is of German origin, and in olden times was spelled Emig. George Black, his great-grandfather upon his moth- er's side, married Catherine Overly. They were both Vir- ginians, removing shortly after their marriage to North Carolina. Peter Amick, his great-grandfather, upon his father's side, married Catherine Ingold, of Pennsylvania. They both died in North Carolina. Nicholas Amick, his grandfather, removed from North Carolina to Indiana in 1818, with his family, Daniel, John, Matilda, Abram, and Obed Amick. Dr. Amick graduated at Hanover College, Indiana, June 19th, 1867, entering the Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery the same year, and after passing through the usual course, graduated from that institution in 1869. Within a few weeks after his graduation he was ap- pointed demonstrator of anatomy there, holding this position for two years, when he was appointed professor of anatomy in the same school, resigning July 28th, 1877, the cause being the constant increase of his practice and the want of har- mony in the faculty. The college owes much of its success to the untiring efforts and energy of Professor Amick, and he was very popular among his students. He was a liv- ing dictionary of anatomy, and as a teacher and professor of anatomy had few superiors. He is possessed of great memory, large brain capacity, and with a physical frame that enables him to devote three-fourths of his time to hard study. He has so completely mastered the anatomy of the human frame that he can lecture at any moment upon any part of the body. In his teachings he used his own charts and draw- ings, of which he has a large number of very fine specimens. They are still used in the college. Dr. Amick has in his office a large frame containing the most wonderful set of gall stones ever exhibited in this country, all being taken by him from the gall-bladder of one man. The autopsy was per- formed before his class in the college. There were in number one hundred and sixty-eight, weighing four hundred and sixty grains, seven of the number being about half an inch in diameter, and the remainder about a quarter of an inch in diameter. He married Maggie Taylor, daughter of John Taylor, formerly a wholesale grocer of Cincinnati, but now a large land-owner in Dickinson County, Kansas, and noted as being the "wheat king" of Kansas. Dr. Amick has a large and rapidly increasing practice, and takes rank among the best physicians of the city.
LANE, EBENEZER, LL.D., lawyer and jurist, born at Northampton, Massachusetts, on the 17th September, 1793, was the son of Captain Ebenezer Lane, and grandson of Deacon Ebenezer Lane, of Attleborough, Massachusetts, who was descended from William Lane, an emigrant in 1635, to Dorchester, Massachusetts, from Dorchester, the county seat of Dorsetshire, England. His mother was Marian Chandler
Griswold, a daughter of Matthew Griswold, governor of Con- necticut; she was first married to Charles E. Chandler, an attorney-at-law, and, after his death, to Captain Ebenezer Lane. At eight years of age, he was sent to Leicester grammar school, in the county of Worcester, Massachusetts, where he was prepared for college. At the early age of fourteen, he entered the University of Cambridge, and graduated in 1811. To his class belonged the late Edward Everett, whose ripe scholarship and finished oratory gave him a transatlantic fame. Soon after leaving college, he commenced the study of law at Lyme, Connecticut, with his uncle, Judge Matthew Griswold, and having been admitted to the bar, commenced the practice of law at Norwich, Connecticut, in September, 1814. The profession of the law in Connecticut seemed to him to be overcrowded, and thinking that better opportunities of success would be found in the West, he concluded to cast in his lot with those who were making the Western Reserve, which was owned by the State of Connecticut, their future home. On the 20th February, 1817, being then twenty-three years of age, he left Massachusetts with his step-brother, Heman Ely, whose biography appears in this work. They came by wagon, through Albany and Buffalo, and reached Elyria (which was yet to take its name from Mr. Ely, its chief proprietor) on the 17th March, three days less than a month from the time they started. The immediate prospect for much legal business, in a district so sparsely populated, not being flattering, he purchased a small farm, that he might have occupation when not engaged in the business of his profession. On the 29th October, 1817, he left Cleveland for New England, going by the way of Pittsburgh and Philadel- phia, and he accomplished the journey on foot in twenty days. He returned to Elyria by stage, through Buffalo, Feb- ruary 5th, 1818, but revisited New England October Ist, and was married October 11th, in the same year, to Frances Ann, daughter of Governor Roger Griswold, of Lyme, Connecti- cut. Returning to Ohio in November, the newly married pair commenced housekeeping on the farm in Elyria. In October of the following year, he removed to Norwalk, hav- ing been appointed prosecuting attorney for Huron county in the previous May. On the 8th January, 1822, he was ad- mitted as attorney-at-law in the United States circuit court at Columbus, Ohio, and about two years later was appointed judge of common pleas of the second circuit. In this office he continued six years, when he was appointed judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio. In December, 1837, he was re-ap- pointed by Governor Bartley. He resigned his commission as Chief Justice in February, 1845; he had removed from Norwalk to Sandusky in July, 1842. At the period of his resignation, railroads were projected in Ohio, and being known all over the State as a man of the highest integrity, and known favorably also in other States through his high official position, he was chosen president of the Columbus and Erie, the Mad River and the Junction railroads. He passed the next ten years of his life mainly in the manage- ment of the railroads already named, yet devoting all his leisure hours to books with which his library was amply stored. In November, 1855, he was elected counsel and res- ident director of the Illinois Central Railroad, when he re- moved to Chicago, and continued to hold this position until March 16th, 1859. He then resigned it, and embarked at Boston for Liverpool March 23d, his object being, as he him- self expressed it, "to see new forms of life, manners, natural obierts, and works of antiquity." He arrived at Liverpool
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your tinh I.M. Welch
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on the 14th April, and proceeded to London, where he re- mained four weeks, visiting cathedrals, churches, abbeys, and whatever could awaken interest in a mind devoted to the pursuit of knowledge. From London, he went to Paris, and after spending about seven weeks in France, he proceeded to Brussels, Antwerp, Rotterdam, and Amsterdam. On the 8th July, he reached Berlin, where he heard the celebrated Mich- elet lecture on Aristotle. From Berlin he went to Prague, "a half Asiatic city," as he termed it, and returning to Dres- den, he visited Leipsic, and from thence went to Nuremberg, in Bavaria, where he said he "felt in the midst of the Middle ages." After seeing Mayence and Cologne, he spent a few weeks in Switzerland, and from thence made his way into Italy, where he found abundant occupation in exploring the cities of this ancient country, and in examining the works of art, both ancient and modern, to be found on every hand. He returned to England, through France, and arrived in New York on the 27th April, 1860, having spent two more months in London. In 1850, he received the degree of doc- tor of laws from Harvard University, and in September, 1856, he was elected member of the New England Historical and Genealogical Society. He was also a member of the New York, the Ohio, and the Chicago Historical Societies. After his return from Europe, he no more devoted himself to public business, but in comparative seclusion gave himself almost exclusively to the study of books. He was a great reader, and had the faculty of gathering from a book all that was really valuable in an incredibly short space of time. He had one of the best selected private libraries in the State; and especially rich in historical works. It was his excel- lent judgment in selecting works, combined with a retentive memory, that qualified him in no small degree for his office as judge. His decisions on the bench were models of clear- ness, conciseness, and condensation of thought and style. He was not an eloquent advocate, yet he always presented the case of his clients lucidly, and then directed his legal arguments to the court. His thorough knowledge of the civil law, and his varied and extensive historical learning, quali- fied him to compare the systems of our several States and of other countries, and to educe the great principles which lie at the foundations of all systems of jurisprudence. His truc sphere was in legal and historical study, rather than in the routine of courts, and the practical and rough realities and contests of life. He was a man of high moral tone, of great integrity and purity of purpose, and his judicial decisions had that weight, morally as well as legally, which makes an up- right, conscientious judge a power in the government. A man so highly qualified for his elevated position, so much esteemed by his professional brethren, could not but be greatly missed when he resigned; and it is not strange that they should have thought that his exchange of the bench for the presidency of railroad corporations, was the great mistake of his life. He was a man of a kindly spirit, sympathizing with the poor, and exerting himself for the improvement of their condition. He was a warm friend to popular education ; his efforts in the cause were great, and he was among the first to appreciate the value of the system of public schools which is now the pride of the State. The spirit and practice of religion formed the basis of his character, making him what he was in the relations he sustained to his fellow-men. he was confirmed a member of the Episcopal church, by Bishop McIlvaine, in 1834. Though he was a member of that church, and intelligently preferred its polity and forms of
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