USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume II > Part 29
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her he received his love of the British poets. Hearing first the simple measure of the heroic lays of Sir Walter Scott from her lips, he afterward made whole volumes of his works, as well as those of Burns, Moore, Cowper, and Shakespeare as familiar to himself as household words. Her maxims, her songs, the reminiscences of her youth, were listened to with avidity by her son. His patriotism was stirred by the inci- dents of war related by both father and mother ;- how his grandfather, Colonel Matthew Scott, after valiant services in the war of the Revolution, languished in a prison-ship in New York Harbor; how his uncle, Joel Cook, had entered the army at the age of sixteen, with his father, and served to the end. An incident occurred when Mr. Scott Cook was about nineteen which led to his going to Chillicothe to study surveying with Colonel Bourne, and from this time he was in the full sense of the word the shaper of his own destiny. The incident alluded to was the surveying of a part of his father's farm. The lad was called upon to lend his assistance in carrying the chain, and thus made his first acquaintance with the compass. The instrument excited the admiration of his quick, ambitious mind. He was captivated with the idea of learning its use, and engaging in employment which had so caught his fancy. He was accordingly, through the influence of his mother, sent to study in Colonel Bourne's office, and at the end of six months went into Mr. Allen Latham's office, and boarded in his family. There he had practical exercise of the previous six months' study, and re- ceived a wide knowledge of land titles and transfers. After two years and a half of active employment of this kind, he severed his connection with the office, receiving from his employer a surveyor's outfit, consisting of a fine compass, chain, and Jacob's-staff, and pony with saddle and bridle. As soon as it was known that his association with Mr. Latham was at an end, Mr. Andrew Ellison, who had good reasons to believe that the youth possessed both honesty of purpose and integrity of dealing, made him a business proposition resulting in a partnership. The real estate transactions into which he then entered with this gentleman might have led to very profitable results but for the death, in a very short time, of Mr. Ellison, who was quite an old man. In 1824 he made a trip to Illinois, to collect a sum of money for his partner. Upon his arrival at Shawneetown he left the river to extend his journey some distance by the then usual mode of travel- ing, horseback, and upon being asked what security he had to offer, replied by showing his power of attorney to collect the debt; and the owner of the horse, evidently prepossessed by his frank and open countenance, concluded that it would be safe to trust him. On this trip he noted the opportunity of buying cattle to advantage for the Eastern market, and afterward made annual trips into Illinois and Missouri for this purpose, for three consecutive years, and with good pecuniary result. During this time he purchased a fine tract of land in Fayette County. These trips over the sparsely settled and dreary plains were not devoid of adventure, and required energy and sound judgment for their successful accomplish- ment. Undertaken alone and on horseback, many days were spent on the outward trip without the society of man or sight of human habitation. After the cattle were purchased drivers were easily procured among the frontiersmen, and then com- menced the homeward drive. Constant alertness was re- quired, day and night, to meet the emergency of a stampede among the cattle ; great fatigue was endured, and an over- taxing of the strength, which from the buoyancy of his dis-
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position and the iron constitution with which nature had endowed him, he seemed not to realize could be overtaxed. In 1831 he entered into partnership with his brother-in-law, Dr. James Webb, for the purchase of a tract of land lying adjacent to Chillicothe. The purchase was made of Colonel William Key Bond, agent for the Bank of the United States. In March, 1832, the grant was given, and the first payment made. Now began the Herculean task of clearing the land. To this he brought the enthusiasmn and clear-sighted estimate of his own resources which characterized all his movements. The first season the land yielded a fine crop of corn. He was now the owner of a good tract of land of about three hundred acres, lying along the Paint Creek and extending back upon the hills that bound this fertile valley upon the south. On account of the beauty of the scene commanded by the high lands he named his place Buena Vista (beautiful view). He now entered upon a career of active farming, combined with stock raising. In 1840 he was married to Eleanor Worthington Tiffin, daughter of Governor Tiffin (a steel engraving and sketch of whose life appears in the first volume of this work), and in 1845 established his family in the home prepared by their joint choice on the hill at Buena Vista. There was no more hospitable house in the county. It was one from which the needy or tired wayfarer was never turned, and where friends were entertained with the free- handed hospitality which characterized both its inmates. In 1850 he served one term in the Legislature, and his health having previously commenced to decline his duties aggra- vated his ailments, and laid the foundation of after years of suffering and confirmed ill-health. This, however, did not impair the activity of his mind, his clear insight into business, or his appreciation of fine literature. A college education was out of the range of his youthful opportunities, and his actual attendance at school did not extend beyond boyhood, but he did not neglect through life that self-teaching which, in its results to character, is far more valuable than any thing learned from books. In politics he was identified with the Whig party, and afterward the Republican. He was a pure patriot. The love of country and personal duty of ever serving her best interests was with him an enthusiasm. Political preferment was open to him, but into it neither his tastes nor his nature led him. He interested himself in the organization of the Chillicothe Gas Light and Coke Company, which was chartered in 1850, and served as director until 1863. In 1851 he was actively engaged in the promotion of the Marietta and Cincinnati Railway, and continued to de- vote his time, energies, and money to this cause throughout the organization of the company and the construction of the road, was one of the directors, and held the position for ten years. His losses in relation to this enterprise were heavy and most disastrous, as was also the fate of all the parties connected with it. In 1852 he was elected director of the Chillicothe Branch Bank, and continued in that capacity through its transformation into a National Bank in 1863 to the close of its existence in 1876. He also participated in the organization of the First National Bank of Chil- licothe, in 1862, was made director, and held that office until his death, being the last survivor of the original official board, and living through the time of its original charter, which expired a month before his death. His habits were refined, and his personal appearance was most prepossessing. He stood six feet two inches in height ; his clear-cut, regular features beamed with a kind and benev-
olent expression, which attracted all who knew him. The following is taken from a letter of President R. B. Hayes, who married the only daughter of his sister Mrs. Maria (Cook ) Webb: "We often recall pleasant recollections of your father. He was a rare man. We do not often meet-I am not sure that I ever met-one who was so naturally a true gentleman. His smile and voice, his friendly greeting, the kind, warm, sympathetic disposition which beamed in his beautiful eyes and expressive face, his substantial integrity and nobleness of character, and the world of most agreeable associations that once gathered around him, taken altogether will make the recollection of him in the circle which was blessed with his presence and with an intimate acquaintance with him, enduring and sweet and precious as long as any of us shall live." In October, 1879, the family residence was removed to a house in Chillicothe. This more than any thing was giving up associations which made earth less of earth for- him, and more a waiting place. His health steadily declined, and there, among his friends and in the loving care of his large family, he died, on the 28th Novem- ber, 1882.
WADDLE, JOHN, engineer and railroad president, was born at Chillicothe, Ross County, Ohio, on the 27th April, 1814, and died 30th December, 1882. His father, also named John Waddle, was of Irish descent, having been brought in his early childhood to America from Belfast, Ireland, by his parents, who settled in Pennsylvania, and afterward removed to Brooke County, Virginia, whence their son, in the early part of the present century, removed to Chillicothe, Ohio, and engaged in business as a merchant, while yet in his minority, and where subsequently, in 1806, he was married to Nancy Mann, who but a few years before had emigrated to Ohio with her mother (then, by a second marriage, the wife of Captain William Lamb) from the State of Kentucky. The issue of that marrriage was four sons and two daughters, two of whom have identified themselves with the history of their respective counties, and a sketch of their lives appear in this volume. The subject of this sketch was the third son. John Waddle the elder, who had been a successful man of business, saw the greater part of his fortune sacrificed to pay the debts of others, for whom he had become surety, and in a few years afterward he died, at the comparatively early age of forty-seven years, leaving a widow with a large family of children and a limited estate. The youthful John was indebted to his mother for his early training, and the good principles which came to him by in- heritance were cultivated and established by her wise teach- ing and pious example. His early scholastic education was at the Chillicothe Academy, under the direction of Mr. Daniel W. Hearne, a well known teacher of that day, and afterward under the tuition of the late William B. Franklin, Esq., of Chillicothe. Having a decided taste for mathematics, he chose engineering as his profession, and remained in it until his death. His first active service was on the Walhonding Canal, and afterward on the Ohio Canal. In 1854 he suc- ceeded Archibald Kennedy, Esq., as the chief engineer of the Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad, a position which he con- tinued to hold till his death, with the exception of two years, beginning in 1857, when he filled the position of member of the Board of Public Works of Ohio, to which office he was nom- inated and elected by the Republican party, of which he was a staunch adherent, and with the further exception of a brief
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period during which he filled the office of general superin- tendent of the road. It happened to him during this long connection to witness two financial crises in the history of the Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad, the first culminating in the foreclosure and sale of the road under the mortgages upon it, and the reorganization of the company in 1860; and the second, resulting in a like foreclosure, sale, and reorganization under a new name, the deed which passed the title to the purchasing trustees having been executed on the day of his death. On the appointment of a receiver in the suit brought for such foreclosure and sale, in June, 1877, Mr. Waddle was elected president of the corporation, which office he held at his death. During his long career as a civil engineer he performed his duties with judgment and skill. Whatever he might have lacked in brilliancy and genius he made up by careful, painstaking labor. It has fallen to the lot of few mortals to possess so enviable a reputation, based on so true a character. As steady as a clock, he marked all the days of his life with duties well performed. As firm as a rock, he endured temptation, resisted the allurements of pleasure, and stood immovable for the right, a landmark to guide by or stand by. Modest and retiring to a fault, he sought no advancement, nor dreamed of the acquisition of wealth and honors, yet the latter came to him unsought, in the warm re- gard of his associates and the genuine esteem of all who knew him, so that his name became the synonym of honor, fidelity, and integrity. Beneath that quiet face and pleasant exterior there was concealed a gentle yet decided appreciation of humor commingled with much intelligence and all the kindly qualities which go to make up the agreeable com- panion, while his settled love of truth, duty, and right made him the reliable and trusted friend of those with whom he mingled from day to day. Said one of them, on whom for- tune had showered wealth, whose professional career had been of the most brilliant character, and to whom future honors seem to come flocking, "I desire no greater boon than when I die to leave behind me the reputation for integ- rity, truth, and virtue which Mr. Waddle has left behind him."
BROWN, LE ROY D., educator, was born November 3d, 1848, in a portion of Monroe County which is now in- cluded in Noble County, Ohio. His parents were Jeremialı B. and Isabella C. (Harris) Brown. His father was a native of Zanesville, Ohio, born of New England parentage, whose paternal ancestors were Scotch-Irish, while his maternal an- cestry were of a family named Gillott, of Huguenot extrac- tion. Jeremiah B. Brown was a farmer by occupation, spend- ing the last ten years of his life on a farm in West Virginia, previous to which time he had lived on one farm for forty years, near Sarahsville, Ohio. He was among the first to ad- vocate the present school system of Ohio, which was adopted in 1853. He took a very active part in carrying it out, and establishing it throughout his county, giving frequent addresses on education during his efforts in this direction. He was for nearly twenty years a director of schools, and of his six chil- dren five became teachers. He was associated with the men who established the first glass manufactory in Ohio, at Zanesville. His mother, Isabella C. Brown, was born near Smithfield, Ohio. Her father and mother were of English origin, the former from Maryland, the latter from a New Jersey family named Hutton, belonging to the denomination of Friends. Mrs. Brown, who is still living, is a good woman, of strong character, and whose life-work has been
the educating and the training of her children. Our subject attended country district schools until he was fifteen years of age. He early cultivated a taste for reading, and taking ad- vantage of the free school library system, which was then in existence, read all books within his reach, notably those on biography, history, and travels. A discipline of equal value to that found in books was acquired by hard manual labor on the farm during his vacations. At the age of fifteen, having been refused by his father the privilege of entering the army, he ran away from home, and enlisted January, 1864, in Com- pany H of the 116th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and remained in the service to the close of the war. Soon afterward he joined his regiment in the Shenandoah Valley. He saw service under Sigel, Hunter, Crook, and Sheridan, in that department, and afterward at Richmond, in the Army of the James. His military experience was active and severe. When honorably discharged he was attached as an orderly to the staff of the general commanding. Shortly after his return home he again entered the district school, and after- ward attended the graded schools at Senecaville, Ohio. During the winter of 1866-67 he taught a district school adjoining the one which he attended in boyhood. The fol- lowing spring he entered Mount Auburn Academy, in Athens County, Ohio, where in part he fitted for college, under the direction of Professor J. P. Weethee, an alumnus of the Ohio University. In 1869 he entered the preparatory department of the Ohio Wesleyan University, at Delaware, Ohio, from which he afterward was graduated as Bachelor of Arts. Dur- ing his entire course in college he devoted considerable time to teaching. In 1871 he was appointed county school examiner in his native county. He was associated with Mr. John M. Amos, now a prominent editor in Eastern Ohio, in conduct- ing a select summer school in Caldwell, Ohio, for several years, which proved very successful. In the fall of. 1873 Mr. Brown took charge of a graded school at Newport, Wash- ington County, Ohio. Shortly after his advent there the office of superintendent was created, the duties of which he assumed, and performed with great credit. In 1874 he took charge of the public schools of Belpre, Ohio. In 1875 he was chosen superintendent of public schools at Eaton, Ohio, which position, with that of county examiner, he filled until March, 1879, when he assumed the duties of superintendent of public schools at Hamilton, Ohio, which office he has filled ever since. In May, 1881, he was elected for a term of two years, this being the first time in the history of the Hamilton schools that this honor had been conferred. He is also a school examiner for Butler County. Mr. Brown is exceedingly zealous in the cause of education, and as an educator stands high in his profession. He is a live institute worker, a constant writer for educational journals, and was secretary of the State Teachers' Association in 1878-1879. In 1880 he was assistant secretary of the National Teachers' Association, of which he is a life member. He is a post- graduate student at the Cincinnati University. In 1878, while at Eaton, he was admitted to the bar, before the District Court, at Hamilton. He was married November 28th, 1878, by Joseph Horner, D. D., at Alleghany, Pennsylvania, to Miss Esther E. Gabel, daughter of Lucian and Mary A. Gabel, of Eaton, Ohio. Mr. Gabel is an architect and builder, who now resides in Hamilton. One child, Thomas Pollok, has been born of the union. Mr. Brown is a Dem- ocrat in politics. He has been a Mason since he reached his majority, and has taken all degrees up to K. T. inclusive.
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He takes a great interest in military matters, and is an active member of the Grand Army of the Republic. During the summer of 1882 he visited Europe, and traveled throughout the Continent, investigating the educational status of the countries visited. At the Democratic convention which was held at Columbus, O., June 21, '83, he was nominated for the position of State School Commissioner, and at the gen- eral election in October of that year he was elected by a handsome majority.
SAFFORD, WILLIAM H., advocate, jurist, and leg- islator, was born at Parkersburg, Virginia, on the 19th of February, 1821. His father, Dr. Eliel Todd Safford, was a native of Rutland County, Vermont, and emigrated to Ohio, with his family, in the year 1811. He studied medicine under the instruction of his father, Dr. Jonas Safford, and afterward of Dr. Matthews, of Putnam, Ohio. Having attended lectures at the school of medicine of the old Penn- sylvania University, in Philadelphia, he located for practice at the village of Point Pleasant, Mason County, Virginia, in the year 1818. There he was married to Miss Anna T. Harrison, daughter of Matthew Harrison, of Loudon County, Virginia, and shortly before the birth of the subject of this sketch he removed to Parkersburg, his elder brother, Dr. Erasmus Darwin Safford, having been born at Point Pleasant some eighteen months previous. Mr. Safford was educated in such branches of learning as were then usually taught in the common schools and academies of the time, and at the age of sixteen took charge of a country school in the vicinity during a winter's term. This enabled him to renew his studies and practically to apply what he had already acquired. At the close of the term he engaged himself as clerk in the store of Stephenson & Neal, then the leading merchants of the town. While thus engaged, the death of Charles R. Baldwin, principal of the academy in which he had been a pupil, created a vacancy which its board of trustees found a difficulty in filling, and as a temporary arrangement Mr. Safford's services were engaged. In this new and . untried position many of the more advanced scholars had been old time classmates, and were quite equal, if not superior, to himself in many of the branches pursued. This rendered the duties of the position doubly arduous, as a previous preparation on his part had necessarily to be made each night for the morrow's lessons. When Mr. Safford accepted the appointment it was as already stated only until such time as a suitable superintendent could be procured, which it was contemplated would be in a very short time. The term, however, passed on, and closed under such favorable circumstances that the youthful principal pro tem. received the congratulations of his pupils and the compliments, coupled with expressions of satisfaction, of the board of trustees. He then resumed the situation which he had previously relin- quished in the store. The usual summer vacation of the school had nearly passed, and as yet the authorities had failed to find any one to supply the vacancy of principal. In this extremity Mr. Safford was again solicited to accept the position, upon the understanding that he would resign, if desired, when another could be engaged. His assent having been given, the directory gave the matter no further thought until the closing of the academic year. It would be as well to explain here that at the period of Mr. Safford's superintendency of the school its curriculum involved no extensive scholastic acquirements, but only such a knowledge
of the rudimentary and elementary principles of science and learning as was necessary to prepare the student for enter- ing the higher literary institutions. Having thus temporarily followed the profession of teaching, more by force of circum- stances than any predilection or preference for the employ- ment, he determined to abandon it for a vocation more con- genial to his tastes. The late William A. Harrison, of Clarksburgh, Virginia, who was an uncle of Mr. Safford's, offered him the opportunity of a course of legal study, under his personal supervision, and in the fall of the year 1840 (after the close of the memorable political campaign, in which as a stripling the embryo lawyer had taken a conspicuous, if not a presumptuous, part as a public speaker), he became a wel- come guest in Mr. Harrison's home, and a delighted student of this talented and successful jurist. Having read a suf- ficient time to admit of application to the bar, he was duly licensed by the examining Judges of the General Court of Virginia to practice law, and was admitted to the Virginia bar in the month of April, 1842, he being at that time just twenty-one years of age. Then commenced an experience common to most neophytes of the profession, a solicitous longing for clients and cases, impatiently waiting for business, while the rainbow of hope spanned the future, dazzling the youthful aspirant's ambition with its iris of many-colored hues. Having familiarized himself with . the practice, with that confidence of success so characteristic of sanguine youth, he had the temerity to contemplate matrimony, and accordingly on the 14th of October, 1846, was united to Miss Annie Maria Pocahontas Creel, daughter of Dr. David Creel, of Virginia. In the summer of the year 1848, being attracted to the valley of the Scioto, through the marvelous stories of its inexhaustible fertility and boundless resources, evidences of which he had witnessed in the droves of hogs and herds of cattle passing to the markets of the East through his native town, he resolved to move to that new Eldorado, and on the Ist of November, 1848, landed in Chillicothe, the "ancient metropolis " of Ohio. This was a week or ten days preceding the presidential election of that year, which resulted in the defeat of General Cass by Gen- eral Taylor, the news of which thrilled the wires of the electric telegraph for the first time in Southern Ohio. The line from Chillicothe to Portsmouth had been erected but a few months previous, and this was the first occasion he had witnessed its operation. Only one railroad then spanned the State from the Ohio River to the lakes ; this was the Mad River and Miami, leading from Cincinnati to Sandusky, being constructed with flat bar-iron rails, spiked on longi- tudinal timber, and before the introduction of the present T rail. While awaiting professional engagements and forming acquaintances with the people, his time was profitably divided between studying the statutes, learning the practice of the courts, and occasional literary contributions to the papers and periodicals of the time. In the year 1850 he wrote and published a brief biography of Harman Blennerhassett, which subsequently, in the year 1861, was enlarged by the addition of much new matter, and its title changed to that of the "Blennerhassett Papers." The information contained in this work was utilized in no small degree by the late Dr. Parton, in his second edition of the "Life of Aaron Burr," but he has always given Mr. Safford the credit of his re- searches. In the fall of 1857 he was elected a Senator in the General Assembly, from the counties of Ross and High- land, and served for a term of two years. In 1859 the De-
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