USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume II > Part 31
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14th, 1860, he was married to Delia E. Bulkley, of that vil- lage, a graduate of Ingham Collegiate Institute, of Le Roy, New York, and a daughter of Henry G. Bulkley, Esq., a descendant of Rev. Peter Bulkley, the first Congregational minister of Concord, Massachusetts. To this family belong many noted men in the early and later history of New Eng- land, and from them Ralph Waldo Emerson descended. In 1861 he was elected superintendent of the public schools of Tiffin, Ohio, and remained one year. This was a year of hard and most successful labor. He found the schools in a state of chaos; he left them thoroughly re-organized, and well graded. The Board of Education, appreciating his well directed efforts, passed highly complimentary resolutions on his retirement. He had greatly endeared himself also to the teachers and scholars, and, in a public meeting, they gave him flattering proofs of their affection and esteem. He went to Cleveland in June, 1862, studied law with Judge J. P. Bishop, and. was admitted to the bar, under Judge R. P. Ranney, in 1863. He had previously studied law, both at Kalamazoo and Tiffin. He now turned his attention to more active pursuits. He entered at once, and most successfully, into the real estate business, bringing to it the keen foresight, the good sound judgment, and the indomitable energy that insure success. He resided in the city until 1866, when he re- moved to the village of East Cleveland. His old love for, and appreciation of, educational interests, brought him again into active connection with the schools. He was elected to the School Board in 1867, and remained on it till the annexation of the village to the city of Cleveland in 1872, being chosen its President every year except one. During his connection with the Board every school-house was remodeled, every school graded; the school-house on Garden Street, and the High- school building on Belle Avenue, erected. In the accom- plishment of these results he cheerfully gave the benefit of his experience ; and for the time and labor bestowed, had the satisfaction of knowing that he was mainly instrumental in laying the foundation of the excellent school system since at- tained. He early foresaw that the beautiful plateau at East Cleveland, then used chiefly as truck farms, must yield to the rapidly increasing demand for elegant homes away from the smoke and dust of the manufacturing portion of the city ; he made large purchases of land in that part, and has been abun- dantly rewarded for his foresight. He was unwearied in his efforts to promote all those improvements that have so rapidly advanced the property in that part of Cleveland. He was largely instrumental in securing the paving of Euclid Ave- nue, in introducing gas, and in annexing the village to the city, writing with his own hand many of the ordinances for those measures, and urging their adoption persistently and successfully. From the time of his arrival in East Cleveland, he gave himself to its interests. His private enterprises added much to the beauty of that part of the city, having laid out more streets, and erected more buildings, than any other man. In sympathy with all plans and efforts wisely put forth for the public good, in 1881 he sold his homestead at East Cleveland, consisting of about thirty-five acres on Euclid Avenue, as a site for the Case School of Applied Science, and the Western Reserve University, and Adelbert College, and gave twenty-five thousand dollars toward the location of the institution in Cleveland. He is one of the trustees of Western Reserve University, and takes a great interest in the success of those institutions now occupying his old home- stead. Independent and conservative in politics, he heartily
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supported the government in the war of the Rebellion, and is a stanch believer in protecting American industries. While in college he devoted considerable study to geology, and, in 1859, spent the summer in studying and examining the cop- per and iron mines of the Lake Superior region. He has al- ways been strongly impressed with the wonderful mineral resources of that country. In 1873 he bought a large interest in the Lake Angeline mines on Lake Superior, and was elected manager of the company. These mines, under his management, were successful, paying dividends even during the depressed state of the iron trade. In 1874 he became in- terested in mines in Utah, near Salt Lake, now known as the "Old Telegraph" mines. He was elected president and manager of the company, being, from the first, the largest stockholder. In 1875-6 he purchased a majority of the stock, and took personal charge of the mines. By his management the property was brought from a mere "pros- pect" and in debt, to a very valuable mine. He added very largely to the property, built five furnaces, and the most extensive concentrating works in Utah. It has been reported that he took from these mines, in little over a year, more than one million dollars, and the mines paid constantly under his management. He is interested in mines in Lake Superior, and a large owner of real estate in Cleveland. For eight years he has spent most of his time in Utah, and by his personal attention, skill, and foresight has wrought out one of the most extensive businesses in that country. He opened the "Jordan " gold mine, a most extensive property, and is president and majority owner of the company. He has opened also the silver mine in Utah, known as the "Lucky Boy," which is said to be one of the most promising properties of the Territory-he is man- ager and largest stockholder of that company also, He is just in the prime of manhood, strong, energetic, and when he knows he is right, "hard to beat." He is now exten- sively engaged in mining, smelting, concentrating, and leach- ing, being the first man in Utah to make the leaching of silver ores a successful business. Such a worker is a good teacher in any land. He is eminently a self-made man, having earned and paid every dollar for his own education. He is a thorough business man, and has proved that sagacity and untiring industry insure success, and has, during all his life, lived under a lucky star. In December of 1882, at a meeting held by the great mine owners of Utah, he was elected the delegate to proceed to Washington to represent the mining interests of Utah, and to prevent in Congress the proposed reduction of the tariff on lead and lead ores. In his able address he demonstrated most clearly the fallacy of adopting the proposed reduction of the tariff and the great injury it would do ťne mining interests. This address was able, perti- nent, and exhaustive ; in well chosen language, backed by statistics, he defined and made his point. He is a member of the Congregational Church, and contributes freely to its benevolent and Christian work. He has taken great in- terest in educational work in Utah. Believing that educa- tion is the foundation of all permanent reform, he furnished one-half the means to build the first school buildings for Salt Lake Academy, and has been, from the first, presi- dent of the institution, and one of its strongest friends. The plan for its organization was made and adopted at his house in Salt Lake City, in 1878, and when the first building had become overcrowded with scholars, he pro- posed to the trustees to give twenty-five hundred dollars for
the erection of a new building, provided ten thousand dol- lars could be raised. Friends of the institution went to work, he according all assistance possible, and over thirty thousand dollars were raised, and a fine academy building has been erected, and the school thoroughly established, similar to the academies of New England, which have been great sources of strength to the country; and now, in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, the same plan and principles of instruction have been planted in the city of Salt Lake. Of Mr. Holden's eight children seven are living. Charles Em- ery, the first-born, a very promising lad, died in March, 1877. Mr. Holden is a man keenly alive to the material and moral welfare of his country, the elevation and prosperity of the people. He has done a great deal in developing its natural resources, and adding to its permanent wealth. His motto in all things is, "I bide my time." A man of high honor and integrity, he is held in great esteem by his friends and be- loved by his family. A man of high education and culti- vated taste, his beautiful home in Cleveland abounds in works of art and literature, all of which he says are for friends and the good of the children. This home on the banks of Lake Erie, five miles from the heart of the city, embowered in trees and adorned by shrubs and flowers, free from dust, smoke and the din of business, might well allure the gods of wisdom and the graces of pleasure.
SHARP, ROBERT LEE, of Sugar Grove, Ohio, was born in Belmont County on the 28th of December, 1824. His family is of Scotch-Irish descent, his ancestor having emigrated to this country some time during the seventeenth century, and settled in Pennsylvania. His grandfather, Cap- tain Joseph Sharp, removed from Pennsylvania to Belmont County in the year 1798. He served with distinction during the war of the Revolution and that of 1812. He also served several terms in the State Legislature, and held other public offices. His son, also named Joseph, and the father of the subject of this memoir, removed to Muskingum County, and afterwards to Fairfield County, where he purchased land and followed the occupation of farming. In 1843 he was elected on the independent ticket one of the representatives to the lower house of the Ohio Legislature from Fairfield, and he served through the session of 1843-44. In 1844 he was the independent candidate for Senator in the district composed of Fairfield and Pickaway Counties. He served for many years as justice of the peace of Berne Township, and and filled several other offices of minor importance in the township. In 1856 he was elected one of the commissioners of Fairfield County, which office he continued to fill for six years. He died in 1870, regretted by all who knew him as a man of strong attachments and generous heart. The sub- ject of this sketch, Robert Lee, was educated at the com- mon school until twenty years of age, when, in accordance with the wishes of his father, he assisted him in the manage- ment of the farm, and so continued until he attained the age of twenty-eight. It was about this time that the gold fever was at its height, and the tales of men becoming suddenly rich through luck at the gold fields filled young Robert's mind with a desire to seek his fortune in that new Eldo- rado. He accordingly left his native town and started for California, where he remained working at the gold fields for two years ; he then returned, and with the money thus ac- quired he purchased a farm in the county where he was brought up, and devoted his time and energy to its cultiva-
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yours truly, Dati Hollingsworth.
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tion and improvement. Early in life Mr. Sharp took an active interest in military affairs, and held a commission of captain in the State militia. In the year 1879 he was nom- inated on the Democratic ticket as one of the representatives from Fairfield County in the State Legislature, was duly elected, and re-elected in 1881. In addition to his farms, Mr. Sharp is the owner of some extensive stone quarries, the management of which occupies the whole of his time not devoted to the service of the State. He has never been a candidate for political honors, and the positions he has filled came to him unsought. Mr. Sharp is a man of clear insight, having a well-trained mind and natural business capacity, and is an intelligent observer and practical student. He was married in February, 1859, to Miss Stuckey, daughter of Judge Stuckey, of Fairfield County. The issue of that union is five children, all living. Mrs. Sharp died in 1875, and in 1880 Mr. Sharp married Mrs. Rhodes, his present wife.
HOLLINGSWORTH, DAVID A., Attorney-general of Ohio in 1883, by appointment of Governor Charles Foster, was born in Belmont, Belmont County, Ohio, November 2Ist, 1844. He came from good Quaker stock, being a lineal descendant of Valentine Hollingsworth, of Cheshire, Eng- land, who accompanied William Penn to America in 1682, in the ship Welcome. His paternal ancestry is traced to the eleventh century, the date of the erection in Cheshire of Hollingsworth Hall. The family were evidently people of high consideration in their community, and the family coat- of-arms, granted by Queen Elizabeth, is preserved to this day. Valentine Hollingsworth settled with his family in Newcastle County, Pennsylvania (now Delaware County), and filled many prominent positions in the colony. Our subject's im- mediate progenitors were Elihu and Lydia Ann (Fisher) Hollingsworth, the first a native of Belmont County, Ohio, the other of Loudon County, Virginia. Elihu Hollingsworth for many years, and up to his retirement from business in 1873, was successfully engaged in mercantile pursuits at Flushing, in Belmont County. Our subject attended the com- mon schools up to his sixteenth year, when his studies were interrupted by the late war of the Rebellion. At that early age he laid down his books to take up the musket of a pri- vate soldier, enlisting June 27th, 1861, in Company "B," 25th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, at Camp Chase, Ohio. He participated in the hard fighting and other arduous service of the regiment during the greater part of 1861, 1862, and 1863, when he was honorably discharged from service on account of impaired health. After recovering his health he returned to his studies, completing his education at Mt. Union College, in Stark County. He then read law, having for preceptor Captain O. S. Holloway, of St. Clairsville. He was admitted to the bar in September, 1867, and commenced the practice of his profession at that place. In 1869 he moved to Cadiz, and there opened a law-office. In the Spring of 1871 he became associated in practice with Major David Cunning- ham, which partnership continues at this writing. In March, 1880, on motion of Hon. Samuel Shellabarger, of Washing- ton, District of Columbia, he was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of the United States. In the Fall of 1873 Mr. Hollingsworth was elected prosecuting-attorney of Har- rison County, and in 1875 was re-elected by an increased majority. In 1879 he was elected to the State Senate from the Belmont-Harrison district, and again in 1881, in each in- stance running several hundred votes ahead of his party ticket.
In the senate Mr. Hollingsworth earned a high reputation for indefatigable industry. During his first term he served as chairman of the committee on privileges and elections, and assisted in the adjudication of a number of very important election contests. The following term he served as chairman of both the Judiciary and Railroad Committee, positions of grave responsibility. While a member of the Senate Mr. Hollingsworth secured the passage of various important measures, prominent among which was the "Hollingsworth Insurance Law." The passage of this act had the effect of reforming the lax laws governing co-operative life insurance companies, and led to the breaking up of the business of speculative or "graveyard" insurance in the State. Mr. Hol- lingsworth is a Republican in politics, and is active and promi- nent in the councils of his party. He was temporary chairman of the Republican State Convention which met in Columbus in 1882. He was a candidate for nomination before the mem- orable Congressional Convention at St. Clairsville, in June, 1882, which adjourned after three days' balloting, without making a nomination. In this contest much feeling was engendered between the friends of the various candidates, and, although neither Mr. Hollingsworth nor his friends were involved therein, and he stood second only in the balloting, at the close of the convention, he declined, in an open letter, to permit his friends to use his name further in connection with the nomination. In April, 1883, Governor Foster ap- pointed him Attorney-general, to succeed Hon. George K. Nash, who was appointed to the Supreme Court Commission. The appointment came unsolicited by Mr. Hollingsworth, - and was universally received as a fitting recognition of his abilities as a lawyer. He declined an election at the close of the term for which he was appointed, preferring to give his attention exclusively to private business, in which he has been successful. Besides enjoying a lucrative law practice, Mr. Hollingsworth is President of the First National Bank of Cadiz, Ohio. On the 8th day of April, 1875, he was married to Miss Linda, daughter of the late Dr. John McBean, of Cadiz.
WALKER, NATHAN HORACE, of Bellefontaine, Ohio, is a descendant of one of the old English colonial families of the State of Massachusetts. His father was Na- than Walker, a resident of Dighton, Bristol County, of that State, who married for his wife Miss Sarah Talbart, also a native of the same county. To them were born a family of four children, of whom Nathan H. was the oldest, his birth being September 11th, 1823. In 1839 the father and his family came to Ohio, and located upon a farm in Marion County. Shortly after this they lost a daughter by death, and afterward removed to Hardin County. Here his son Nathan H. remained with his parents on the farm until he was twenty-one or twenty-two years of age, having, in youth, enjoyed the advantages of the common schools of the dif- ferent localities where he had been living. In 1845 he went to reside in the village of Kenton, and was here in busi- ness for the three or four years following, when he removed to Urbana, thence to Mound City, Illinois, for a time, and again returning to Urbana, where he was engaged in business until the close of the war, in 1865. In the fall of this year he went to Live Oaks, Florida. Here he was actively en- gaged for several years in the growth of the town and in its prominent business interests, until 1871, when he returned to Ohio, and again located at Kenton, where he has built up a
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large and flourishing business, in the line of manufacturing coarse and fine lumber. In 1877 he started a branch estab- lishment in the same line, in the western suburbs of the city of Bellefontaine, which latter has so increased and developed in its, business that it has outgrown the parent concern at Kenton, it being so large that employment is given to about one hundred and fifty hands and seventy-five horses, with an active capital of about one hundred thousand dollars. The total annual production of the works amounts to over two hundred thousand dollars, and is constantly increasing. Their capacity is to be increased by the addition of a de- partment for the manufacturing of chairs in large quantity, the expectation and intention of the proprietor being to make it the largest establishment of the kind in the State. In 1849 Mr. Walker was married to Miss Nancy Emerson, a native of Morgan County, Ohio, and to these has been born one daughter, now living. Mrs. Walker and her daughter are communicants in the Presbyterian Church. In the summer of 1882 Mr. Walker purchased the property known as the Dawson residence, at the corner of Chillicothe and Detroit Streets, in Bellefontaine, and has fitted it up in fine style for the home of himself and family as their present and future residence.
CUNNINGHAM, THEODORE E., a distinguished lawyer of Lima, was born in Wayne County, Ohio, October 3Ist, 1830. His paternal ancestors were Scotch-Irish; and his mother, whose maiden name was Anna Ewalt, was descended of Huguenots, of that part of France on the Rhine. Both of Mr. Cunningham's parents were Pennsylvanians-one a na- tive of Washington, and the other of Bedford County, in that State. His father, Dr. William Cunningham, moved to Ohio in 1802. He was a practicing physician, and for a number of years was located in Wayne County, but became perma- nently settled at Lima, and died there when the subject of this sketch was twelve years old. At the age of sixteen, hav- ing acquired a fair education in the common schools of the place, young Cunningham was apprenticed to the printer's trade, and for three years he worked on the Kalida Ven- ture, an enterprising weekly newspaper published in Putnam County, and edited by James Mackenzie, subsequently Judge Mackenzie, of the Second Judicial District. During all these years Theodore had free access to Mackenzie's library, and che profited by it, in devoting his leisure time to constant and judicious reading. He was an occasional contributor of the Venture, and closed his relations with it to become associate. editor of the Lima Argus. With a predilection for the law, which was encouraged by his friends, Mr. Cunningham en- tered upon a course of studies under the direction of Nichols & Waldorf-a leading law firm of Lima. In 1855 he was ad- mitted to the bar, and soon acquired the reputation of being an active, industrious, and painstaking lawyer, a captivating speaker, and a successful jury advocate. During the civil war Mr. Cunningham rendered the government efficient service as Board of Enrollment Commissioner, and he dis- charged the duties of Assessor of Internal Revenue (a position which he also held) with fearless impartiality and strict up- rightness. In 1873 he was elected to the Constitutional Con- vention, was a prominent member of that body, took an active part in all of its deliberations, and he labored earnestly for what was for the best interest of Allen County and the State at large. In religious faith Mr. Cunningham is a Presbyterian ; but, though a consistent adherent of the Church of his fore-
fathers, he abstains from meddling with the opinions or de- votional methods of others, and recognizes in his neighbor the right to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience. On the subject of slavery, he found his creed embodied in the Ordinance of 1787, and in the Wilmot Pro- viso. And when the Kansas-Nebraska bill became a law he withdrew from the Democratic party, to which he had always been attached, and went over to the people who openly de- clared for freedom in the Territories. He entered enthu- siastically into the campaign of 1854, stumped the country for Judge Swan and the anti-Nebraska State ticket; and dis- posing of his interest in the Lima Argus, projected and estab- lished a new paper, which he named the People's Press. He was editor of this paper, and it became the recognized ex- ponent of the Free-soil movement, and it was a vigorous and effective opponent of the Know-nothings. In 1855-a year before Fremont was nominated for President-Mr. Cunning- ham was at the head of ar party in Allen County which had already framed a declaration of principles relative to the ex- tension of slavery, and put in nomination a ticket called "Republican ticket," which received two hundred votes. But although this ticket was defeated, yet its supporters felt, perhaps, pardonable pride when they afterward reflected that, substantially, the principles enunciated in their platform and the name they gave their ticket were the same adopted by the first National Republican Convention, of 1856, and reaffirmed in 1860, making them, as it were, the advance guard or harbinger of the Republican party. Upon the question arising: Were the lately seceded States out of the Union, or in it? Mr. Cunningham strenuously combated the idea that the South had forfeited their State rights and must be dealt with as Territories, and he maintained that it was as much the duty of the people to oppose the encroachment of the federal government upon the States, as it was their duty to oppose the encroachment of the States upon the federal government. Slavery was declared abolished, and in 1866 Mr. Cunningham was appointed a delegate to the Philadel- phia Convention. He had never renounced the doctrine of State rights (not State sovereignty), nor any of the funda- mental principles of the Democracy, and finding so many of his late opponents, and others, with sentiments like his - own, declared in Convention, that "it was not far from Philadelphia to the Democratic party." Slavery out of the way, Mr. Cunningham renewed allegiance to his party of former days, and has ever since been in accord with its principles and purposes, except in the year 1873, when he was an active promoter of what was known as the "Allen County movement," which had for its object a general re- form of political action, a correction of the abuses and cor- ruption in national and State affairs. In February, 1855, Mr. Cunningham was married to Elizabeth S. Hyat, daughter of Philip Hyat, of Mount Vernon, Ohio, and has had six children-all living-five sons and one daughter. After nearly thirty years of continuous application to business, Mr. Cunningham is still devoted to his profession, and, associated with his son, Will. Cunningham, who is a member of the bar, attends to a large and lucrative practice.
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