USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume II > Part 36
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pal office nor an official position in connection with his pro- fession. He has, however, taken an active interest in every thing pertaining to the public welfare, and was for nine years director of Longview Asylum. He has for many years lived at Woodburn, and was for several years Mayor of that suburban city, until it was included in the corporation of Cincinnati. General Bates was married May 8th, 1844, to Miss Elizabeth Dwight Hoadly, daughter of George and Mary A. Hoadly, of Cleveland, and sister of Hon. George Hoadly, of Cincinnati. Five children have been born of the union. Clement, the oldest, is now a prominent attorney of Cincinnati ; Charles, a practical civil engineer, of New York ; William, a patent lawyer, of Chicago ; Merrick L., in Europe, pursuing his literary studies ; and James, a student of the School of Technology, at Boston.
HATHAWAY, JAMES, pioneer settler and land-owner, was born January 1, 1799, at Fall River, Massachusetts, and died at Savannah, Illinois, June 16th, 1868. His land invest- ments were in the States of Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin. The Hathaways are of Welsh descent. Originally three brothers of the name came in the eighteenth century to Mas- sachusetts, of whom one went to Bangor, Maine, one to Fall River, Massachusetts, and the third to near Cazenovia, New York. All the Hathaways in the United States can be traced to these brothers. James Hathaway, the youngest of nine children, in the year 1816, went from his native town to Ohio, walking the whole distance. His first engagement was help- ing to chop the timber down that then covered what is now the public square of Chardon. For several years he struggled to live, and seemed to be the victim of fire, having been burned out of house and home on more than one occasion. The wages of a year's labor carefully laid by to purchase land he lost in this manner. At length fortune ceased to persecute him, and he began to acquire as a farmer a comfortable live- lihood. He engaged in the manufacture of potash for ex- portation, and also in the production of a primitively woven cloth, used in those days to clothe workingmen. He also owned and operated a grist-mill, and for a short time in part- nership with a Mr. Morey, engaged in the business of a general merchant. Elected county commissioner, he became also fund commissioner for the county of Geauga, and re- ceived its portion of the surplus revenue of the United States government that, under the law introduced and advocated by Henry Clay, was divided among the different States. In 1848, he was elected sheriff of Geauga county, and reelected in 1850, serving in this office four years. He also held other offices in Geauga county, and in Illinois, and was police judge of the city of Savannah at the time of his death. In partner- ship with Lewis Elliott, in 1850, he went into a general pen- sion and bounty land agency, and prosecuted this business during ten years with great energy, thereby securing the bounty of the government to many needy persons, whose claims in many instances had been rejected for want of the required proof. In 1862, he removed to Savannah, Illinois, where he died. He was well known as an independent, fear- less, energetic man, who successfully completed whatever he undertook, with a mind for large enterprises, and the happy faculty of convincing people of his perfect sincerity. A mem- ber of the Disciples' church, he was a zealous Christian. Originally a whig, then a free-soiler, he died an ardent repub- lican. On the 6th August, 1826, he married Miss Miranda Ashley, a native of Springfield, Massachusetts.
RENICK, WILLIAM, of Circleville, Ohio, was the second child of George Renick, whose sketch may be found in a preceding page of this work, containing a brief geneal- ogy of the Renick family. William Renick was born on the 12th of November, 1804, at Chillicothe. After receiving an ordinary education at the neighboring school, he was to have entered the Transylvania University, of Lexington, Kentucky, an event for which he had been preparing for two years previous. But his father's health being delicate, and having a large business to superintend, he concluded that he could not do without William's assistance. Consequently, in com- pliance with his father's wishes, he at once, at the early age of fifteen, entered upon an active business career, and con- tinued for five years and a half to assist his father in the management of his extensive business, except during a few months, when he attended school to review and partially complete his elementary mathematical studies. In the spring of 1820 he. commenced business on his own account as a farmer, including the raising, grazing, and feeding of cattle, and continued that business upon a very extensive scale up to the time of his death, which occurred on the 17th of May, 1881. He was married on the 8th of May, 1827, to Miss Jane Sterling Boggs. She died August 5th, 1841, leaving one child, a son, who died February 18th, 1855, aged twenty- eight years, unmarried. His second wife was Mrs. Sarah B. Delano neé Denny, youngest daughter of General James Denny. She died without issue June 10th, 1873. On the 30th of July, 1874, he was again married, to Miss Josie Pearce, daughter of Mr. Lewis Pearce, of Lancaster, Ohio, who survived him. Making his home in Circleville, Ohio, Mr. Renick interested himself very largely in the importation of English fine stock into this country, and was one of the oldest drovers west of the mountains. He purchased and brought from Texas at one time twelve hundred head of cattle, as early as 1854, which was the first large lot of Texas cattle ever brought north. He wrote some able arti- cles on the early cattle trade and other kindred subjects, and also contributed some very valuable articles to the Cin- cinnati Gazette and other papers, which have been collected and published in a handsome volume, entitled "Memoirs and Correspondence of William Renick."
VANMETER, JOHN INSKEEP, lawyer and legis- lator, was born in February, 1798, in Hardy County, Vir- ginia. His grandfather, Gariet Vanmeter, was one of three brothers who emigrated from Holland, and settled in New York in the latter part of the seventeenth century, and re- moved from there to Virginia, with a colony of thirty families, receiving from the colonial legislature (for planting the col- ony) the grant of a large tract of land. His father, Isaac Vanmeter, a farmer, and his mother, Elizabeth Inskeep, were both living in Hardy County at the time of the birth of the subject of this memoir. Mr. Vanmeter received his prelim- inary education at one of the common country schools, until, at an early age, he was sent to William and Mary College, at that time the most noted institution of learning in the State. He remained there a little over a year, and then entered Princeton College, New Jersey, where he graduated in 1821. Having chosen the legal profession, he commenced the study of the law, in the school of Judge Gould, at Litchfield, Con- necticut, and continued there until he finished his preparation for the bar. In the year 1824, he was admitted a member of the Virginia bar, and immediately commenced practice at
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Moorefield, the county seat of Hardy County. He continued his practice until the fall of 1826, when he retired from the profession, and removed to Pike County, Ohio, where he owned a farm which his father had purchased at the land sales in 1801. He resided at his farm until the spring of 1855, when he removed to Chillicothe, and continued to live there until his death, in August, 1875. From the time he left Virginia he was never engaged in any business except farming, in which pursuit he was very successful, and accu- mulated a handsome fortune, which he bequeathed to his chil- dien. In the year 1824 he was elected to the House of Delegates of Virginia, from his native county. In 1836 and following year he represented, with Daniel Ott and James Hughes, the counties of Ross, Pike, and Jackson, in the State Legislature, and from 1837 to 1839 he represented the same counties in the Senate. He was elected, by the Whigs, as one of the Presidential Electors in 1840, and was also a Member of Congress from 1843 to 1845. In politics he was a Whig, until the dissolution of that party, and afterward voted with the Democrats, but he never formed any political connection after the Whig party had dissolved. He died regretted and beloved by all who knew him, and has left as a sacred legacy to his children and friends, as well as to the State he loved so well, the memory of his virtuous life and honorable record. He was married on the 11th of April, 1826, to Mary, the daughter of Joseph Harness, who was one of the earliest settlers of the Scioto Valley. Of his children, two alone survive. One of them, J. M. Vanmeter, followed the profession of his father, and as a lawyer attained prominence at the Ross County bar. He was appointed Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, in January, 1876, but has since retired, and now devotes his time to the management of his estate.
AXWORTHY, COLONEL THOMAS, Cleveland, iron and coal merchant, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, June IIth, 1836. His parents, Thomas and Anna (Anthony) Axworthy came from Devonshire, England, about the year 1830. The family is an old and respected one, who can trace their lineage back in a direct line to the time of William the Conqueror. The parents of Mr. Axworthy were in moder- ate circumstances, his education was obtained in public schools in the suburbs of his native town of Philadelphia. At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to William Struthers and Son, a large firm of stone cutters and builders, of Phila- delphia. After completing his five years of apprenticeship, he continued in the employ of the firm for another year. He was a first-class workman, earning good wages, but aimed at something higher. In 1858, he induced a well- known Democratic politician of that day to loan him five hundred dollars, with which he purchased a milk route, and embarked in business on his own account. Within two years, he not only repaid the borrowed money, but sold the busi- ness for about a thousand dollars, after which he accepted a position with a passenger railway company. A little later he resigned this, to accept a responsible place offered by his political friends in the Philadelphia gas department, the gas works then being owned and operated by the city. In 1857 he became connected with the Philadelphia fire department, being an active and honorary member of the West Phila- delphia, and the Columbia engine companies for eleven years, holding various offices in them. During that time he was also an active political worker in the interests of the Demo-
cratic party, helping many friends to office, but asking none for himself. In 1863, while still holding his position in the gas department, he assisted in raising a regiment, and saw considerable service, being mustered out at Harrisburg in 1864. The political complexion of affairs in Philadelphia changing, he was asked to hand over his office to a Repub- lican in 1864. He was then offered, and accepted the charge of the retail and shipping business of the Powelton Coal and Iron Company, at West Philadelphia and Greenwich, a position of great responsibility, the firm at the time being one of the largest miners and shippers in the East. In 1867, this firm sent him to Buffalo as its agent to establish a west- ern business. After remaining at Buffalo a short time, and becoming acquainted with the lakes and the Northwest, he decided that Cleveland was the most suitable point at which to establish the business, and so informed his employers, who followed his advice, and directed him to remove to that city, which he did in the spring of 1868, and settled with his family on Franklin Avenue, West Side, where he still resides. His wisdom in selecting Cleveland has been amply demon- strated, for he has built up a business in bituminous coal equal, if not superior to any on the chain of lakes. He is also largely interested in iron mines in the Lake Superior region, in vessel property, and in numerous other of the healthy and progressive enterprises which have made Cleve- land a great and prosperous city-a man often sought for, though never seeking public office. He was one of the most valuable members of the Board of Health during the admin- istration of Mayor Payne; and in the spring of 1883 the pressure brought to bear on him was so strong that he con- sented to his nomination for city Treasurer, to which office he was elected by a majority of about 3,400, in a district which had hitherto for many years elected a Republican by an overwhelming majority. The number of Republican votes cast for him was a flattering proof of his personal popularity. And further evidence of the esteem in which he was held is found in the number and standing of the gentlemen who volunteered to go on his bond, particularly as a new law had so largely increased the bond, and he requiring an aggregate bond as city Treasurer, and Treasurer of the School Board of $900,000. The gentlemen who voluntarily stepped forward as his bondsmen represented a capital of about $25,000,000. He entered upon his office as city Treasurer April 20th, 1883. He is a man justly proud of his record as an honorable, upright, honest, correct, and successful busi- ness man, one whose integrity has never been impugned, and who enjoys the confidence of all. Mr. Axworthy was married in Philadelphia in 1858, to Rebecca, daughter of William Barrett, Esq., of West Philadelphia. They have had born to them four daughters, three of whom are now (1883) married.
RENICK, JOSIAH, is the second son of George and Dorothy Renick, of Chillicothe, Ohio. He was born on the 18th of April, 1807, and was educated at the Chillicothe Academy. Afterward, until his twentieth year, he was on his father's farm, assisting him, and from that year until his .twenty-fifth he carried on, in connection with his father, the business of the farm, riding thousands of miles on horseback, purchasing cattle and selling them in the Eastern markets of New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. In the winter of 1834 the Ohio Importing Company was formed, its object being to import to this country from England the finest
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cattle that could be found there, for breeding purposes. Felix Renick was appointed the agent of this company, and he appointed as his assistants his nephew, Josiah Renick, the subject of this sketch, and E. T. Harness, to aid him in his selections. They landed at Liverpool on the 24th of March, 1834, and after examining all the various breeds of British stock, decided to purchase only the short-horn race, which they did, and of the very best, without regard to price. Felix Renick says, in writing to a friend: "We pur- chased the very best we could find, and if our selections were not of the very best, all we have to say is, we erred in judg- ment." Josiah Renick was married to Mary Osborn, eldest daughter of Ralph Osborn, of Columbus, Ohio, in October, 1837. Mr. Osborn served the State of Ohio as State Auditor eighteen years, and two terms in the State Senate. Mr. Renick and wife are members of the Presbyterian Church, and in politics are Republican.
DENISON, AMOS, was born at Parma, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, on the IIth of October, 1849, and is a de -. scendant of the oldest of New England families, his father being Amos E. W. Denison, originally of Stonington, Con- necticut, and his mother, Mary M., daughter of John Dexter, of Vermont. The early portion of his life, as is the case with so large a proportion of our successful business and professional men, was spent upon the farm, where amid its invigorating labors, genial influences, and sturdy discipline he laid the foundation of an active and useful life, and cul- tivated those sterling qualities of character which distinguish the man and the lawyer. Manifesting at an early age an unusual aptitude for study and application, and gifted with ready powers of perception and a broad mental grasp, he passed through the grades of the public schools in quick succession, and at the age of fourteen was entered as a student at the Cleveland Institute. Here he spent several years in arduous study, graduating from that institution in 1869, with the highest honors of his class. After two years more profitably employed in study and travel, he commenced to prepare himself for his chosen vocation, the profession of the law (the wisdom of his choice having been fully demon- strated by his subsequent success therein) in the office of Messrs. Palmer & De Wolf, one of the most prominent firms in the city. After reading with them, he took a full course at the University of Michigan, where he graduated in 1872. Admitted to the bar the same year, he immediately entered upon the active practice of the law, as the junior partner in the firm of Wyman, Hamilton & Denison. Rapidly advancing in his profession he continued in this relation for four years, at which time a dissolution was caused by the retirement of the senior partner, and the election of Mr. Hamilton to the bench. In 1876 he formed a partnership with John W. Tyler, which has continued until the present time. As a lawyer, Mr. Denison has won for himself, and by his own exertions, an enviable position in the community and at the bar. Possessing rare natural endowments united with close habits of industry and perseverance, and a character above reproach, he has steadfastly advanced to a position where he is recognized as one of the most gifted and promising of the younger generation of his profession. His abilities and acquirements, however, are not wholly restricted to his call- ing. His education, scholastic habits, and refined intellect have naturally incited him to literary work and journalism, to which he has devoted some of his best energies, and in which
he has gained considerable distinction, as a fluent speaker and lecturer, and a graceful and vigorous writer. Well improved opportunities, at home and in foreign countries, have added in many ways to his accomplishments in the various branches of art and literature. His social nature and public spirit lead him to take an active part in public affairs. During the last six years he has been the corresponding secretary of the Cleveland Bar Association. He is secretary of the Michi- gan University Alumni Association, and secretary and treas- urer of the lately organized Cleveland Law College. In pol- itics he has always been a consistent and active Republican, and at the last convention was a prominent candidate for the State Senate. Mr. Denison has a prepossessing personal ap- pearance, a fine physique and manner, a refined and intellect- ual face, a sympathetic and generous nature, and a winning address. As would be expected, he is favored with an ex- tended acquaintance and many personal friends, who regard him with esteem and honor, and who predict for him a dis- tinguished and brilliant future.
CLARK, JAMES F., of Cleveland, Ohio, was born at Cooperstown, New York, March 7th, 1809. His parents were Cyrus and Annie Clark, and his mother was a niece of the celebrated Jonathan Trumbull, of Connecticut, better known as "Brother Jonathan." After receiving a common school education he devoted himself to the profession of an engraver, being engaged at Albany, New York, and New York City, with Rawdon, Clark & Co. and Rawdon, Wright & Hatch, out of which grew the American Bank Note Com- pany. As an engraver he was with them from 1824 to 1833, when he removed to Cleveland, and engaged in the hard- ware business. He speedily became one of Cleveland's rising, successful, and prosperous men. At the time of his arrival Cleveland was but a village, and in her wonderful development he has been largely instrumental, Cleveland now being the eleventh city in the Union in population. He soon connected himself with various railroad and coal mining operations and banking. He has been a director of the Cleveland and Pittsburg Railroad Company from its organi- zation ; vice-president and director of the New York, Penn- sylvania and Ohio Railroad Company from its organization, of which road, as the Atlantic and Great Western, he had previously been an efficient member of the executive com- mittee, and for a portion of the time president. He is a director of the Sharon Railroad Company, of Pennsylvania ; president of the Ohio and Pennsylvania Coal Company, and was a director of the Merchants' National Bank, of Cleveland, from its organization until August, 1878. His political affili- ation is with the Republican party. He has been a mem- ber of the First Presbyterian Church, of Cleveland, for many years, and one of its trustees. He was married October Ist. 1834, to Miss Eliza Murfey. From the time of his arrival in Cleveland Mr. Clark has taken a leading position as a citi- zen and merchant. Upright and straightforward in all his dealings, his word is as good as his bond; his credit always of the highest order ; his education of an excellent character. He has always been a great reader and careful student of the time, and highly successful in his business operations. His life has been noted for special acts of benevolence and lib- erality. To the Church he has maintained a character for faithful service, and is always found at his post of duty. Modest and retiring in disposition, shrinking from all public notice, yet he has maintained in the mercantile, banking,
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and railroad interests of the city a most distinguished place, and his influence has been wide-spread and of great value to all the corporations with which he has been identified. He is singularly refined, dignified, and retiring in manner, and is remarkable for the intellectual grace of head and face, and for his personal dignity of manner and address. He is a man held in the highest estimation by all who have the honor of his acquaintance.
RANNEY, JUDGE RUFUS P., LL.D., Cleveland, Ohio, was born in Hampden County, Massachusetts, October 30th, 1813. His father, who was a farmer, removed with his family, in the fall of 1824, to Freedom, Portage County, Ohio, the country at the time being the unbroken forest, so thickly inhabited by wild beasts as to render life dangerous, and the rearing of domestic animals almost an impossibility. Here the subject of our sketch devoted himself, for six years, to the arduous toil of clearing the forest. An irresistible desire to obtain an education, warmly indorsed by his parents, led to his leaving home. He chopped cord-wood for a merchant to pay for a Latin dictionary and a "Virgil." Thus pre- pared, he commenced study with Dr. Bassett, of Nelson. After remaining with him for a considerable time, he entered Western Reserve College, supporting himself by manual labor and two terms of teaching school. In the spring of 1834, by the advice of an old college friend, he was induced to go with him to Ashtabula County and read law. There he remained two and a half years. The study of jurisprudence as a science was so exactly suited to his tastes that a constant incentive existed to master its fundamental principles, which he accomplished so thoroughly as to account for the ease and readiness with which he has ever used them. In the fall of 1836 he was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court, and soon after located at Warren, Trumbull County, where he commenced practice. In the ensuing winter the firm of Giddings & Wade being dissolved, by Mr. Giddings being elected to Congress, at the earnest request of his old pre- ceptor, Mr. Wade, he returned to Jefferson, and formed with him the partnership of Wade & Ranney, which lasted for ten years, until Mr. Wade was elected a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas. During this period he married a daughter of Judge Jonathan Warner, and in 1845 again took up his residence in Warren. The firm of Wade & Ranney was noted for the extent of its business. Neither did they neglect their political duties. Mr. Ranney, from his majority, was an ardent Democrat, of the Jefferson and Jackson school, and without a thought for his personal interests or prospects, he cast his lot with the small minority then comprising the party in that part of Ohio, and at once became one of the leading advocates of its doctrines. Without any hope of local preferment, it was nevertheless a settled principle with the leaders that in aid of the general State ticket the best local nominations should be made, and that those who urged others to stand by the cause should, without a murmur, take such positions as their associates assigned them. In accord- ance with this idea Mr. Ranney was first nominated for the State Senate, but was obliged to decline as he was not of an age to be constitutionally eligible. He was three times a candidate for Congress; once in 1842, in the Ashtabula dis- trict, and in 1846 and 1848 in the Trumbull district. His exertions were not limited to law and politics. He became a French scholar; he constantly reads French newspapers and the solid literary and scientific publications of French authors.
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