USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume II > Part 47
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and finally succeeded in carrying. He has always taken a leading part in the city improvements. It was due to his efforts that the legislature ceded to Cincinnati that portion of the canal extending from Broadway to the Ohio river, and the city council appropriately recognized this service by unanimously naming the street constructed over the sewer constructed through it "Eggleston avenue," in accordance with a suggestion coming from the legislature. In 1864 he was elected to Congress from the first Ohio district, defeating his democratic opponent by over 3,000 majority, though the district had been considered democratic. In 1866 he was unanimously nominated for reelection by the republican party, and was elected; his opponent this time being Hon. George H. Pendleton. His career in Congress was charac- terized by the same fearless ability which he had exhibited in the discharge of his other official duties. He drew and ob- tained the passage of the bill making Cincinnati a port of entry, and secured the first national appropriation for the en- largement of the Louisville canal. He stood firmly by his conviction of right and justice, during the impeachment of Andrew Johnson; and gave unremitting attention to secur- ing the back-pay of soldiers, and the pensions of the widows and orphans of those who had sacrificed their lives for the Union. In 1868 he was renominated by the republicans, but General Peter W. Strader, his opponent, succeeded in secur- ing the seat. Mr. Eggleston, however, did not relax his efforts for the promotion of the interests of his former con- stituency. He was largely interested in the Cincinnati Chronicle Company previous to its purchase of the Cincinnati Times in 1872, and consequently became a heavy stock- holder in the later Times Company, of which he was elected president from its organization. He sold out his interest in this company in 1878. In 1875 he was reelected to the board of councilmen, and is one of the most active members of the Chamber of Commerce. He was a Senator from the First District (Hamilton County) in the General Assembly of Ohio for the session of 1880-81, where he carefully looked after the interests of the State, and especially those of his con- stituency in Cincinnati. He is at present engaged in the pork-packing and commission business, in the firm of which he has for so long a time been a member. He resides in a beautiful and retired home on Walnut Hills, where he dis- penses his hospitality with no grudging hand. His inter- course with his fellow-men is marked by that frank and generous manner that leaves no doubt in the mind of any as to his real feelings and motives; and his speeches, like all his actions, possess that nervous energy that seldom fails to accomplish the desired result. Mr. Eggleston married at Cleveland, Ohio, in 1837, Miss L. M. Wagar, who died in 1864, leaving him two children. In April, 1867, he married Miss Mary E. Davis, daughter of the late John H. Davis, of Cincinnati, who also has borne him children.
WHITE, JAMES S., lawyer and horticulturist, was born in Cumminsville, Hamilton County, Ohio, May 5th, 1816. He is descended from Edward White, of Somerset County, New Jersey, who figured in Revolutionary times, and was the father of four sons and one daughter-Captain Jacob White and his brothers Amos, Ithamar, and Edward, and Elizabeth White. At an early day the family removed to Washington County, Pennsylvania, where three sons grew to manhood, before the Declaration of Independence was adopted. They encountered the harassing life of frontiersmen, as well as
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participated in the sanguinary conflicts for American Inde- pendence. About the year 1788 Captain White was one of the earliest settlers in the Miami Valley. White's station was a block-house, built by him in 1792, upon the site where Carthage now stands, in Hamilton County, and was one of the centers of the settlement in that valley. He died in Gallatin County, Kentucky, July 20th, 1849, in the ninety- third year of his age. Amos White, his brother, and grand- father of J. S. White, settled upon a farm between Glendale and Sharon, in Hamilton County, Ohio, where he reared a family of eleven children, of whom may be named Benjamin, who was the father of James S., his only child. He died at the age of twenty-four, when his son was only five months old. He had previously served in the war of 1812, when he contracted typhoid fever, from which he never fully recovered. He belonged to Hull's army, and served six months. In 1814 he was married to Miss Mary Smith, of Laurels, Virginia, then living in Hamilton County, with whom he lived only eighteen months before his death. She was a cousin of the late Hon. Thaddeus Stevens, Representative from Pennsyl- vania. She was born March 25th, 1793, and came from Pennsylvania when but a child. She was afterward mar- ried to Joseph Ludlow, a prominent member of the Methodist Church. He died in 1862. In 1816 she was converted at a camp-meeting, held by Rev. Russel Bigelow, and continued for fifty-one years a faithful Christian, when she died in the seventy-fourth year of her age. She taught her son, James S., the alphabet by directing his attention to the initial letters of chapters in the Bible. Mr. White is a self-made man. His step-father, who was a builder, chose for him the same occupation, a trade too heavy and irksome for one of his physical abilities. He learned the trade, and in his early years worked vigorously at it. There are houses standing in Madisonville which he helped to build. Being of studious habits and endowed with quick perceptions, he was earnestly advised by Dr. John Jewett, for whom he was then working as a carpenter, to study medicine as a profession. He accord- ingly studied medicine with him until the doctor's death, which interrupted his further prosecution of study in that di- rection. He was then advised by Dr. Alexander Duncan to study law ; but feeling the need of a collegiate education, before entering upon that profession, he determined to enter Miami University. For the purpose of enabling him to do so, he worked at his trade to earn the money for his tuition. He entered college at great disadvantage on this account, but by working during vacations, and by native determina- tion and tenacity, he accomplished his purpose, and finished his course in 1841. He began the study of the law, but was compelled to labor at his trade to help him through. He studied with Judge Joseph Cox and the late Henry Snow, of Cincinnati. In 1846 he was admitted to the bar, after a creditable examination, and immediately entered upon the practice of his profession, and is now one of the most useful and valuable members of the bar. His specialty is the set- tlement of estates, and his honesty, faithfulness, intelligence, and promptitude have given him an enviable reputation in this line, and brought him many valuable clients. His dis- charge of business, in which he displays the qualities of a safe counselor and trustee, insures his re-employment by all those who once intrust him with such matters. Mr. White was married in 1846 to Sarah A. Stewart, daughter of Benjamin and Hannah Stewart, early pioneers of this county. He is the father of six living children, two sons and four daughters.
His son, Benjamin S. White, the oldest, is a lawyer. The younger son, J. S. White, Jr., manifests an inclination for general business pursuits. Mr. White has always taken an interest in horticulture and fruit growing. His residence is beautifully situated on a plat of several acres of land, in Madisonville. He has been an active member of the Cin- cinnati Horticultural Society, and American Wine Growers' Association for many years. He is hospitable and generous, and stands high in the esteem of his fellow-men. His life has been an honorable and useful one, and few men to-day surpass him in the quality of imparting pleasure to others by conversation and the hospitalities he so cheerfully accords his friends at his fireside or wherever he may be met in social or business circles.
WOOD, WILLIAM, President of the Eagle White Lead Company, Cincinnati, Ohio, has been one of the leading mer- chants and manufacturers of that city for the last fifty years. About the year 1800 his father, the late Captain Ebenezer Wood, lived in a red brick mansion of his own construction, upon the east bank of Hudson River, in Dutchess County, State of New York. It was surrounded by about ten acres of land, consisting of orchards, meadows, and woodland. From its porch could be seen the Hudson, moving in majesty, in the midst of scenery unsurpassed for its natural loveliness, beyond it meadows and woodlands rising and rising, until in the distance they culminated in the blue-robed summits of the Catskill Mountains. Here lived Captain Ebenezer Wood, engaged partly in merchandizing, and partly in running a line of sloops between Rhinebeck Landing and the City of New York, carrying live stock, produce, etc. for his neighboring customers to that market, and selling the same on commission for them. In the midst of this enchanting scenery, and to pa- rents thus living and employed, Mr. William Wood was born September 18th, 1808. His residence now is Woodlawn, a lovely homestead, situated in the midst of eighteen acres, upon East Walnut Hills, one of the most beautiful suburbs of Cincinnati, at whose southern base flows the Ohio River, with a far view southwardly, recalling in striking resemblance the unforgotten scenery around the home of his childhood. In this sketch we purpose to trace only the principal events in his life, from the time Mr. Wood left that old homestead upon the Hudson until he founded this beautiful home upon the Ohio. Until he was fourteen years of age he lived there, drinking in that fresh, invigorating air; playing upon the banks of that river, fishing in its waters from a favorite pro- jecting rock (now a portion of the road-bed of the Hudson River Railroad) ; cultivating fish in a self-constructed dam across the outlet of a bountiful spring; eating fruit from trees-especially the green gage-that embowered the old home, and the taste of which yet lingers in imagination upon his tongue ; in skating upon that river-an accomplishment that afterward contributed to his pleasure when he had be- come a youthful resident of Cincinnati; in attendance upon the neighboring schools and churches; in occasional trips down the Hudson with his father to New York, upon.one of which he took his first salt-water bath, and saw the Firefly, one of the first steamboats that navigated that river. His father was an active, public-spirited citizen, as may be inferred, and as such belonged to the De Witt Clinton party, as distin- guished from the "Buck Tails," in the matter of public im- provements. He favored the canal projects of that day. He was also a man who had succeeded in acquiring some prop-
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erty. Besides the mansion on the Hudson, he owned private residences, and wharf-houses, and stores. In 1822 he ex- changed his property at Rhinebeck and -Long Dock for two thousand five hundred acres of land in Athens County, Ohio, six hundred and fifty acres of which were included in the tract belonging to the Ohio University, and located in that county. Upon doing so he determined to emigrate to Ohio. He first moved to Albany, New York. There he remained one year, during which he completed his prepara- tions to move. Captain Wood proceeded with all his family (excepting his brother-in-law, Mr. Samuel Spencer, and young William) by canal to Olean Point, on the head-waters of the Alleghany River. The household furniture, and the stock of dry goods, groceries, etc., which were to constitute the stock- in-trade of a store in the new country, were loaded in two wagons, one of which was placed in charge of young Will- iam, and the other of his uncle, Spencer. These they drove to the same point, where the whole family became re- united, and remained two weeks, in which time two boats were built for the purpose of navigation to place of destina- tion. They first stopped at Marietta, with a view to settle- ment; but almost immediately afterward proceeded to Cin- cinnati, where they arrived Christmas eve, 1822. The father at once engaged in the dry goods business, upon Lower Market, then the principal business street of Cincinnati. At that time that city had a population not much in excess of ten thousand. All the present limits west of Main and north of Seventh Streets-excepting the St. Clair mansion-was farm land; while upon the hills beyond-now crowned with magnificent residences and pleasure resorts-young Will- iam hunted squirrels and trapped for quails, little dream- ing that he should one day live in such a home as he now owns, perhaps upon the very spot where his youthful footsteps wandered nearly sixty years ago. Some time after- ward his father bought a vacant lot, thirty feet in front, upon the south-east corner of Sixth and Race Streets, in that city, for which he paid one hundred and ten dollars, in dry goods out of his store. This was thought to be an extravagant price. Upon it he built a house, which is still standing. He sold it afterward for twenty-nine hundred dollars. The father gave young William this money with which to start in busi- ness for himself. And thereupon he purchased a stock of goods, and leased the store containing them, upon the north- east corner of Sixth and Main, then belonging to the late R. .W. Lee, Esq. Here, in 1831, Mr. Wood first engaged in business as an auction and commission merchant, under the name of William Wood & Co. He subsequently removed to the old building that stood where Tyler Davidson's block now stands, upon Main Street below Fourth. Here he and his partner, George Pomeroy, transacted a large business in the auction and commission trade. At one time they sold an entire cargo of tea, consisting of one thousand packages, and vast quantities of boots and shoes. This required hard work. Often he and his partner were up until three and four o'clock in the morning, arranging and cataloguing their goods for the rush of each succeeding day. The next move was to Main, above Fourth, where he was the head of the well-remembered firm of Wood, Lockwood & Co., which transacted a dry goods business exclusively, operating in connection with a branch house in New York, known as Lockwood & Co. Upon the dissolution thereof Mr. Wood commenced in the auction and commission business again, on Pearl Street-this time as Hopper, Wood & Co., which
continued until 1843, when Mr. Wood withdrew, and formed a partnership with Edgar Conkling, then engaged in the manufacture of white lead, where their present factory is lo- cated. Some time afterward Mr. Conkling withdrew. Then the firm of William Wood & Co. was formed, to carry on the same business. In 1853 some of the factory buildings were destroyed by fire, but were immediately rebuilt upon the same ground. They are known as Nos. 20, 22, and 24 Spring Street. In 1867 "The Eagle White Lead Company" was organized under the laws of Ohio, with a capital of two hundred thousand dollars, of which Mr. Wood himself is president; his son, William C., is vice-president; and his son- in-law, Mr. John E. Douglass, is secretary and treasurer. This is the first company incorporated in that city for that purpose. At the head of this establishment we find Mr. Wood, closing a business career covering more than half a century, and which is remarkable alike for the energy with which it has been prosecuted, the integrity that has char- acterized and the success that has attended it. In addition to building up a large business which had a beneficial effect upon the commerce and industrial growth of that city, he has invested his means, from time to time, in substantial improvements. He built seven houses on the north-east corner of Fourth and Sycamore Streets, in that city; also the double residence upon Ellen and Third Streets, now owned and occupied (in part) by Joseph F. Larkin, Esq., his brother-in-law and president of the Cincinnati National Bank, and in which Mr. Wood's mother died, at the age of seventy- five, and afterward his father, Captain Wood, in his ninety- seventh year. Some of his early recollections are-skating upon the Ohio when it was frozen over in 1822-3, in com- pany with two others equally skilled, in view of thousands standing upon the river banks, in which it was thought they displayed wonderful agility ; seeing the landing of Lafayette, in 1824, and the grand ovation then tendered him ; going to New Orleans in a flat-boat, thereby missing the opportunity to accompany his father to Middletown, to meet his old friend, Governor De Witt Clinton, when he formally began work upon the Miami Canal; paying four cents per pound for butter and flour, and one dollar per hundred for pork and flour; riding to New York City and back in the old- fashioned stage coach; seeing and hearing some of the most distinguished preachers of the past generation, who were guests at his father's hospitable fireside, among whom may be named Bishop Joshua Soule, Bishop H. B. Bascom, Bishop Thomas A. Morris, William B. Christie, Edmund W. Sehon, John S. Inskip, Dr. Charles Elliott, James Quinn, Arthur W. Elliott, John N. Maffitt, Maxwell P. Gaddis, John A. Collins, John F. Wright, Granville Moody, Bishop D. W. Clark, and Bishop Edward Thomson. Mr. Wood married Miss Mary A. Hopper, April 8th, 1831. She was a daughter of the late Aaron Hopper, of Mount Washington. This venerable wife and mother still lives, the companion of his early and later years. They lived to observe in a quiet but memorable way their golden wedding. And these are the names of their chil- dren : Mary Elizabeth, now Mrs. James S. Burdsal; William Christie, vice-president of the Eagle White Lead Company, and who married Miss Fannie, a daughter of Captain John Good, formerly a prominent merchant in Cincinnati, but now of the State of California; Caroline Frances, intermarried with Mr. John E. Douglass, secretary and treasurer of the same company, and for fifteen years connected with John Shillito & Co .; Edmund Sehon, a gallant officer in the 4th Ohio Cav-
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alry during the late war, and serving as aide-de-camp upon the staff of Brigadier-general Eli Long, who married Lizzie Bowen; Charles H., who married Miss Sarah S. McKee; Alice S .; Virginia Trimble; and James Franklin. To these dutiful children as descendants may be added twenty-five grand-chil- dren and seven great-grandchildren. Mr. Wood has always taken a deep interest in educational matters. He was one of the originators and incorporators of Wesleyan Female College, and gave liberally to its endowment, and is now one of its trust- ees. Once upon a time a poor boy, with a bright face and fine head, at work in the Methodist Book Concern of Cin- cinnati, attracted the attention of Mr. Wood. Becoming more and more interested in him, he resolved to give him an opportunity to acquire a collegiate education, and thereupon placed him in the Ohio Wesleyan University, from which in time he graduated. He became a Methodist minister, sub- sequently a Doctor of Divinity, then United States minister at a foreign court-married, and thereby became a brother- in-law of General U. S. Grant. But for the observation and practical sympathy of Mr. Wood these honors might not have been won and worn so worthily by the Rev. Dr. M. J. Cramer. Mr. Wood is now president of the board of trustees, Walnut Hills Methodist Episcopal Church. When the Gen- eral Conference of that Church ordained that lay delegates should be admitted to its deliberations, Mr. Wood and the late Harvey De Camp were the first delegates from Cincin- nati thus permitted to take their seats in an annual con- ference in the State of Ohio. Mr. Wood joined the Meth- odist Episcopal Church in the winter of 1832-3, during a three months' revival, conducted by Rev. J. N. Maffitt, in Wesley Chapel, on Fifth Street in Cincinnati, Ohio. Since that time he has been an active, consistent, useful member thereof. For twenty-five years he was a class-leader; and for twenty years superintendent of its Sunday-school, and as such was conspicuously connected with the Hamilton County Sunday-school Union, visiting different localities and making addresses in behalf of the cause of the moral and religious welfare of the young. During his connection with his Sun- day-school many went from under the sound of his voice, with his prayers in their behalf tenderly cherished, with his example as a follower of his divine Master, and as a devout, unresting laborer in his vineyard, ever-remembered, into the Church-into the ministry-into the different secular callings of life-into the better land. It needs hardly be added that all of Mr. Wood's children are members in full connection with the same Church in which their father has worshipped and worked so long and faithfully. The cause of temperance has always had in him a powerful and prayerful friend, and at one time he was a candidate for the Ohio Legislature upon the temperance ticket. Thus has his life been twofold- while active and energetic in business he has also been active and energetic in matters that pertain to the highest and best interests of that community to whose material growth he contributed so largely. For more than fifty years he has been a builder-morally and spiritually, in a mer- cantile and in a political sense. He has seen that city radi- ate from the immediate banks of the Ohio, surmounting the hills or leveling them, until it threatens to be coextensive with Hamilton County as to its corporate lines. Thus that great and growing city has had in Mr. Wood one of its most useful as well as honorable citizens. And as the day of his earthly life goeth away, and the shadows of the evening are stretched out, there is falling upon his pathway a light that
shall grow brighter and brighter unto the perfect day, while within the " deep, still chambers of his soul" he doubtless hears a voice saying, "Well done, good and faithful servant." For of him it may likewise be said: "He is one who with every morning's light opened the Bible, that light from heaven might shine upon the sacred page, and formed his life by that perfect law; and who, however busy in doing whatever his hand found to do, kept his eye on the land that was very far off-who saw on the distant horizon the shining gates of the heavenly city --
""And nightly pitched his moving tent A day's march nearer home.'"
ESTEP, JOSIAH MORGAN, a lawyer of note, was born February 19th, 1829, in Washington County, Pennsyl- vania. His parents were James S. and Sarah (Gaston) Estep, both of English extraction. James S. was a physician, and represented the third generation of the family of Estep in America. Robert Estep was the first of the name to come to the United States, first settling in New Jersey, and remov- ing thence to Washington County, Pennsylvania. The family of Gaston were contemporaneous with the Esteps in their ap- pearance in this country. They also made their permanent settlement in Washington County, Pennsylvania, and entered lands adjoining those occupied by the Esteps. Our subject was taught the elementary branches in the common schools, and received his classical training at Washington (now Wash- ington and Jefferson) College, quitting the institution in 1850. The education there acquired was supplemented by private studies, diligently pursued at home. In 1852, having decided upon the law as his profession, he entered the law office of Hon. John P. Penny, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, to prepare for the bar. Shortly afterward, having occasion to visit his relative, Samuel P. Peppard, Esq., a lawyer in practice at Cadiz, Ohio, who was seriously ailing in health, he was per- suaded by him to continue his studies in his office. Mr. Peppard directed his readings until his admission to the bar, December, 1854. Shortly afterward Mr. Peppard died, when Mr. Estep succeeded to the practice. He early acquired prominence as a lawyer in Harrison County, and was em- ployed, on opposite sides, with John A. Bingham in all the important litigations tried in those courts for a number of years. He became justly recognized as a careful pleader, from the circumstance that out of a large number of ap- pealed cases, extending over the entire period of his prac- tice, the higher court seldom failed to sustain him. He was soon accorded by his legal brethren the prominence which the leadership of the bar confers; and he sustains that relation not only with reference to the personnel of the present bar of Cadiz, but as well as regards the composition of that bar ever since its organization, which has numbered among its members men of very extended reputations. The year 1869 was a period when the social status of the colored people, but recently radically changed, as a result of the late civil war, was not clearly defined or adjusted in the minds of the people. A case involving an alleged abuse of the special statute prohibiting intermarriage of the blacks with the whites was brought to trial before the Court of Common Pleas sitting at Cadiz. Mr. Estep was the only member of the bar who did not hesitate to undertake the defense, in the face of an excited mob, determined to take the prisoner's life. His determined defense of the accused, which secured an acquit- tal on technical grounds, in a trial by jury, was a circumstance
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