USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume II > Part 48
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which attracted wide attention, especially in the Southern States. His success as a lawyer extends to all parts of practice. Mr. Estep is Democratic in politics, and in his party connection is allied with the minority in his section. In 1868 he accepted a nomination for Congress, in opposition to John A. Bingham, and succeeded in reducing the usual Republican majority of two thousand votes to four hundred, in a hotly contested campaign, during which Mr. Estep ad- dressed sixty-six political meetings. The only other occasion on which Mr. Estep was induced to run for office was in 1871, for the Common Pleas Judgeship for his sub-district, in which he was defeated, though leading his ticket some five hundred votes, his successful competitor being Judge Miller, of Steu- benville. Considerable pressure was brought to bear to in- duce him to accept the Democratic nomination for Con- gress in his district, in 1882, it being thought that his great popularity would operate with the local disaffection in the Republican party to overcome the large Republican ma- jority in the Seventeenth District. He has persistently and consistently declined to entertain any project looking to his political advancement, preferring to occupy the less conspic- uous but no less honorable position in the public eye, that of an able and conscientious lawyer and good citizen. He was married September, 1857, to Amanda J. Crabb, and has had issue five children, namely: Charles J., lawyer ; Will- iam Gaston, student ; Josiah M., student ; Junius D .; and Miss Jenny. Mr. Estep is a member of the Presbyterian Church.
TURNEY, NELSON J., was born at Circleville, Ohio, November 7th, 1820, and was a direct lineal descendant of Daniel Turney, a French Huguenot, who, with two brothers, left behind them a considerable estate, fled from papal per- secution a few years before the revolution of the edict of Nantes, by Louis XIV, and landed in Philadelphia in 1668. That class of emigrants are well known to have contributed as much, if not more, in proportion to their numbers, to the culture and prosperity of the United States than any other. Wherever they settled, they became men of mark in their respective occupations and professions, and their good quali- ties have been transmitted to the fourth and fifth generations of their descendants. No less than three of the seven presi- dents of the Philadelphia convention during the war of the revolution, were of Huguenot parentage, to-wit: Henry Laurens, John Jay, and Elias Boudinot. Nelson's only brother, the late Dr. Samuel D. Turney, who died in Janu- ary, 1878, was an eminent man in his profession, and a sketch of whose life, including that of his father, will be found at another page. Educated at the public schools, and sub- sequently at the private academy of Dr. Washburn, in Blendon, Franklin county, Ohio, Nelson, by the death of his father, was thrown on his own resources. When fifteen years old he was employed as clerk in the Columbus post- office under Bela Latham, an old-time friend of his father, and the father of Hon. Milton L. Latham, one of the well-known California millionaires of the present time. In 1837 he entered the long established house of Fay, Kill- bourne & Co., of Columbus, of which firm the late Dr. Lin- coln Goodale was a member and the original founder. Here he remained until 1840, when, with his mother and her family, he returned to his native town and entered the estab- lishment of H. & W. Bell, where he remained until appoint- ed collector of tolls on the Ohio and Erie canal at Circleville, of the Interior, he visited and appraised the Cherokee lands.
in which position he continued until a political revolution rota- ted him out of office. In 1843 he entered the employ of the well- known firm of Neil, Moore & Co., stage-coach proprietors and mail contractors. A difficulty having occurred between the Ohio and Missouri stage companies, Mr. Turney was sent to Missouri with a full equipment of horses and coaches, to or- ganize and run an opposition line in that State. This prompt action of the powerful Ohio company brought the Missouri company to terms, and Mr. Turney had only reached Indian- apolis on his western trip, when he was ordered to the north and distributed the teams and coaches along the lake shore between Sandusky and Detroit, the office of the line being established at Toledo, where Mr. Turney remained in charge until the spring of 1844. He then returned to Columbus, remaining in the employ of the company until the succeeding year, when he removed to Philadelphia and entered the wholesale dry goods house of Miller, Cooper & Co., in whose . employ he continued until his return to Ohio the following year. He then married Miss Dorothea Renick, daughter of George Renick, Esq., of Chillicothe, and engaged in business on his own account at Circleville, where he remained until, having sold out, he removed to Chillicothe. . In 1850 he re- turned to Pickaway county, and engaged in farming upon an extensive scale, giving his attention more particularly to stock-feeding. Twenty years later, being desirous of retiring from active business, he sold his farm and removed to Circle- ville, where he erected the commodious and comfortable dwelling, where the widow now resides, surrounded by every comfort. Mr. Turney for many years exhibited a deep inter- est in, and was a member of the State Board of Agriculture from 1862 to 1870, and was its president in 1863-4. Few citizens of Ohio enjoyed in a greater degree the respect and esteem of the people of the State than Mr. Turney, and few were more worthy of confidence. He occupied many posi- tions of honor and trust, the duties of which he discharged with fidelity and rare good judgment, and, singularly, all of his more important positions were without any compensa- tion whatever for his services. By appointment of Governor Brough, Mr. Turney was a member of the military com- mittee of his county during the most trying period of the war, and he was one of the most devoted and unselfish of men in that position. Whitelaw Reid, in his "Ohio in the War," says of those committees : "The services of the military committees throughout the war were most valuable, as during all the years of the war there were enemies at home as well as at the front who had to be met and overcome." As a member of his county committee, Mr. Turney was actively engaged in providing for the equipment of the various con- tingents of troops which Pickaway county was called upon to supply, and otherwise sustaining the State executive in the darkest days of the civil war. He was one of those who at all times was as prompt and ready to obey the call of the governor as the good soldier is to obey the order of his officer no matter at what sacrifice of time, nor how unpleasant or inconvenient the service. In 1871 he was selected by Hon. C. Delano, Secretary of the Interior, to investigate the busi- ness operations of the Indian agencies of the Upper Missouri river, including the Yankton, Santee, Cheyenne, and Grand river Sioux agencies, and subsequently the agency at Green Bay, Wisconsin, and the so-called "Pine contracts" with the Menomonee Indians of Michigan. In the fall of the same year, in company with Hon. B. R. Cowen, Assistant Secretary.
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in the Indian Territory, west of 96° west longitude. In 1872, in company with Assistant Secretary Cowen and Major J. W. Wham, of Illinois, under appointment of the Interior De- partment, he visited the Teton Sioux, then under the leader- ship of the notorious Sitting Bull, and spending three months with the very wildest of the wild tribes of roving Sioux, three hundred miles from any military post, and entirely without escort or protection, led away three thousand of Sitting Bull's people, and brought thirty of his most influential chiefs to Washington. In 1873 he served as chairman of the special commission appointed by the Secretary of the Interior to in- vestigate the lumber contracts made between E. P. Smith, commissioner of Indian affairs (while agent of the Leech Lake Chippewas), and A. H. Wilder, Esq., of St. Paul. In 1871, Mr. Turney was chosen by President Grant as one of the ten eminent citizens selected to serve on the Indian com- mission. This was a position of especial distinction, and of which any citizen might be proud. The members of this commission were chosen for their well-known philanthropy and zeal, and served the government without compensation. Mr. Turney served on this board until failing health com- pelled him to retire in 1875. He was appointed by Governor Hayes trustee of the Central Ohio Asylum for the Insane, and served until the democratic legislature of 1874 legislated the board out of existence. In 1859 he declined the nomination for member of the house of representatives of Ohio, and in 1868 was the republican nominee for congress, but his dis- trict being overwhelmingly democratic, he was defeated by a strict party vote. In his early youth and manhood he was a whig in politics, and he affiliated with the republican party on its organization. In 1872 he was a delegate to the national convention at Philadelphia, which nominated Grant a second time. Wherever the representative men of his party were gathered together, Mr. Turney was generally found among them, and his counsel was ever valued, because dictated by unselfish and patriotic motives. Mr. Turney was brave and generous to a fault, but in his devotion to principle he was unyielding. In the discharge of duty, no matter what may have been the danger which threatened him or the emer- gency which he was called upon to confront, he never hesi- tated at any personal danger or sacrifice. A man of the most unimpeachable integrity and morality, he fully vindi- cated in his own personal characteristics the purity of his descent from those sturdy and unconquerable French Cal- vinists who could leave home and fortune and country under the bloody persecution of a papal despotism, but could not surrender or conceal their deep-seated convictions of right, nor forego the enjoyment of the God-given freedom of con- science. Mr. Turney's death occurred March 4th, 1883.
KING, CHARLES GREGORY, bank president, Cleve- land, was born in the town of Sand Lake, Rensselaer County, New York, September 27th, 1822. He was one of a family of fourteen, all of whom reached the age of maturity. His father was a farmer, who died when the boy was but sixteen years of age, leaving behind him bereaved hearts and an encumbered estate. Owing to his father's early death his educational advantages were but small, and pecuniary means limited; but with the rest of the family possessed of stout hearts and indomitable courage, they provided a home for their beloved mother and younger brothers and sisters. Seven years of his life were thus occupied when his desire for mental improvement would brook no further delay, and
having placed the more dependent portion of the family in comfortable circumstances, he felt at liberty to devote both time and money to attend the Brockport Collegiate Institute, in Western New York. Until 1849 he spent his time in alternate teaching and study, when he started westward in search of occupation. After a long and tiresome trip, which extended into Michigan, he returned eastward without having accomplished his object. At length his courage and perse- verance were rewarded. At Erie, Pennsylvania, he was en- gaged as buyer for a firm which was shipping lumber to the Albany market. His latent ability as a man of business soon manifested itself, and after various promotions, he, in 1852, removed to Cleveland, where he became a partner in the afterward well known firm of Foote & King, who estab- lished their lumber yards on River Street. In 1862, owing to the failing health of Mr. Foote, the firm was dissolved, Mr. King continuing alone for three years, when Mr. D. K. Clint became a partner. In 1866 a new yard was established on Scranton Avenue, the firm being Rust, King & Co. In 1874 the old River Street yard being given up on account of the building of the Viaduct, the firm became Rust, King and Clint. On February 22d, 1883, the charter was granted for the new bank in Cleveland, the Savings and Trust Com- pany, Cleveland, Ohio. The organization was completed on March 27th, 1883. Mr. King was chosen president of the cor- poration, and they commenced business May 8th, 1883, their capital stock being seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars, the directors and shareholders comprising men of the highest standing. Mr. King has been uniformly successful in all his undertakings, and is well known as an honorable, upright, Christian gentleman.
BOYCE, HON. GEORGE WASHINGTON, lawyer, ex-member of the Ohio Legislature, and a member of the prominent law firm of Boyce & Boyd, Cincinnati, Ohio, is a gentleman who has risen rapidly in popular and professional esteem, by reason of his qualities as a man, acquirements as a lawyer, and ability as a public speaker and debater. His parents, Isaac and Jane (Brady) Boyce, were Protestant Irish, who, upon emigrating to Ohio, settled first in Columbiana, and afterward in Athens County. At Wellsville, in the for- mer county, George was born, March 3, 1840. He worked upon his father's farm in the latter county until he was about seventeen years old, and while thus employed determined to obtain an education. In this resolution he was encouraged by a loving and sympathizing mother. How much he owes to her encouragement, intelligent oversight, and practical suggestions touching his studies, and when and where they should be prosecuted, he can not compute; but to him, for this reason, it was an unspeakable pleasure to return to the old home in after years, and have them realize that at length upon his name the world had bestowed the honors implied in the titles of A. B., A. M., and LL. B. At seventeen he began to teach, but only twenty per cent of his earnings were allowed for his own use-the rest and residue went, cheerfully, on his part, to the support of the family. At eighteen he went to Coolville Academy, where he met his present partner, Mr. W. F. Boyd, beginning his academic career poor and friendless, but as determined and studious as himself. Mr. Boyce paid his way, in part, by assisting the principal, devoting his extra time to the study of the higher branches. At twenty-one he entered the Ohio Wes- leyan University, but he remained only one quarter, owing
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to the expense attending it. In the fall of 1862 he entered Ohio University, at Athens, Ohio, sustaining himself thirteen weeks upon eleven dollars! This rigid economy, vigorous self-denial, and persistent endeavor continued until the close of his junior year. During his vacations he would work in the harvest field, demanding and receiving extra compensa- tion for swinging the cradle; or he would engage in teach- ing-making up for lost time by redoubled diligence and application upon returning to college. As he was about to begin his senior year an observing and sympathizing friend advanced him money with which to complete his college course. This relieved his mind to such an extent that he was enabled to give his time exclusively, devotedly to study. In consequence he took high standing upon final examina- tion. Could the degree have been more worthily conferred ? Yet he was fourteen hundred dollars in debt! This was the price he had paid, in addition to his toils and labors and privations, for his education. During his last year he had de- termined to study law. But the first resolution formed after graduating was to rid himself of debt. He did so by insti- tuting and teaching an academy, at Guysville, Athens County, the first year after leaving college. It was undertaken under the most discouraging circumstances. It resulted in an aston- ishing success. In one year he made fifteen hundred dollars. He was out of debt. This experience was most valuable to him. During that time he was principal, Sunday-school superintendent, president of a literary society, lecturer, and active in regular Church work. "Boyce's Academy " was on a good footing. At the close of the first quarter of the second year (in which he made five hundred dollars) he sold his interest therein, and went to Cincinnati to begin the study of law. He had formed the acquaintance, at Athens, of the late Judge Storer, upon whose advice he acted in going thither, and who, until his death, was his true and valued friend. He and Mr. Boyd went to Cincinnati together in the fall of 1868. By extraordinary application they succeeded in graduating from the Cincinnati Law School at the end of the first year, taking up and mastering the whole course in one half the time usually allotted to the task. They thus received the degree of LL. B. in 1869. Soon afterward the partnership of Boyce and Boyd was formed, the question as to priority of firm names being de- termined, by drawing "cuts," in favor of Mr. Boyce. They immediately opened an office at No. 3 West Third Street. In the fall of 1870 they moved to their present location, the north-east corner of Fourth and Walnut, which consists of two large offices and one consultation room, where they are now conducting a large and increasing business, numbering among their clients many of the wealthiest citizens and cor- porations and companies in that city. Upon the death of his friend, Hon. Judge Storer, Governor Allen appointed Mr. Boyce trustee of Ohio University in his stead. In 1873 he was elected by the Democratic party as a Repre- sentative from Hamilton County to the Ohio Legislature. While there he participated in all the proceedings, was a clear and able speaker and debater, and upon the expiration of his term was prominently mentioned by his party in con- nection with the State Senatorship, but having determined to give his time and attention exclusively to the practice of his profession, he declined. Mr. Boyce is a member of St. Paul Methodist Episcopal Church, of Cincinnati, and has for years been connected with its official board. His firm, by proceedings in court, changed the name of Morris Chapel to
St. Paul Methodist Episcopal Church. He is also a 32° A. A. Scottish Rite Mason ; also a Knight Templar, having taken all the degrees in York and Scottish Rite Masonry. There are a few facts in connection with the career of these lawyers that may not go unmentioned in a sketch of either. Both are of Protestant Irish extraction; both were born the same year; both were farmer-boys; both determined to obtain a collegiate education, at the same age, at all hazards ; both were school teachers; both attended Coolville Academy at the same time; both attended Ohio University at the same time; both are graduates therefrom ; both taught after grad- uating, the one as tutor in that University, the other as prin- cipal of an academy ; both went to Cincinnati together, and graduated from its law college, in 1869; both in debt to about the same extent after graduating from college, and after admission to the bar; both are members of the same Church ; both have same name save the terminal letters ; both are now 'out of debt, and are equally possessed of prop- erty ; both are members of Beta Theta Pi College Fra- ternity ; both are examiners for Boston University; and both are bachelors de facto as well as Bachelors of Law. No accounts have ever been kept between these gentlemen as to their individual expenses. Their earnings are considered property in common, upon which either can draw. This state of affairs has continued about fifteen years, without any inter- ruption. The statement of this fact alone is sufficient com- mentary upon the character on these gentlemen for integrity, honesty, and trustworthiness. This has brought its reward. Faithful and true to themselves, they have proved themselves faithful and true, as well as able and painstaking and assid- uous, in transacting the business intrusted to them by their clients. Thus has Mr. Boyce achieved success-determined upon acquiring a broad and liberal education; upon build- ing up at the same time a moral and Christian character : upon seeking and doing good upon every pathway his feet should tread; to add to his faith virtue, and to virtue knowl- edge, until his name should be honored by his fellow-men; upon continuous, laborious application at the bar, until from a legal eminence he might survey the field of his struggles and his triumphs. These things have all come to pass, for Mr. Boyce has thus more than realized the dream of his boy- hood, when toiling upon his father's farm, less than thirty years ago.
BOYD, WILLIAM FLETCHER, lawyer, is a mem- ber of the well known law firm of Boyce & Boyd, Cincinnati, Ohio. His father was of Protestant Irish descent, and came to America in 1819. He walked all the way across the mountains, from Philadelphia to Steubenville, Ohio, and finally located upon a farm in Athens County. He earned his first money in this country by teaching school. He married Jane Elliott, of like descent, who came to Ohio with her parents, in her twelfth year. She was a sister of the late Rev. Charles Elliott, D. D., who for sixteen years was editor of the Western Christian Advocate, in Cincinnati. The father died in 1867; the venerable mother is still living, in her eightieth year, in Athens, Ohio. From these pioneers descended, among others, John Elliott Boyd, who was a practicing phy- sician at the time of his death, in 1855; Rev. Hugh Boyd, now president of Ohio University; Miss Kate, principal of the High School, Athens, Ohio; Miss Margaret, who was the first lady graduate of Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, and afterward a teacher in the Cincinnati Wesleyan Female
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College ; and William Fletcher, the subject of this sketch, who was born on his father's farm, February 15th, 1840, near the little village of Coolville. Young William worked upon his father's farm until his eighteenth year, excepting about two months of each year (after arriving at school age), which he was permitted to spend in school. His father was township librarian in the days of the Ohio Circulating Library. This afforded William the use of many good books, which he assiduously read, and which inspired him with an ardent desire for a general education. He taught his first school at eighteen years of age. One year afterward he entered Cool- ville Academy, where he met Mr. Boyce, his present partner, where they began that educational and professional career which, in some respects, is without a parallel in the history of any two citizens of Ohio, and from that time down to the present the history of the one is almost identical with that of the other. In the fall of 1862 he entered, as freshman, Ohio University, and graduated therefrom in 1866, with the degree of A. B .. It was a hard struggle ; his parents were poor, and he had to rely wholly upon his own resources, but the purpose to acquire an education nothing could thwart. Chill penury could not repress his noble rage, and what with teaching, and toiling otherwise, he managed to get through college, with a heavy debt upon his shoulders. Thus edu- cated and equipped, he entered upon the world's broad field of battle stimulated rather than discouraged by his burden of debt. He graduated with a fine reputation as a Latin and Greek scholar, owing to which he was appointed tutor of languages in that university-a position he held for one year, upon a small salary. He next served as principal of the Eastern District of the public schools of Chillicothe. In 1868 he came to Cincinnati with Mr. Boyce (also acting upon the advice of Judge Storer), and with him entered the Cincinnati Law School. By correct habits, close application to study, rigid economy, and determined efforts, he succeeded in graduating therefrom in 1869-one year after matriculat- ing-having doubled up on his studies, and passing with a high grade upon examination. He immediately formed a partnership with Mr. Boyce, drawing " cuts" as to whether the first name of the firm should end with "d" or "e." It went against him, and the alliterative firm name thereupon became Boyce & Boyd. Their first office was at No. 3 West Third Street, Cincinnati. It is now located at the north-east corner of Fourth and Walnut, and consists of two general offices and one consultation room, where they are enjoying a large practice and an ample income. Mr. Boyd is a member of St. Paul Methodist Episcopal Church, and connected with its official board. So is his partner. They both joined old Morris Chapel together, upon coming to Cincinnati, and their firm instituted the proceedings in court by which the name was changed from Morris Chapel to St. Paul Meth- odist Episcopal Church. They have many important litigated cases upon the general court docket, besides many heavy matters in assignment, proceedings in partition, and the set- tlement of estates. Mr. Boyd is a Republican; a director in the Queen City National Bank ; a director and member of the Executive Committee of the Freedmen's Aid Society in the Methodist Episcopal Church ; a member of the Board of Directors Cincinnati Bethel; and of the Odd Fellows' Fraternity. He is held in high esteem at the bar and by his fellow-citizens generally. Among his clients may be named some of the wealthiest citizens and corporations of that city. His literary abilities have made their impression
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