USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume II > Part 5
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sleeps all that is left to earth of a man who fought the bat- tle. of life bravely, and left a good name -- the best of all heir-looms.
KENT, MARVIN, projector and ex-president of the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad (now New York, Penn- sylvania and Ohio Railroad), was born at Ravenna, Portage County, Ohio, September 21st, 1816. His father, Zenas Kent, was a joiner and carpenter by trade, who when a young man niade the acquaintance of Captain Heman Oviatt. He dis- covered in Mr. Kent business qualifications of a very high order, and in 1815 he induced him to engage in mercantile business at Ravenna. The executive and financial ability which Mr. Z. Kent displayed, coupled with enterprise and methodical management of his affairs, soon placed him in the front rank among the reputable and successful business men of Northern Ohio. It was in his father's store that young Marvin Kent received his first and most valuable instruction in correct business methods and habits. Up to the age of nine- teen his time was divided between his father's store and the school-room, wherein he combined, in the acquirement of a knowledge of books, a practical knowledge of business and dealings with men. He received such education as was afforded at Tallmadge Academy, under the instruction of E. T. Sturte- vant, A. M., Principal, and Claridon Academy, under the in- struction of Rev. Sherman B. Canfield. In his nineteenth year his father intrusted him with the purchase of his spring stock of goods, and for this purpose he visited Philadelphia and New York, with special instructions to buy on his own judgment, and to disregard the advice tendered by others, relative to the investments he had in contemplation. His father was pleased with his purchases, and the business sagacity dis- played by his son. The year following his becoming of age, Marvin became associated with his father in mercantile busi- ness, at Franklin Mills, Ohio (now Kent), but he soon re- linquished this, by reason of the precarious condition of his health, and assumed the management of a tannery, in a building erected by his father and Captain John Brown (of Harper's Ferry notoriety). While thus engaged he was mar- ried to Maria, daughter of the late Colonel William Stewart. He conducted the tannery for some time, with success, and in 1844 returned to mercantile pursuits, becoming at the same time largely interested in the manufacture of flour. In the latter business he continued without interruption for about twenty years. In 1850, in company with others, he engaged in the manufacture of window-glass, at Franklin Mills, and erected and placed in successful operation extensive works. It was during the same year that he entered upon the most important enterprise of his life, and which secured to him a business reputation co-extensive with the inauguration and completion of a great public transportation route between the East and the West. He devised, planned, and projected, in 1850, the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad, designed to connect the Erie with the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad, thus forming a grand trunk line, with uniform gauge through- out, from New York to St. Louis. In 1851 the necessary legislation was procured, but in order to secure the charter he was obliged to subscribe for the full amount of stock re- quired by law for the organization of the company, as well as to indemnify some of the first board of directors for the payment of one share subscribed by each to render them eligible for election, which fact furnishes a significant illus- tration of the want of faith in the success of an undertaking
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of that magnitude at that time. The organization of the new company was completed, and Mr. Kent made its first presi- dent. This position he filled with a success characteristic of his great business tact, energy, and ability, until the final completion of the road, in 1864, save an interval of three years. On the 21st of June, of that year, he had the proud satisfaction of looking back over many years of unremitting labor and anxiety at last crowned with success, and also of driving home the last spike in the last rail. In his maiden speech on that occasion, he referred to the fact that on the fourth day of July, A. D. 1853, he broke ground for the new road, by removing the first shovelful of earth with his own hands. There were none then to withhold from Mr. Kent a most generous compliment for the completion of this road, which, uniting the Erie and Ohio and Mississippi Railways, formed a grand continental line from New York to St. Louis. The construction of this road encountered, perhaps, more obstacles and greater opposition than any other in the country. Yet Mr. Kent showed himself equal to any and every emer- gency, and with heroic faith and one purpose, he made suc- cess possible and victory a verity. The Portage County Democrat, of June 3d, 1863, contained this truthful tribute :
"The location of the shops at Franklin Mills is doubtless due to the position and influence of Marvin Kent, Esq., the president of the road, who resides at that point. If any man ought to be gratified and benefited by the location of the shops, it is President Kent. He was not only the early friend of the road, but, if we are correctly informed, he originated the idea of its construction. In carrying forward this great improvement to its completion, he has toiled and struggled for over twelve years, amid doubt and discourageinent, amidst jeers and sneers and obloquy. While others hesitated, he stood fast; when the faint-hearted turned aside, he persevered with unfaltering nerve and courage ; when timid friends for- sook, he succeeded in raising up other friends, and in attract- ing capital to this great work; and thus, with a patience, a courage, an assiduity, and unswerving fidelity to a single aim that reaches the point of real heroism, has he held on his way through twelve laborious years of fluctuations, vicissitudes, and uncertainties, neglecting or abandoning his private busi- ness, pledging or imperiling, or at least casting into the hazard of success, his large private fortune, for the benefit of his cherished enterprise. And yet he has labored all this time without general appreciation, the select few more in- timately associated in official relations with him only know- ing and appreciating his trials and his toils. But it is time the man to whom more than to any other the country is in- debted for this great and leading road should be understood and appreciated, for every man and every community bene- fited by the construction of this road owes to Marvin Kent a debt of gratitude. He is to be congratulated on the success which the intelligence, the ability, and the fixed and resolute purpose which he has brought to bear on the enterprise, have accomplished. Who, under these circumstances, can grudge to Mr. Kent the location of the extensive machine-shops in the place of his residence? Who more than he, and what community than the one favored by his residence among them, can be more entitled to the benefit?"
Upon the successful completion of this road, Mr. Kent sub- stantially retired from active business, to the enjoyment of private life. Upon the death of his father in 1865, he be- came his successor as president of the Kent National Bank, which position he has held ever since. In October, 1875, he was elected State Senator from the Twenty-sixth District of Ohio, and he served his constituents with credit and ability. Mr. Kent is a gentleman of varied experience and of varied business qualifications-equally capable as an engineer or as financial manager to conduct a great public work. He has remarkable tenacity of purpose, and once resolved as to the
value of an enterprise, no ordinary obstacle can prevent him from carrying it out. He is a man of liberal views and generous impulses, and has, in a great variety of ways, aided in advancing the material welfare of those among whom he lives. He has been a generous promoter of every business enterprise in the city of Kent, which bears his name. There are enduring monuments of his public spirit on every hand in the community in which he lives, such as public and pri- vate edifices, business blocks, mills and factories, and about them all there is an evidence of permanency and durability, of exactness in details, and adaptability to the uses designed. As an evidence that Mr. Kent has been disposed to serve himself last, he has just completed one of the most elegant and palatial private residences in Northern Ohio. Within and without there are evidences of a cultured taste in art and adornment-but never at the expense of utility and the every-day uses of domestic life. Mr. Kent has in every re- spect been a successful man, and prominent among the secrets of that success is untiring energy, methodical methods of work, and strict integrity.
HALL, CHARLES FRANCIS, Arctic explorer, was born at Rochester, New Hampshire, in 1821, and died in Greenland, November 8th, 1871. Coming to Cincinnati in 1850, he first established himself as a manufacturer of hand and seal presses. He subsequently started a small paper called the Occasional, and continued its publication for a short time, when he undertook the issue of a daily, the Penny Press, which soon passed into other hands. About this time he became interested in discussions of the Northwest passage. Visiting New York in 1859, he proposed, at a meeting of the Geographical Society, to go in search of Sir John Franklin's remains, and in May, 1860, a subscription having been raised, he sailed from New London on a whaler, commanded by Captain Buddington. From this expedition he returned in September, 1862, having passed much time among the Es- quimaux, and bringing home with him two of that race, man and wife, who had become attached to him. Nothing regard- ing the fate of Franklin and his men was learned. Mr. Hall devoted the two succeeding years to his work entitled, "Arctic Researches, and Life Among the Esquimaux." He then prepared for a second expedition, and shipped July 30th, 1864, on another vessel commanded by Captain Buddington. He was absent until late in 1869, and kept a journal which he designed publishing after a third voyage, for which he suc- ceeded in getting government aid and outfit, including a steamer called the "Polaris." His special aim now was to enter the supposed open polar sea and reach the pole itself, if possible. The "Polaris" left New York June 22d, 1871, under Hall's command, with Captain Buddington sailing- master. She reached latitude 82° 16', August 10th, but, be- cause of ice, returned to a shelter called Polaris Bay, latitude 81º 38', for the winter. Captain Hall with three companions, started, October 10th, north, on a sledge expedition, returning on the 24th, when he sickened and died suddenly. Nearly a year later the "Polaris " broke loose while preparations were making to abandon her, leaving nineteen men, including Ebierbing and Tookoolit, Captain Hall's Esquimaux attend- ants, on the ice. , These drifted, helplessly, one hundred and ninety-five days, only saved from starving -their stores hav- ing given out-by the skill of Ebierbing as a seal-hunter. They were rescued by a whaler April 30th, 1873, in latitude 53° 35'. The party on the "Polaris" were picked up June
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23d of the same year, by another whaler, having sailed south- ward in boats made of the disabled " Polaris." Mrs. Hall, and two children, left by her husband in Cincinnati, yet survive him.
WELKER, MARTIN, District Judge of the United States Court, Wooster, Ohio, was born in Knox County, Ohio, April 25th, 1819. His father, who was of German descent, was an early settler in Ohio, and having but little means to educate a large family, his son was obliged to rely almost ex- clusively upon his own resources. His educational advantages in youth were necessarily limited to a few years' winter school- ing in the log-cabin school-houses of the West. This prime- val educational structure, the antiquated and vanished prede- cessor of the modern university, is well described by the Judge himself in the following paragraph, taken from his speech delivered at the dedication of the Wooster High School, October, 1870:
" The scene before me to-day recalls to me days of other years, far back in the history of common schools in our State. I shall never forget the first school in which I entered and the house in which it was held. On a cold December morn- ing I walked through a heavy snow, three miles, to the school- house, on the banks of Owl Creek, in Knox County. I there found a little log-cabin, sixteen feet square, with puncheon floor, clapboard door and roof, greased paper in the windows. The whole end of the house one wide fire-place, with a chim- ney made of clay and sticks built on the outside, and a blazing log fire in the ample fire-place. The benches or seats were split logs with the flat side uppermost, with round sticks for legs, on which we sat, with our feet dangling above the rude floor. The 'master,' as the teacher was then called, had the only desk, and that was a flat board, with four legs, standing in one corner. The writing-tables consisted of wide split slabs along one side of the room, supported by pins driven in the logs of the house. In this public building- and it is a fair representative of its day-we were provided a school for three months in the year, the winter season only."
It was under such circumstances and possessed of such meager facilities of education that Martin Welker was to re- ceive the mental training requisite to the active public life which lay before him. At an early age he developed a strong inclination for books and the acquisition of knowledge, and his habit of assiduous application soon enabled him to become master of the branches as taught at that time in the schools. At the age of fourteen he abandoned his father's farm and obtained a situation as clerk in a store in a neighboring vil- age, where he remained four years, in the meantime appro- priating much of his leisure time to the investigation of the higher branches of an English education. When a clerk in the store an event occurred which, no doubt, largely influ- enced, and to an eminent degree imparted purpose and de- termination to, his career in life. He was called as a witness before a grand jury at Mount Vernon. He had heard of courts and judges, but this was his first opportunity of wit- nessing either. The Hon. Ezra Dean was then the presiding judge, and a man of commanding appearance and dignified deportment and manner. This single but extraordinary cir- cumstance so wonderfully impressed the then plastic mind of the young witness, for the first time in court, that he then and there resolved to be a lawyer, and, if possible, to be worthy and to attain to that higher and nobler distinction of the judge. This resolution ripened into a firm and settled purpose. His boyhood associates heard his declaration, and many of them lived to see it verified. He never lost sight of this young ambition ; and how earnestly, zealously, and
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indefatigably he has labored to accomplish and vindicate it, his remarkable judicial record most eloquently explains. At the end of eighteen years of hard and unremittent labor, and of many changes of fortune, he was elected Judge of the District, over the same Judge Dean, who was his competitor, and actually occupied the same chair in the same old court- house at Mount Vernon. This was the position he had de- clared to an associate he would aspire to attain, and on its attainment his youthful friend, now an eminent physician, warmly congratulated him upon the fulfillment of his boyish dream-a most laudable early ambition. At the age of eighteen, having made considerable progress in a general edu- cation, he entered a lawyer's office at Millersburg, Holmes County, and commenced the study of the legal profession, in the multitudinous and complex intricacies of which he has acquired a national reputation. While engaged in the study of law he occupied a portion of the time in probing the roots and exploring the beauties of the Latin tongue. Nor did he omit carefully to pursue the pages of ancient and modern history, and thus lay deep the foundation for the super- structure of his future eminence. In the literary societies with which he was identified he soon acquired reputation as a cogent reasoner, an apt and skillful debater, as well as an accomplished and vigorous writer. In the political campaign of 1840 he took a very active part for one so young and in- experienced. The editorial department of the Whig paper published in the county in which he resided received many keen and valuable contributions from his pen. At the age of twenty-one he was admitted to the bar, and rapidly rose to distinction as a jurist and advocate. Since then we might almost say of him, what Phillips said of Bonaparte, his path has been "a plane of continued elevations." In 1846 he was appointed Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas of Holmes County, for a term of seven years, serving but five, when he resigned and resumed the practice of law. In 1848 he was nominated, by the Whig party, as its candidate for Congress in the district then composed of the counties of Holmes, Coshocton, and Tuscarawas, but the district was largely Dem- ocratic, and he failed of an election. After he had been prac- ticing ten years he was nominated and elected Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for the Sixth District of Ohio, which then included Wayne County, and served the constitutional term of five years. At the close of this period he was unani- mously renominated, but on account of much political ex- citement at the time, growing out of the presidential contest of 1856, himself being a Whig in politics and the district largely Democratic, he failed of re-election, although running largely ahead of his ticket. In the fall of 1857 he was elected Lieutenant-governor of Ohio, at the same time that S. P. Chase was made Governor. In this position he served one term, but declined a re-election. At the breaking out of the war of the Rebellion he was appointed a major on the staff of General J. D. Cox, afterward Governor of Ohio and Sec- retary of the Interior, and served out the term for which the first soldiers were enlisted. He was then appointed aid-de camp to the Governor, and assigned to the duties of Judge- advocate-general of the State, and acted as such until the expiration of the term of office of Governor Dennison. His business qualifications in this position contributed valuable service in calling out and organizing the Ohio troops. In 1862 he was appointed Assistant Adjutant-general of the State of Ohio, and was the State superintendent of the draft for that year. While in discharge of that duty he was nominated
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for Congress by the Republican party, but was defeated, as were many others in that disastrous campaign, by a majority of only thirty-six. In 1864 he was nominated again, and was elected to the Thirty-ninth Congress, from the Fourteenth Ohio District, then composed of the counties of Holmes, Ashland, Wayne, Medina, and Lorain, by a large majority. In 1866 he was re-elected, to the Fortieth Congress, serving on the Joint Committee on Retrenchment and on the Com- mittee for the District of Columbia. In 1868 he was again elected, to the Forty-first Congress, where he served as Chair- man of the Committee on Retrenchment of the House, on the Committee of the District of Columbia, and the Com- mittee on Private Land Claims, of which latter he was the acting Chairman during the last session of that Congress. In the summer of 1869 the Congressional Retrenchment Committee crossed the continent to California, with a view of visiting and investigating the Custom House of San Fran- cisco. Mr. Welker was Chairman of the House Committee, and Patterson, of New Hampshire, Chairman of the Senate Committee. Whilst on the Pacific coast they were most hospitably entertained, and were the recipients of much atten- tion and many favors by the citizens. They visited the Geysers, Yosemite, and the Cliff House, groves of big trees, crossed the beautiful bay, and were saluted by cannon from Alcatraz. In connection with his duties on the Retrench- ment Committees he made himself thoroughly familiar with the working machinery of the government. This committee had charge of the organization of the Attorney-general's office, and made it the Department of Justice. During his service in Congress he made one of the first speeches on reconstruction, and several other speeches on finance, Agricultural Depart- ment, impeachment of the President, and several eulogies on the deaths of members. In December, 1873, he was appointed, by President Grant, District Judge of the United States for the Northern District of the State of Ohio, vice Hon. Charles Sher- man resigned, and was immediately confirmed by the Senate. This is a life appointment, and is the keystone in the hand- some and enviable arch which crowns the reputation of Mr. Welker. He brings to the discharge of its duties the mature products of a life of toil, the solid experiences of professional manhood, an enlightened and discriminating mind in the highest state of culture, a sound judgment, and keen and lucid comprehension of the law. The office honors him no more than he honors it. Judge Welker was married on the 4th of March, 1841, the day of President Harrison's inauguration, to Miss Maria Armor, of Millersburg, Ohio, a sister of Pro- fessor S. G. Armor, of Long Island Medical College. She is a lady of refinement and culture, and was highly esteemed by her acquaintances and friends in Washington City. They have no children. At the close of his term of judgeship of the Court of Common Pleas, and in the spring of 1857, he removed to Wooster, where he has permanently resided ever since, though his judicial duties demand his presence in Cleveland and Toledo. He is now also Professor of Political Science and of Constitutional and International Law in the University of Wooster, where he delivers a course of lectures. A few years ago the same university conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws. He has been, in the loftiest sense, a public man almost throughout life. Among the galaxy of distinguished men of Ohio he has exerted a great influence in the development of his native State, and in his quiet, unobtrusive, but effective way, has contributed largely in shaping her political destiny.
MURRAY, DAVID N., manufacturer and banker, Portsmouth, Ohio, was born in Gallowayshire, Scotland, May 23d, 1814. His grandfather, John Murray, paid for the instruction of the celebrated linguist, Alexander Murray. His parents were John Murray and Hannah Mckean. Our sub- ject was reared upon the farm of his father, and received a good education in his native country, beginning the study of Latin at the remarkably youthful age of nine years. When a lad of seventeen, having a desire to try the fortunes of the new world, he embarked for America, and landed at St. An- drews, New Brunswick, in July, 1831. There he found em- ployment as clerk in a wholesale dry goods and hardware store, in which capacity he served three years. In 1834 he removed to Brighton, Beaver county, Pennsylvania, his father's family having in the mean time come to America and located at that place. There he was engaged as clerk until 1837, at which time his father removed to Morgan county, Illinois, and young Murray repaired to Portsmouth, Ohio, where he began business for himself, becoming a member of the hardware firm of McNairn & Murray, and so continuing for six years. "During this time the house was also engaged in the book trade. After the dissolution of this partnership Mr. Murray carried on the hardware business for some twenty-five years, thus making thirty-one years in which he was engaged in the hardware trade. In 1854, in connection with Messrs. Ward & Stevenson, he erected the present ma- chine shops and foundry in Portsmouth. Three years sub- sequently Mr. Ward sold his interest, and the firm became Murray & Stevenson. While the crisis of 1857 was upon the country, Mr. Murray offered to sell the whole property for $10,000, but the offer was not accepted and he pulled through successfully and with unimpaired credit. He was one of the very few men in Portsmouth who did so. This property, which during the crisis he offered so low, he afterward sold for $138,000. At these machine shops were built the cars for the railroad from Portsmouth to Hamden, then called the Scioto and Hocking Valley Railroad. This company failed, leaving Messrs. Murray & Stevenson their creditors to the amount of $69,000, of which the firm lost some $9,000. In 1855 he built the Portsmouth Rolling Mill, assisted by Mr. James W. Davis and Mr. Charles A. M. Damarin, now deceased, and whose sketch appears in this work. Each of these gentlemen put in $10,000. They afterward received seven more partners, making the capital stock $100,000. About two years later the concern was wound up in the crisis of 1857, and its debts were paid by five out of the ten part- ners, Mr. Murray being one of the former. In 1871 Mr. Murray was prominently interested in the building of the Portsmouth Agricultural Works, which, however, ceased to exist in 1874. In 1850 he opened the first hardware store in Ironton, Ohio, under the name of S. Duke & Company, Mr. Murray furnishing the capital for the enterprise. Some three or four years subsequent he sold this business to Mr. Kings- bury. In 1875 he organized the Citizens' Savings Bank of Portsmouth, owns half of the concern, and is its president. At different times he has been connected with the Portsmouth board of education and for two years past has been treasurer of that body. For five years he was connected with the board of health and for two years president of the board of trade. He has been an elder in the Presbyterian church for forty-two years, and a teacher or superintendent in the Sunday-school for forty-seven years. It is on record in the minutes of the Presbyterian General Assembly that he was the
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