USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume II > Part 50
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74
t
482
BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPÆDIA AND PORTRAIT GALLERY.
namely, Hetty Beatty, a young lady who excels in music and French; Charles Beatty, who graduated from Washing- ton and Jefferson College, in 1883, with the highest honors of his class ; and Mary Phillips.
BELL, THOMAS JEFFERSON, general manager of the Bell Waterphone Company, assistant superintendent of the Cincinnati Water Works, and vice-president of the American Water Works Association, is descended from English ancestors. His grandfather, Joseph Bell, was a drill-master in the Brit- ish arny. His sympathies, however, were with the Americans during the war of 1812, and he accordingly emigrated to the United States about that year, bringing with him his father, John Bell, who died in Cincinnati, in 1834, aged one hundred and eight years. He located at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and there Joseph Bell, Jr., was born July 12th, 1813. He is the father of Thomas J., and has risen in local distinc- tion in Cincinnati as a mechanical engineer. A few facts touching his career are here introduced as bearing upon the remarkable success that has attended the career of his son. Old Fort Washington was standing when the father, grand- father, and great-grandfather of Thomas J. arrived at Cin- cinnati, in 1816, having made the journey in wagons across the country. Around the old fort still lingered some of the old soldiers of St. Clair's and Wayne's army. His father, Mr. Joseph Bell, inherited from his ancestors a mechanical and mathematical turn of mind. His first step was to learn the trade of millwright, under a man named Wilson, near his father's farm, back of Rising Sun, Indiana. He was seventeen years of age. Soon after he worked upon the coffer-dam upon the Miami Canal, in Cincinnati. In the fall of 1832 he applied himself regularly to learn the business of machinist, under Wilder, Lyon & Tatem. He afterward en- gaged in building saw-mills, and built one back of Vevay, Indiana, when two brothers were killed by an explosion of its boilers. He built other mills in the South, and then engaged in bell and brass-foundry business, managed by himself, which burned down in two years after starting. He then built two steamboats, the Osage Valley and Admiral. In 1847 the firm of Lyon & Bell was started, and manufactured stationary machinery of all kinds; then it changed to the name of The Miami Works, and is now known as the Cin- cinnati Stationary Engine and Hydraulic Works, managed as a stock company, of which Mr. C. H. Kilgour is presi- dent, and Mr. Joseph Bell superintendent. Thus Mr. Bell's father is a practical as well as skilled machinist, having led an active life in that line for more than fifty years. He is still living. He married Miss Mary Jane Folley, who died leaving three sons-James E., Thomas J., and Charles K. James E. Bell received his early education in the common schools of Cincinnati, and finished his course in Woodward High School, in June, 1869. He graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic School, at Troy, New York, in June, 1873. After leaving Troy he was engaged three months in surveying for the Cincinnati Southern Railway. For one year he had charge of a party in surveying the route of the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis Railroad. In July, 1874, he made a survey of the Big Sandy River, from its mouth to Warfield, Kentucky-afterward, under an act of Congress, extended this survey to Dismal Creek, in Virginia. On the Ioth of July, 1878, he was appointed superintendent of the Cincinnati Water Works. He died, while discharging the duties of his office, June 9th, 1879, at the early age of
twenty-nine. He was a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and upon his death the following tribute --- written by Colonel William E. Merrill-was paid to his mem- ory by that society :
"Of a genial disposition, his business relations were always pleasant; but his kindness of heart never caused a relaxation of official vigilance. Sternly honest himself, and animated by a keen sense of duty, shirking contractors found no weak spots that would excuse them from a complete and exact performance of their engagements. Full of zeal for his pro- fession, with the best available training and an increasing experience, and already the incumbent of one of the highest professional positions in his native city, life seemed to present for his acceptance the highest honors of his chosen career. But the destroyer seized the strong man in the vigor of his youth, and in a few short days his honors had faded, his place had been filled by another, and his memory alone was left to the friends that loved him and had rejoiced in his early success.'
Thomas J. Bell was born in Cincinnati August 8th, 1852. He early evinced a turn for mathematics. As a boy he was an observer of machinery-reared, as he was, within the sight and sound of rumbling wheels and resounding ham- mers. His first employment consisted in serving as clerk, book-keeper, time-keeper, etc., in the Stationary Engine and Hydraulic Works, on the corner of Third and Lock Streets, then superintended by his father. The next position was that of clerk under R. T. Scowden, and afterward A. M. Warden, engineer of the Water Works. Upon the death of his brother, Warden became both superintendent and en- gineer of the same. Thereupon Mr. Bell became a clerk in the Water Works Department at the City Buildings. Upon the appointment of Arthur G. Moore as superintendent and engineer, vice Warden, resigned, Mr. Bell was appointed to his present position-an office he has filled with singular in- telligence, fidelity, and acceptability. Mr. Bell passed through the common and high schools of Cincinnati. Since leaving school he has devoted much time to the study of hydraulics. This led him into a field of investigation which he has pursued with remarkable zeal and success. His want of a thorough scientific education seemed to be supplied by the suggestions of genius. He is mainly 'a self-educated man. In the pursuit of his investigations he has acquired a large library, consisting of scientific and miscellaneous books. The possession of these self-acquired literary attainments make him a valuable officer. His intelligence, his facile pen, his fund of information touching the history of water works sys- tem and the principles involved in its management, his great industry, genial disposition, and enthusiasm in the pursuit of his profession constitute him an important factor in the official management of that water-supply upon which a vast city depends for its existence. In 1880 he wrote the "History of the Cincinnati Water Works." This book has passed to the third edition. This interesting work, consisting of about sixty pages, is illustrated with cuts and diagrams, showing the pro- gressive steps from its humble beginning to its present mag- nitude. It is a curious page in the history of that city. We give the following extract to show his literary treatment of the subject :
"A water supply is a primary consideration in the estab- lishment of a settlement, and this want our settlers found in the natural sources of springs. As the town enlarged other means were resorted to in the sinking of wells, the construc- tion of cisterns, and providing mechanical devices to supply the deficiency from the river during the season of drought. When it became a city of some importance its demands re-
Vesterr Pug FF C
Theo & Bull
483
BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPÆDIA AND PORTRAIT GALLERY.
quired the application of a water supply, conveying the water under pressure through wooden pipes; the utilization of ox and horse power for raising the water from the Ohio River ; the early adoption of steam as a motive power; the recog- nition of all improvements in engineering science, in its new extensions, and always keeping pace with the advancement of the age-the recording of these events, therefore, makes the history useful as well as interesting to all. It is presumed our forefathers contended with the difficulties of the present day in providing a water supply commensurate with the growing town; for the first fountain of supply in springs hav- ing become insufficient they forced nature to deliver up its hidden treasures by sinking wells. But this resource neces- sarily entailed an expense for construction and maintenance which few, in those days, were able to bear. "From this came the origin of our water tax, for those enjoying the pleasures of a well, from pecuniary motives, obliged others to pay for the privilege of the new system. One of the early examples of this kind of water supply may be found in the Western Spy, of May 17, 1799, in the following card inserted by Griffin Yeatman:
"'OBSERVE THIS NOTICE .- I have experienced the many expenses attending my pump, and any family wishing to secure the benefits thereof for the future may get the same by sending me twenty-five cents each Monday morning.'
"Jealousy in trade excites competition, and even the water traffic of this period was not an exception to the rule, for as early as 1802 James McMahon, an inventive Celt, constructed a drag for the transmission of water from the river, to supply the people, in opposition to the exorbitant demands of well owners. In 1805 Mr. Gibson enjoyed almost the exclusive monopoly of supplying about seventeen hundred inhabitants with river water transported by his portable water works-a cask on wheels."
This pamphlet was followed, in 1882, by a book con- taining about one hundred and fifty pages, upon "The Water Supply of the World; containing a description of the various methods of water supply, pollution and purifi- cation of waters, and sanitary effects, with analyses of · potable waters ; also geology and water strata of Hamilton County, Ohio, statistics of the Ohio River, proposed water supply of Cincinnati, together with a number of valuable tables and diagrams." The next literary production of public interest -was a lecture delivered by Mr. Bell before the "Section of Mechanics and Engineering," January 23d, 1883, at the Mechanics' Institute, upon the "Wasteage of Water." He also delivered a lecture upon "The Use of Iron and Steel Tanks," before the American Water-works Asso- ciation, at Buffalo, in May, 1883. Mr. Bell is an assiduous student. His knowledge thus acquired upon those scientific subjects is made use of in a way that, while it enlightens others, brings its rewards. One result was the invention of the " Waterphone," which is proving of great value to this utilitarian age. Upon its appearance it attracted the atten- tion of other scientific gentlemen. November 4th, 1882, a company was organized for its management, to which was given the name of the "Bell Waterphone Company," in recognition of the genius of the inventor, and of which Cap- tain A. Q. Ross (so well known in scientific circles) is the president. The objects covered by this patent are "preven- tion of waste of water, discovering of leaks in water crafts, and detection of defects in mechanical movements." This invention was adopted by Cincinnati April 18th, 1883, mainly upon the suggestions of Arthur G. Moore. It is now in operation in New York, Buffalo, Jersey City, Rochester, Brooklyn, Milwaukee, Chicago, Memphis, Toledo, and other important points, and is thus rapidly making its way to uni- versal adoption. Mr. Bell married Miss Julia P. Foster, and is now a resident of Walnut Hills, a suburb of the city.
He maintains an unexceptionable character as a citizen and public officer, is highly esteemed for his amiable qualities, his industrious habits, his devotion to scientific pursuits, and his acquirements in a literary point of view. He is a worthy representative of the younger class of citizens, and an em- bodiment of this thinking, inventive, progressive age. If the age of steam is passing away, if we are entering upon the age of electricity, it is because of the fact that the genius of a Franklin survives him in the person of many an explorer in scientific fields-such as the Morses, the Fields, the Edisons, and the Bells, both of the telephone and the waterphone.
JONES, THOMAS C., lawyer, legislator, and agricultur- ist, of Delaware, Ohio, was born in the parish of Myfod, Mont- gomeryshire, North Wales, February 9th, 1816. His father, Robert Jones, was a large farmer and freeholder, as his ances- tors had been for many generations. The father's mother, whose maiden name was Nicholas, was of an old Merioneth- shire family, related to the family of Chief Baron Richards. His wife was the daughter of Thomas Williams, who was also a farmer of Montgomeryshire. Fondness for horse-racing and hounds reduced the father's fortune, and in 1822 the family em- igrated to America, landing in Philadelphia after a tedious voy- age of nine weeks. Here, among the articles found necessary to dispose of to realize sufficient money to complete the jour- ney to Ohio were his mother's silverware and some of her jewelry. After many hardships in making the trip across the Alleghany Mountains, by way of Harrisburg, Pittsburg, Zanesville, etc., the family arrived at Delaware village early in the autumn of 1822. His father's brother, David, had purchased a farm in a Welsh settlement in the vicinity of Delaware, in 1820, but, in pursuance of his father's purpose in immigrating with his family to America, to become Amer- icans, they determined to make their home in a neighbor- hood of New England people, some miles east of Delaware, the county seat. At the early age of thirteen years our sub- ject had to earn his own living, working for farmers, as · opportunity offered, in spring, summer, and fall, and attend- ing school in winter. At the age of eighteen years he had learned the trade of a carpenter, and leaving home went to Cincinnati, and from there to St. Louis, then a town of about fourteen thousand inhabitants, where he worked two years, during which time he was a diligent student. He then returned home, where he arrived in the autumn of 1836, and the next year entered as a law student in the office of his brother, Edward Jones, at that time a young lawyer of excel- lent promise. His brother dying in 1838, the following win- ter our subject taught a district school, and in April, 1839, started for England to dispose of the remnant of his father's estate, which had been saved by an entail upon it. Crossing the mountains on horseback he arrived safely at Philadel- phia, where he sold his horse and took passage for England, where he arrived in the usual time, and spent the following eighteen months studying law, and constantly attending as a student the sessions of the courts with great personal advan- tage. In the spring of 1841 he returned to America, and having passed an examination before the Supreme Court of Ohio, then holding its session at Gallipolis, with Justices Peter Hitchcock and Thomas S. Grimke, and also Hon. S. F. Vinton as one of his examiners, was licensed to prac- tice, and opened an office in Delaware with good prospects. In a few months, upon the invitation of the late Judge Sher- man Finch, one of the soundest and best educated jurists of
23-B
484
BIOGRAPHICAL.CYCLOPÆDIA AND PORTRAIT GALLERY.
the State, he entered into a partnership with that gentleman that continued with the most perfect accord and cordial friendship for the next five years. In the autumn of 1842 he married Harriet, second daughter of the late Judge Hosea Williams, of an old Massachusetts family, whose ancestors were the original proprietors of Williamstown, in that State ; Judge Williams's wife, Charlotte Elizabeth Avery, being a half sister of ex-Governor Morgan, of New York, originally from Berkshire, Massachusetts. In 1843, having removed to Circleville, Pickaway County, Mr. Jones continued there in successful practice of his profession over thirteen years, hav- ing as large a share of business as any other lawyer, and being frequently employed in important cases with such law- yers as the late Hon. Thomas Ewing, Judge H. H. Hunter, Hon. Henry Stanbery, Judge Thurman, and Hon. C. N. Olds, sometimes associated with them, but more frequently engaged in opposition. In 1856, having returned to Delaware County, Mr. Jones purchased a farm near town, where he engaged (at first with Mr. C. Hills, his brother-in-law,) in breeding thor- oughbred short-horn cattle, Southdown sheep, and other fine stock, for which he always had a taste, inherited through many generations from his ancestors. The same year he formed a partnership in the practice of the law with H. M. Carper, Esq., of Delaware, the firm at once acquiring a business equal to any in the county. In 1859, being urged by the Republicans of Delaware and Licking counties to become a candidate for the State Senate, he was elected by a large majority, though the district, at the preceding senatorial election of 1857, had been carried by a decided majority by his Democratic oppo- nent. In the Senate as a member of the judiciary and finance committees, and chairman of the committee on public works, he was a hard-working member, and absent from duty but a single day during the two sessions in which he served. At the January meeting of the State Agricultural Society, 1859, he was elected a member of the State Board of Agriculture, and continued such for eight years, being one year president, and another year acting-president of the board. In the fall of 1861 he was elected Judge of the first subdivision of the Sixth Judicial District, composed of the counties of Delaware, Licking, and Knox, and re-elected in 1866, thus serving for the term of ten years, with general satisfaction to the public and the bar. Though a man of decided convictions, as a Whig and subsequently a Republican, holding fast to the faith delivered by Washington, Marshall, and Daniel Webster, and opposing the heresies of Jefferson, Calhoun, and Jefferson Davis, and always taking a lively interest in the results of elections, no man can say that he ever asked for his support in a nomi- nating convention or at an election. He was a member of the Republican convention, and chairman of the Ohio delega- tion at Chicago, in 1868, which nominated Grant and Colfax, and he supported Senator Wade for the second place. He was also a member of the national convention in 1876, and a strong supporter of Hayes, whom he had known from his childhood, and with whom he had been at school in Dela- ware, his native town. Since the expiration of his second term on the bench he has been engaged in agriculture and duties connected therewith, and other business affairs. As trustee of the Ohio Agricultural College at the first organiza- tion of the board, and as chairman of the executive com- mittee, and member of the committee on faculty and instruc- tion, he is largely responsible for the design and erection of the college buildings, as well as the selection of the original corps of professors and the character of the course of study.
In 1876 he was one of the jury selected to award the honors in the cattle department of live stock at the world's fair, at Philadelphia, and chosen chairman of the same. In 1880 he visited Great Britain with his wife, and with the aid of a letter from President Hayes made extensive observations with reference to our live stock trade with that country, and the effect of the British restrictions upon our exports. The result of his observations was furnished in a letter to the President, which he caused to be published for distribution among breeders and others interested in this most important branch of our export trade. In the year 1881 he was ap- pointed on a commission under a special act of Congress to examine and report upon the agricultural needs and re- sources of the Pacific States ; in this work being associated with Professor E. W. Hilgard, of the University of California, and ex-Governor Robert Furnas, of Nebraska. In the Gov- ernment's earnest endeavor to solve the Indian question the wisdom of Judge Jones was recognized in his being appointed on several commissions. He was an official visitor to the Naval Academy of Annapolis. As a writer on agricultural topics, especially in the department of animal industry, he has a national reputation. The Ohio Association of Breed- ers of Short Horn Cattle conferred the honor upon him of electing him as its first president, he having been the leading spirit in its organization, and likewise in the publication of the Ohio Herd-book. The judge is a man of sincere and ear- nest convictions, liberal and public spirited, of genial tem- perament, loves intercourse with his fellow-men, and in the social circle is always a conspicuous figure. Being an ex- tensive reader he is at home on most questions of living in- terest ; and, blessed with conversational powers of a high order, his words always command attention, while his re- tentive memory for anecdote and illustration and his powers of entertainment are rare and well used. Religiously, too, he . is no negative character. He and his household are identi- fied with the Protestant Episcopal Church, belonging to that branch of the Church that lays great emphasis upon the term "Protestant." With clear views of the doctrines of grace, he antagonizes, as if by instinct, all that is Romish or rationalistic, and is a sturdy champion for what is usually known as orthodox religion. In all enterprises that aim after truth and righteousness he may be counted on ; and, with the broadest sympathies, and without regard to ecclesiastical names, he fellowships all who fear God and hate iniquity. He for many years was a trustee of the Theological Seminary, and of Kenyon College, established by that Church, at Gam- bier more than half a century ago. His family has consisted of four children-the eldest being Hosea Williams, a clergy- man of the Protestant Episcopal Church; and Arthur Ham- ilton, a farmer ; while the family now consists of a daughter, Charlotte Martha, and a younger son, Thomas Clive.
FORAKER, JOSEPH BENSON, lawyer and jurist, of Cincinnati, and Republican candidate for Governor of Ohio, was born near Rainsboro, Highland County, Ohio, July 5th, 1846. His parents, who are still living, represent the sturdy agricultural class of our population, and upon their farm, on the Rocky Fork of Paint Creek, he spent his earliest years. It is said that sometimes those traits of character by which distinction is afterward attained are not at all shown in boy- hood. This is not the case with Judge Foraker. He was a leader in his boyhood. His schoolmates at the country school-house he attended in the winter remember him as
Western
= Utoraken 1
a'
-
485
BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPÆDIA AND PORTRAIT GALLERY.
foremost in the sports and games of the school, and as eager in the pursuit of such learning as could be had. He early began to take part in the labors of the farm and the mill operated by his father, and while but a small boy could manage horses and ride like a Camanche. Samuel Newell, for a long time miller on the Fork, was young Foraker's prime favorite in those early days. A great reader of the newspapers, and a man well informed on all the questions of the day, he never tired of answering the countless ques- tions put to him by the boy, who was insatiate in his thirst for information. His questioner's interest in politics began almost with his infancy, and as a boy he acquired a most un- usual knowledge of this complicated subject. When he was fifteen the war of the rebellion broke out, and his elder brother, the lamented Captain Burch Foraker, went into the army. Ben (for by that name he was known in the family and the neigh- borhood) wanted to go too. His parents very naturally objected. He was too young-besides, one son was already gone, and might never return. But Ben chafed under the restraint, and finally, fearing he would go anyhow, his parents gave a reluc- tant consent. By this time the second year of the war had rolled round. The 89th Ohio Volunteer Infantry was being recruited in Clermont, Ross, Brown, and Highland Counties, and Captain (afterward Colonel) W. H. Glenn was raising a company at Hillsboro for this regiment. In this company, which became Company A, Ben Foraker volunteered. The commissioned officers of the company were then selected, but those who first put down their names were informed that the man who brought in the most recruits for the company would be first or orderly sergeant, the next second sergeant, and so on through the list of non-commissioned officers. For- aker brought in the most recruits, and thus was entitled to be or- derly sergeant. He was but a boy, sixteen years old, and knew nothing whatever about soldiering, as he said, and voluntarily gave up that place to the man who was next to him in the number of recruits, and who had some experience as a sol- dier, and took the second sergeantcy. The 89th went im- mediately into active and severe service. Its terrible marches and camp privations, as well as losses in battle, rapidly thinned the ranks and made way for promotions, by loss of commissioned officers. Ben Foraker had taken part in all this service, and had become successively orderly sergeant, second and first lieutenant, and finally captain. As such he commanded two companies in the attack at Mission Ridge, and led them over the ridge into the enemy's works, being the first man of the regiment to enter. He was with Sherman in his celebrated march to the sea. He was at the fall of At- lanta; afterward an aid to General H. W. Slocum, who com- manded the left wing of Sherman's army. He did many acts of bravery, which were duly recognized by prompt pro- motion. The war being over, Foraker came home and at once began his efforts for a better education. In this he was assisted by his brother Burch, who had also passed through the perils of war, and had successfully started in business in Hillsboro. He studied awhile at South Salem, Ross County, and then entered the Ohio Wesleyan University, at Delaware, as a freshman. He remained here two years, after which he went to Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, where he grad- ated with its first class, in 1869. At college he was an earn- est student, stood high in his classes, and was popular with the boys. He was also popular with the professors, and was both brainy and courageous. He belonged, at Cornell, to the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity, and was one of three men who
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.