USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume II > Part 56
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of its board of directors since 1881 ; and it is but justice to say that during the twenty years of his directorship Mr. Holden has given a very large amount of valuable time to the interests of this institution-more than most men actively engaged in business would feel that they could afford. He has always appreciated the value of the Refuge, one of the noblest institutions of Ohio, and has given his services- gratuitous, always-freely, willingly, gladly. He has been, since its organization, one of the directors of the National Lafayette and Bank of Commerce; was a director of the Cin- cinnati and Baltimore Railroad; is at present a trustee of the Denison University, at Granville, Ohio; has been closely connected with the Associated Charities, being at one time president of the Mount Auburn branch ; is a member of the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Children ; and is also a director in the Home of the Friendless. Be- sides giving his time and attention to these various institu- tions, Mr Holden has always been a a liberal giver of "material aid," and not only to organizations in which he is personally interested, but to all charitable objects, to Churches of all denominations, to almost every worthy object his purse-strings have been loosened. Of him, too, it can truly be said that his left hand knows not what his right hand gives. His charities are of the unostentatious kind. Many a want has been supplied, many an aching heart gladdened, which none knew of but the giver and recipient. Thus is he, and thus has he been, serving his day and generation, and he has part of his reward in the high personal esteem in which he is held wherever known. At his advanced age he is still in the enjoyment of remarkable health. He has not been seriously sick since 1835. His family now consists of the faithful wife who through years of toil and care and prayer has walked by his side until, together, they can sit down in the enjoyment of that which has come to them in return for strenuous, honorable endeavor, as a competence for the evening of life-also, five children-Emma A., now Mrs. James C. Crane; Laura H., married to Mr. S. Phelps Cheseldine ; Kate A., the wife of Major William E. Crane; Florence C., who married Mr. Charles E. Wilson, and R. A. Holden, Jr. These children all reside on Mount Auburn, the son with his father at the homestead, and the daughters in their own homes not far removed. It is one of the joys of Mr. Holden's life that his children are around him in the evening of life, for thus has he been the better enabled to share liberally his means with them. Quiet, modest, un- ostentatious, with frugal habits, his own requirements have been very limited, while he has been ever liberal to others. And it is one of his greatest sources of pleasure to see his family, while he is yet with them, enjoying the blessings Providence has placed in his path. Contact with the world, a long, hard struggle at first; many a disappointment in business, but never a failure ; many a loss, doubtless through the faithlessness of others, but never a load too heavy to bear-these things may have grieved, but they did not dis- courage him. His Christian fortitude, his faith, never failed, never forsook him. In the possession of wealth, surrounded by a loving family, by troops of friends, spending his time partly in business, partly in Church enterprises, partly in noiseless, numberless ways of doing good-and notably in discharging the duties devolving upon him as director of the House of Refuge, where his name is both loved and hon- ored-what life is more worthy of record in the State where he has lived for more than fifty years? His is a rounded,
complete Christian character. Whatever of success he has achieved he attributes to his adherence to the principles of the Christian religion. And for this reason his life has been as beneficent as it has been successful.
DE CAMP, DANIEL, builder and manufacturer, of Cincinnati, and as such president of the Hamilton County House Building Association, president of the Taylor and Faulkner Manufacturing Company, and the leading member of the firm of De Camp, Levoy & Co., wholesale manufac- turers of saddlery, was born four miles south of Oxford, in Reily Township, Butler County, Ohio, December 28th, 1813. He is the oldest living male representative of one of the largest and most respectable families in the State. The De Camps are of French-Huguenot origin. His grandfather, Moses De Camp, was a soldier throughout the American Revolution, and as such rose to the rank of captain. His parents, Ezekiel and Mary (Baker) De Camp, emigrated from New Jersey in 1812; with them came also his grand- father, then in the seventy-seventh year of his age, with his wife Sarah De Camp. They came in wagons the entire distance. Upon arriving at Cincinnati the first suggestion was to purchase twenty-eight acres, then upon its outskirts but now in the heart of that city. But it met the em- phatic protest of the grandfather, who had come to find a farm in the West. They therefore moved up the Miami Valley, and located upon a quarter section of land in Reily Township, Butler County. There they built an additional log cabin, and settled down to the hard and comfortless life of pioneers. The story of old settlers' lives was repeated in theirs. Amid the austerities and privations of uncultivated nature they struggled for self-subsistence and for the support of the seventeen children that finally constituted that family Circle-Phebe, Hannah, David, Walter, Hiram, John, Harvey, Joseph, Margaret, Henry, Daniel, James, Moses, Sarah, Mary, Lambert, and Job-as noble and true-hearted, as honest and industrious and congenial a band of brothers and sisters as ever sprang from one household. Moses died at eleven years of age. The others all grew to man's estate, and married. Most of them settled in Cincinnati. It is a remarkable fact that a "family jar " never occurred in their history-a fact ascrib- able to early parental training, to meeting around the family altar, where prayer was daily made for daily bread, for for- giveness of sins, and deliverance from the evil that is in the world. Two reunions of this family occurred at the old home- stead ; the first in 1851, when one hundred and fifty-three were present ; the second in 1870 (after the death of their venerable ancestors), when two hundred and sixty-one came. together. They all gathered around one table, with chairs for the absent and the dead. Had all been living and pres- ent they would have numbered three hundred and sixty- three, and including connections by marriage, would have numbered four hundred and fifty-six. One month before the assassination of President Lincoln eight of these brothers- David, Walter, Hiram, Harvey, Joseph, Daniel, Lambert, and Job, visited Washington City, and were introduced to the President by Judge William Johnston, as "eight brothers from Ohio, who all voted for him, and who daily prayed to the Almighty that he might be guided by wisdom, and the Union preserved." Daniel was the first child born in that log cabin. He was rocked in a cradle made out of a hollow elm tree. He is to-day living in a tasteful, refined, and beautiful home in a suburb of Cincinnati which he founded,
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built, and adorned; possessed of wealth, an honorable record among his fellow-men, a Christian gentleman, who has ex- emplified his faith by his works; a business man with a stainless reputation ; a tender-hearted father at his fireside ; with malice toward none, and charity for all the world besides. We will now briefly follow his footsteps from that log cabin to his present home. Almost as soon as he began to walk he began to work, in the garden and field. At fourteen he drove alone the two-horse team to the mills upon the Miami, a journey requiring two days for its completion. He began to learn the trade of a builder, under his brother John, in the . most primitive way-that of felling trees and squaring them with the broad ax, for building barns and hewed log houses. February, 1833, he made his first visit to Cincinnati, with a view to making his fortune. Some of his elder brothers had already preceded him. His first employment was under the Denman Brothers, builders, on George Street, between John Street and Central Avenue. In 1835 he formed a partner- ship with his brother Joseph, as J. & D. De Camp, builders, on Kemble Street (now Eighth), between John Street and Central Avenue. As he progressed in business he more and more felt the need of an education, at least such as pertained to his vocation. His educational advantages had been very limited. About this time (1836) he availed him- self of an opportunity to take a few lessons in drawing, and afterward attended a course of lectures at Mechanics' Institute. In a class of forty none excelled him in point of application. This partnership continued until 1864. During its existence they built many residences, stores, school build- ings, and churches-the most prominent buildings being the depots, round-house, and workshops of the Cincinnati, Ham- ilton and Dayton Railroad; also of the Indianapolis and Cin- cinnati Railway; the first Pike's Opera-house; Glenn's, Car- lisle's, Bishop's, and Cleneay's business blocks. In the mean time Mr. De Camp had become a resident of Glendale. Some of the principal residences of that suburb went up under his supervision-the residences of Justice Stanley Matthews, of Mrs. Daniel McLaren, Robert Clarke, Esq., and his own private residence there, now the home of Mrs. Dr. Patterson. In 1867 Mr. De Camp organized the Hamil- ton County House Building Association, of which he has always been president. It began operations by improv- ing Wesley Avenue, in Cincinnati, building six houses there, and six on Everett Street. The next undertaking by the company, and the one in which Mr. De Camp figures conspicuously, was platting and laying out the grounds, and the embellishment and final upbuilding of the village of Hartwell, now one of the most desirable and beautiful suburbs of Cincinnati. Fifteen years ago-1868-the site of that village was a cornfield, with nothing but the presence of the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad to suggest its desirability as a place to build a suburb. The work of landscaping began according to his taste, and was carried on under his immediate supervision. For this he evinced the possession of a special talent. He comprehended at a glance the contour, and with reference thereto he laid out the streets and graded them, platted the entire village, planted trees, located the park, depots, church lots, and in a man- ner now completely justified by its beauty and popularity as a suburb. Thus about two hundred acres were trans- formed into a smiling village within a decade. During that time he planned and superintended the erection of more than fifty residences in that village, and he is still thus en-
gaged. As an incorporated village it now has a population of over five hundred, and is rapidly growing in popular esteem. Within the precincts of Hartwell proper, which he established, there is not an objectionable feature as a quiet, lovely retreat from the city. It would seem that in its upbuilding he had imparted to his' handiwork some of his own individual characteristics-morality, order, temper- ance. It is an admitted fact that but for him Hartwell would not have been built. It is his work, as president of that association. He pressed the enterprise to completion, and that in the face of competing suburbs in its vicinity. Hartwell will always bear the impress of the hand and of the unconquerable will of the man that paused not, neither looked to the right or the left as he pushed forward to accomplish a predetermined purpose. Not many-perhaps not any-of his original associates remain with him now. His own beautiful typical home-of his own planning and construction-stands in its midst, comprehending a view of the park, the church, and of the entire village which he built by the "might of his power," and it may be said to the honor of his name. Mr. De Camp is also president of the Taylor & Faulkner Manufacturing Company, one of the most extensive establishments in Cincinnati, engaged in sup- plying all kinds of building material. It is a source of material prosperity to that city that can not be overestimated. He is also the head of the firm of De Camp, Levoy & Co., wholesale manufacturers of saddlery, one of the largest of the kind in the United States, and exercising an industrial influence of the highest importance to the commercial welfare of the community. Mr. De Camp joined the Presbyterian Church, in 1842, under the pastorate of the Rev. Dr. Lyman Beecher. He first had become a member of the choir, then conducted by T. B. Mason, whither Mr. De Camp's love for music and talent in that direction had led him. He remem- bers saying to himself when he first appeared in that relation to the Church, "This is a good place to be." The next step was into the Church fold itself. He was a member also of the Eclectic Academy of Music, of which the late Judge Jacob Burnet was president, and of which Mr. Mason was the musical conductor. This well organized body of musicians, under such distinguished leadership, revolutionized the music of that city. They rendered Haydn's "Creation" for the first time in the West. As his love of sacred music had led ' him to join the Church, so there he found in the exercise of this talent an opportunity to do good. He became active at once in Church work, especially in local mission fields. At Dr. Beecher's suggestion prayer-meetings were organized at the homes of his elders. Mr. and Mrs. De Camp attended that which met at Elder Fifield's, on West Eighth Street. Soon after they met in a room over Merrill's drug store, on the south-east corner of Sixth Street and Central Avenue, where they held prayer-meetings and Sunday-school, and from which they distributed tracts, etc., in an effort to do good and build up the parent Church. They finally organ- ized under Congregational polity, and subsequently resolved to build a church-now the Seventh Street Congregational Church. Upon the completion of its basement they worshiped there for a while. At the end of a long, hard struggle, the main building was finished. Mr. De Camp is a part of its history. He gave much of his money and time to its construction, and offered many a prayer in its behalf. He was one of its deacons and trustees, and an active, influential member thereof, until he removed to Glendale, whereupon he became
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connected with the Presbyterian Church of that place, and where he still maintains his Church relationship. Mr. De Camp married July 23d, 1835, Miss Ellen Lee, a native of the north of England. She united with Dr. Beecher's Church at the same time that Mr. De Camp did, and with him has journeyed on the spiritual way to the present time. These are the names of their living children : Thomas Lee; Edwin Francis, Emma J. (now Mrs. George H. Taylor), Lyman Beecher (thus named to perpetuate his father's affectionate regard for Dr. Beecher, who baptized his son, presented him with a Bible, and inscribed a prayer therein that his name- sake might meet him in heaven), Daniel Baker, and Freddie Storrs. Robert Osborn died in his fourteenth year, and Ev- alina, Ellen, and Ella in infancy. Mr. De Camp is a high- minded, conscientious, Christian gentleman, against whose character, either public or private, not one word of reproach has ever been justifiably uttered. A self-made, a self-edu- cated man, his life has been crowded with work, and it is crowned with the most gratifying success. From early child- hood work has been the law of his life. He worked his way to eminence and to affluence, and that while he was striving for neither, but making the best use of his time, and to the utmost of his abilities. Thus he ascended the eminence upon which he stands as a representative man, not over the wrecks of others, wrought in speculation, but by per- sistently pursuing his chosen vocation, and overcoming every obstacle that interposed between his resistless will and honorable success. The precepts of religion, so early incul- cated, have been the rule, have formed the under-current of his busy, useful life. Such proverbs as these have been borne in mind : " Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eye-lids look straight before thee. Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established." Therefore failure was never written of any enterprise in which he engaged. In view of his struggles and hardships, and final success, he would leave the following words of encouragement-the truth of which he has realized in his own experience-for those who may come after him: "Every life has its opportunity. At some time or other along the road, very likely at its hardest and dreariest point, success stands with outstretched hand. The man who uses every opportunity as if it were the great opportunity of his life, is sure not to miss the crown when it is offered, because its jewels may be undiscovered. Life is full of vicissitudes, changes, and discouragements; it is also full of rewards, prizes, and opportunities. These come often at the end of a long course of discipline and patience; but to every true worker they do come at last. It is a battle in which there is no final defeat to those who strive lawfully ; a race in which no wreaths are lost to those who run faith- fully."
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WALKER, MOSES B., LL. D., of Kenton, Hardin County, Ohio, was born in Fairfield County, Ohio, July 16th, 1819. John Walker, the progenitor of the family, in this country, came from England with Lord Baltimore, and set- tled in Maryland, on a part of what was subsequently called Carroll's manor. The grandfather of our subject, Ignatius Walker, who was killed at the battle of Eutaw Springs, in the Revolutionary war, was an intimate friend of Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, and his son, the father of our subject, John Walker, came into Ohio in 1798, a pioneer farmer. He was one of the builders of Martin's block-house in the Scioto Valley, that refuge for the early settlers from the attacks of
the Indians. He was also a soldier in the war of 1812. The mother of our subject was Mary Davis, a native of Mary- land, and the aunt of Henry Winter Davis. Her father died of the wounds he received in the battle of Eutaw Springs. From the time he was able to do so until his sixteenth year, our subject worked on his father's farm, that father being most of the time laid up with rheumatism ; but in the midst of such a responsibility as being the principal support of his family, he procured school-books, and whenever opportunity offered prepared himself, to the best of his ability, for college. In his seventeenth year he entered the freshman class of Augusta College, Kentucky, upon the condition that he should bring up the studies in which he was deficient. After two years he had, on account of ill-health, reluctantly to re- turn home, when his eldest brother, having resolved to assume the responsibility of his education, sent him to Wood- ward High School, Cincinnati. In this institution he re- mained two years, and then went to Yale College, where he remained three years, when, on account of hemorrhage, he had to return home. After recovering his health he entered as a law student the office of Judge William A. Rogers, of Springfield, Ohio, and was thus employed about one year. He afterward went into the office of Judge Joseph H. Crane, of Dayton, and attended lectures at the Cincinnati Law School, where he graduated with the class of 1846. Then, in connection with H. V. R. Lord, he opened an office at Dayton, and another at Germantown, Ohio, the latter in charge of Mr. Lord, he himself. remaining in charge of that at Dayton. About this time, the war with Mexico hav- ing begun, he raised a company for an Ohio regiment, but in the allotment of troops at Camp Washington, the larger part could not be mustered in, and were sent home. He consequently returned to his law practice, in which he con- tinued until 1861, practicing in both Federal and State courts under the firm name of Walker, Holt & Walker, one of his partners being Judge George B. Holt, an eminent lawyer, of Dayton, and the other his own nephew. With the muster- ing in of troops in Ohio, Governor Dennison offered him com- mand of one of the regiments, which he accepted, and went into the war as colonel of the 31st Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Being offered a commission in the regular army about this time, he accepted such commission, but went out with his regiment. He was appointed a captain in the 12th regiment of regular infantry. His Ohio regiment having become a part of the army of the Cumberland, he participated in every battle of that army, except Mission Ridge. The battle of Stone River, in which General Walker bore an honorable part, was the first in the order of our battles which made a decided impression upon the cause. The victory was de- cisive, though its results were not what could have been desired. Politics were agitating the minds of the people; the opponents of the war were busy in Ohio; the results of the preceding election indicated a very unfavorable change in the minds of the people. Shortly after the battle, intend- ing, as far as possible, to counteract this tendency, General Walker, with some of the officers of his brigade, determined to address the people of Ohio in a formal manner on the condition of the country, wants and necessities of the army, and to administer a rebuke to those who were opposing the war and by loud-spoken treason in the North hindering the enlistment of men to fill up the broken ranks of the army. Colonel John M. Connel, Generall Jesse D. Ward, Colonel F. W. Lester, and some others whose names are not now
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remembered, took a prominent part in getting up the address of the Ohio soldiers. Colonel Connell, in a speech made at Columbus, Ohio, subsequent to the war, ascribed the honor of the address, as well as the authorship, to General Walker. The General himself thinks the honor should be divided. It is a well known fact of history in the early part of the war that the effect of this address was wonderful, not only in Ohio but in other States. Public meetings were held through- out Ohio in consequence of it, and the address read to the people publicly. The whole State became aroused; their sympathy for the cause and hope in its success were renewed and strengthened, and the Northern traitors henceforth met their just reward at the hands of the patriotic. In the great battle of Chickamauga, it is well known that General Walker bore an heroic part, so much so that General James B. Steedman, who has himself received the pet name of "Old Chickamauga," in a political speech during the Garfield cam- paign, declared publicly, to a large audience in Northern Ohio, that General Walker was the hero of that battle. By his exertions and the powerful influence which he had over the troops of his own brigade, as well as others which fought under him, he succeeded in bringing the shattered and broken ranks again into order, reforming the lines upon the hill-tops and maintaining the position throughout the entire day-Sunday, September 20th, 1863. He fought under Gen- eral Thomas's eye, and commanded the rear guard when Thomas's corps fell back through the mountains on Sunday night; and on Monday morning, at Rossville, he had the dis- tinguished honor of receiving the thanks of the corps deliv- ered to him by General Brannon, at the head of his division. In the consultations which took place on Sunday night, be- fore Thomas decided to withdraw his troops, General Walker strongly opposed the retrograde movement, and the wisdom of his counsel was afterward personally acknowledged by General Thomas himself, and up to the hour of his death he regretted that he did not act as General Walker advised him to do, in a personal consultation on that memorable night. Commanding the rear guard, General Walker was the last man who left the bloody field of Chickamauga, on Sunday night. He was three times wounded during the day, and was so weak and exhausted from loss of blood and the fatigue and fasting from the two days of battle that he had to be tied into his saddle, and his horse (afterward called by the soldiers "Chickamauga "), so well trained to battles and marches that he carried him safely back to Rossville, reach- ing there about daylight in the morning, with all the troops who were able to leave the field. The General says that of all his experiences the cries and moaning of the wounded left on Sunday night upon the battle-field were the most heart-rending. General Walker, like all the officers that served under General George H. Thomas, is enthusiastic in his admiration of that great man's character. In a speech made on the 30th of May, 1883, at Dunkirk, Ohio, in speak- ing of Thomas, he related the anecdote of the Greek chiefs who, after the battle of Salamis, came together to award the prizes for individual merit. The historian Herodotus says that each one voted for himself as most worthy of the first prize, but all voted for Themistocles as most worthy of the second prize. This was taken as proof conclusive that the first prize really belonged to Themistocles. The General thinks that Thomas was the Themistocles of our army. After the battle of Chickamauga General Walker received the com- mission of a brigadier-general of volunteers, by brevet, for 26-B
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