USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume II > Part 65
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him to leave there for the city where he might, to use his own language, " shake off the shakes." His brother Benjamin's connection with the most prominent newspaper of that time in Cincinnati obtained for him an easy situation with Colonel Andrew Mack, who had just become proprietor of the Cincin- nati Hotel that stood on the site of the present Spencer House. This was then the most prominent hotel in the city, and al- though its accomodations would be regarded quite primitive now, it was then " the hotel," and pretentious enough to keep, in addition to the public bar, a reading room in which Hiram at the age of fifteen years found employment. The stories found floating through the press since his death, making Hi- ram Powers' early life a struggle for existence, have no foun- dation in fact. His great struggle occurred at a much later period, and for money honestly earned from and due him by D'Orfeuille, the showman of Cincinnati, money he had al- lowed to accumulate in his hands, and the failure to receive which obliged him to accept from men who owed him nothing the means with which he went to Italy. He remained in Col- onel Mack's reading room two years, a general favorite with its visitors, and then he got a situation in the cider vinegar and produce store of a Mr. Keating on Main street, south of Columbia street. After remaining there a year he was em- ployed as a collector by a clock manufacturer. He traveled in this capacity through Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana, until the winter season rendering the roads impassable, he was put to work in the factory, there to be engaged until spring would permit him resume his collecting business. After a few weeks engaged in the factory, greatly to the surprise of his employer he began to make clocks not only after the styles in use, but with several improvements that exhibited marked ingenuity, and worked as if he had been for many years, after thorough instruction, engaged in the business of clock- making. It was while thus engaged that changes in his life occurred which forever prevented him returning to the busi- ness of collector for a clock-maker. There were in those days two museums on Sycamore street, Cincinnati, then the centre of its business interest. One was owned and operated by a Frenchman, D'Orfeuille, already mentioned, the other by a man named Letton. D'Orfeuille had ordered a reed or- gan that would work by being turned with a crank, but his workman failed to make it work, and Hiram being called in, made the proper connections and caused it to work well, much to the unhappiness of the rival museum proprietor, Letton, who, not to be outgeneraled by a crank pressure organ, ordered of the clock-maker an organ that would not only play but do so by internal machinery and a powerful main spring requiring to be wound up, and to also move automaton figures. The clock-maker was doubtful, but his collector in- sisted he could make the thing, and on this assurance it was undertaken. The figures were to be six boys and as many girls of graduated sizes, placed opposite each other on the top of the organ, and at certain parts of the tunes the boys were to blow trumpets and the girls ring bells. It was very im- portant that these automata should be handsomely made and look natural, so Letton resolved to send to Philadelphia for wax hands and heads for them, but when Hiram was so in- formed he offered to make these also. He went to Professor Locke and obtaining the correct proportions for the composi- tion of the wax, he modeled from those of living children the heads and hands required for the wax figures. The thing was a complete success and people flocked from far and near to see it. Among them was the rival museum operator, D'Or-
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feuille, who, observing with chagrin the completeness of the machine, remarked to Nathan Guilford who had accompanied him : "These heads must have been brought from Europe ; there is no one in America could make them." Guilford re- replied, " They were made by a boy in this town, sir, who works in Watson's clock factory." "Let's go and see him," responded the showman. "I don't believe yet those heads were made here." "Nonsense !" exclaimed Guilford, " Wat- son's is only two doors from my office, and I have often watched him at work." This discussion led to Hiram's ac- quaintance with D'Orfeuille, though the former did not leave Watson's for the museum for three years afterward, or in the year 1829. In 1826 Hiram became acquainted with an old Russian named Eckstein, who taught him to model or mould in plaster, and take casts from his moulds of the models he had moulded. It was this knowledge that so greatly aided him in his wax operations, in which D'Orfeuille occasionally gave him an order, but it was not until the showman had a lot of wax images nearly destroyed by careless transportation in 1829, and Hiram agreeing to make something new out of the fragments, did he regularly attach himself to the mu- seum of D'Orfeuille as mechanician-in-chief, or, in his own language, inventor, wax-figure-maker and general mechanical contriver for the establishment. Two years afterward, he for the first time, beheld a marble bust, Canova's Washington, which was for a few days on exhibition in Cincinnati. He gazed at it for a long time in perfect silence, and then ex- claimed, as if impelled by some inward intuition, "That is what I shall do." How well he carried out his conviction the cultivated world bears witness. Nevertheless he remained with D'Orfeuille until 1835,-in that time making his mu- seum the most attractive place of amusement in the West, and with many attractions unknown even to the places of its kind in the East, when, despairing of ever being paid the money due him, he determined to go to Washington City. He did so, spent two winters there, and modelled among other busts of prominent men, that of the President, General Jackson. Finding it impossible to procure tools that he required to work his marbles, he invented a machine for making them, particularly that known as a sculptor's file. He also intro- duced a new process of modeling in plaster which obviated the necessity of making a clay model of the subject. Though his talents had gained him many warm friends and patrons, he would never have been able to realize the cherished wish of his heart-study in Italy-had not Nicholas Longworth of Cincinnati and William Preston of South Carolina, furnished him the necessary means. The kindness of these gentlemen was never forgotten, and that it should not be by those who succeeded him, he named two of his sons, the one Longworth and the other Preston Powers. Gladly availing himself of the aid Messrs. Longworth and Preston extended to him, he left America for Italy, and, although ardently wishing to do so, never saw his native land again, In 1832 he married Miss Lizzie Gibson, a daughter of James Gibson of Cincinnati, and from this union were born several sons and daughters. His foreign patronage was greatly in excess of that of his own countrymen, thereby showing a most thorough appreciation of his genius by those best able by long culture to judge. In Europe is to be found the greatest number and variety of his works. So great were the results of his industry for a quarter of a century that, large as was his studio and the number of his workmen from the time his reputation was established by the general recognition of the excellence of his genius in the
production of the Greek Slave, he found it impossible to ex- ecute the orders he was solicited to accept at his own prices. Two copies of the Greek Slave sold quite recently in England, one at $9,000 and the other for $10,000 ; and Thorwaldsen, the great Danish sculptor, said of his ideal statue of Eve, "It is a work that any sculptor might be proud to call his master-piece." Hiram Powers died at Florence, Italy, June 27th, 1873, of lung disease, after one year's illness.
RIDDLE, ABNER, banker, of Bellefontaine, Ohio, was born November 12th, 1807, in Champaign County, Ohio. It is supposed that his paternal grandfather, William Riddle, was descended from a Scotch family, though his wife was of distinct Welsh extraction. Their home was somewhere in Pennsylvania, and there a son, William, Jr., was born to them, who in early manhood (about the year 1790 or 1795) left his native State to reside in Kentucky. There he mar- ried Miss Jane Davison, a native of Virginia. The two came to Ohio about 1806, and settled in Champaign County, where Abner was born. There were seven children in the family. In February, 1812, the father died, and in the fall of the fol- lowing year the family suffered an additional bereavement- the death of the mother. Abner was yet but five years of age when left parentless, and was kindly taken into the home of an aunt. During boyhood his school advantages were very meager, as district schools were not yet intro- duced, and the youth of the rural districts had to depend upon such select or private instruction as neighborhoods might decide to furnish. When about sixteen years of age Abner began a term of apprenticeship as saddler, in the shop of an older brother, who was then in business in the village of Oxford, Butler County, Ohio. There he remained two years, when he went to Urbana, and entered the em- ploy of Mr. E. B. Cavalier, with whom he remained four years, three of which he served as apprentice and one year as journeyman. In April, 1830, Mr. Riddle went to West Liberty, Logan County, and started in business for himself, which he successfully conducted until 1833, when he formed a partnership with Mr. William Rutan, and the two were thus engaged in that and other business enter- prises for over forty consecutive years, constituting a remark- able instance of continued and harmonious business relations which was only severed by the death of Mr. Rutan, in the fall of 1878. During all these years every thing was owned by them in common-even the homes in which they lived- and only after the death of Mr. Rutan was a division of their large interests effected, which was done with mutual satisfac- tion between the heirs and Mr. Riddle. In 1848 Mr. Riddle's partner removed to Bellefontaine, and there established a branch of their business, and in 1850 Mr. Riddle himself re- moved thither with his family, and joined his partner in building up their trade in that place. The firm continued their old trade for a number of years, when they were suc- ceeded by Lewellyn, the oldest son of Mr. Riddle, who con- ducted it until his death, in 1856, and was succeeded by his brother, John, by whom the business was sold and closed up. In 1854 Mr. Riddle and a few personal friends started the enterprise of a private bank, which was known as the Ex- change Bank of Bellefontaine, being one of the first banking houses established in that place. Mr. Riddle was placed at the head of this institution, and under his judicious manage- ment it met with uniform prosperity, and passed safely through all the vicissitudes and panics for a period of twenty-
Western Biogl Pub Co.
ABNER RIDDLE.
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six years, the term of its existence. In July, 1880, it was merged into The People's National Bank, with a capital of one hundred thousand dollars, of which Mr. Riddle was made president, which position he now holds. Since the organization of this bank, which was chiefly due to him, it has met with great prosperity, and is the leading banking house of that city. Mr. Riddle is a man in whom the entire community have unbounded confidence, not only for his un- questioned integrity and purity of life, but also his ability to administer the financial interests of the bank. Aside from his own personal interests Mr. Riddle has been for a quarter of a century one of the most enterprising and public-spirited citizens of Bellefontaine, and has done as much as any other man now living in building up and promoting the interests of his city. He has not only used his influence but has been a liberal contributor in furthering such enterprises as were calculated for the general good, and is held in the highest esteem among all classes for his noble and generous traits of character. He was formerly a Whig in politics, and like the great majority of adherents of that party allied himself with the Republican party when it came into existence, which affiliation has been consistently maintained up to the present time. He has, however, never been a politician, in any sense of the word. Mr. Riddle was married in 1831 to Miss Clarissa Gooding, a member of a Massachusetts family, but then residing in Milford, Ohio. To them was born a daugh- ter, the present wife of Hon. William H. West, of Belle- fontaine, who in a few days after her birth was left motherless. In August, 1833, Mr. Riddle was again mar- ried to Miss Rebecca Magruder, a daughter of Mr. Min- yon Magruder, a Virginian by birth. By this marriage there were born six children, only one of whom-Captain John Riddle-is now living. John enlisted in the 85th Ohio Volunteers at the breaking out of the war, and was appointed to the captaincy of his company. He served as such for the term of enlistment, when he returned to his home, Bellefontaine, where he has since resided. He is an extensive stock dealer, and has also been for over fifteen years connected with his father's bank, and most of that time as assistant cashier. Another son, William, then a boy of seventeen years, was among the first to respond to the call for volunteers, and enlisted in the first regiment raised in Ohio. He was with this regiment in several hard-fought battles, as color-bearer, and several times had very narrow escapes from death, having his colors shot away, and was at his post of duty at the battle of Pittsburg Landing. He was, however, spared in these perilous experiences, only to fall on the 19th of September, 1863, at the terrible battle of Chicka- mauga. Mr. Riddle is a devoted Christian, and has been for many years one of the most prominent members of the First Presbyterian Church, of Bellefontaine.' In the summer of 1883 he had a very severe attack of sickness, and while in a continued state of unconsciousness his wife, who was also very low, died, and it was several days after her funeral had taken place before he knew of or realized his irreparable loss. Though recovering quite completely from his own sickness, it left him partially deaf.
ACKLEY, HORACE A., surgeon, born in Genesee county, New York, in 1815, died April 24th, 1859, at Cleve- land, Ohio. He was educated in the common schools of the place and finished at a private academy. He commenced the study of medicine on leaving school, and after some in-
structions at Elba and Batavia, attended a course of lectures at Fairfield, Herkimer county, where he graduated in 1833. In the following year he removed to Rochester, where he practiced in the office of Dr. Havill, and gave a course of lectures on anatomy for Dr. Delamater, at Palmyra, New York. In 1835 he removed to Ohio, settling at first in Akron, where he practiced medicine. In 1836 he gave a course of lectures in Willoughby, having been appointed demonstrator of anatomy at the Willoughby Medical College. In the same year he removed to Toledo, where he practiced his profession three years, and then removed to Cleveland, where, in con- junction with other prominent physicians and surgeons of the place, he founded the Cleveland Medical College, or the medical department of the Western Reserve College, and was appointed to the chair of surgery. This position he retained until 1858, when he resigned it. During his occupation of the chair of surgery the college acquired a high reputation in that department, and his large acquaintance and extended reputation served to attract many students from all parts of Ohio and the neighboring States. He was gifted as a surgeon and anatomist, and had already laid the foundation for an extensive and brilliant reputation. As a lecturer he was very effective and practical. His style was impressive, and he had the magnetic force required for attracting and securing the attention of his hearers. He was endowed by nature with the qualities most useful to the surgeon, being bold, dashing, and fearless in his operations, and having a strong will that enabled him to master his sympathetic emotions and hold his feelings in check. When he came to northern Ohio the art of surgery was but little known or practiced in the West, and he may justly be designated the pioneer surgeon of northern Ohio. The reputation of his operations spread far and wide, whilst the boldness of many of them, and the coolness with which they were carried through, made him famous throughout the whole country. He was a thorough Napoleon in the field of surgery, his use of the knife being as skillful as it was dashing. His nature was, however, deli- cately responsive to the sufferings of his patients, especially was this true when the subjects were little children, toward whom he always seemed to manifest a peculiar tenderness, and this irrespective of condition or circumstance. This was pronounced in his college classes : On one occasion, after a severe and critical operation on a little girl, she beckoned to him, and as he stooped to listen to her communication, put her arm around his neck and kissed him. This tender, grate- ful expression broke him down utterly. His face flooded with tears, and his emotion quickly electrified the whole class, and there was scarcely a dry eye in the ampitheatre. He was moreover nobly and truly charitable. From the well-to- do in life his fee was high, though not extreme, but upon the poor and lowly, so far as was in his power to do, he bestowed both time and skill with a most hearty gratuity. In the treat- ment of inflammations in their various stages following opera- tions, he probably had no superior in the country. He was a man of magnificent physique, extraordinary powers of endurance, and great personal courage, which were severely tested in the times of impassable roads, long distances, and rude accommodations. In social life, as in his professional, he was a man of strong convictions, lasting attachments, and deep-rooted prejudices. In every way he was a positive man, of striking appearance and marked character. His death was sudden. When coming to Cleveland from Detroit by steamer on the night of the 21st April, 1859, he was taken
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violently ill, and on his arrival at home was in an exhausted condition. He lingered in great suffering until the evening of April 24th, when his imperious decision of character again asserted itself, and he insisted on leaving his bed. He was assisted to a chair, when he sank rapidly. A restorative was given him, but he motioned the glass from his lips, and ex- pired immediately. His wonderfully successful career closed in the prime of his life. With such acquisitions of learning and skill. there would have been scarcely a limit to his possi- bilities had his life been spared.
CANFIELD, GEORGE S., journalist, of Toledo, Ohio, and assistant adjutant-general of the G. A. R., of the depart- ment of Ohio, was born at Hamburg, Erie county, New York, August 17th, 1848. His ancestry on both sides were, from a very early date, military characters, and his own father, Silas S. Canfield, was a captain in the war of the Rebellion. His paternal great-grandfather was the youngest of seven broth- ers, all of whom were soldiers in the war of the Revolution. As an earnest of their heroic patriotism in that struggle six of these brothers gave up their lives in battle for American independence and its blessings which only one, the young- est, was spared to enjoy. He had won, by his gallantry, a captaincy. Jared Canfield, the son of this only survivor, and grandfather of our subject, was a soldier in the war of 1812, and was engaged in several of the battles of that struggle. At the close of the war he settled in Erie county, New York, where the father of George S. Canfield was born and reared, up to 1856 being engaged in educational pursuits in his na tive State. Mr. Canfield's father, while yet a young man, removed to Milan, Erie county, Ohio. Here he organized the public schools and taught them as principal for some time. Then removing to Wood county; he continued in school work, connecting himself with educational affairs in various ways and capacities, till the war broke out. Matilda A. Wetherell, the mother of Mr. Canfield, is of Irish descent, having, on her mother's side, come from a family of Smiths, who were en- nobled at a very early day for distinguished military service rendered to Great Britain in one of her wars. Her grand- father was likewise a soldier of the Revolution, and in the battle of Trenton lost a leg, thus disabling him for service on land, but as soon as he recovered from the wound he entered the navy. in which service he subsequently lost an arm. In one of our memorable battles at sea he was taken prisoner. and confined on the famous prison-ship Jersey for a long time. He was the hero of one of the remarkable escapes from that prison-ship, having effected it by climbing down the side of the vessel and concealing himself in a pile of wood on a sloop, although the guards in search stabbed him with their bayonets while probing his place of concealment. He reached his home in rags and poverty, but was privi- leged to live a long and useful life, dying at a ripe old age. At the outbreak of the late Rebellion, Mr. Canfield's father raised a company, which was attached to the Twenty-first Ohio Infantry, whereupon George S., then a boy of thirteen, in keeping with the military record of his ancestry, deter- mined to enlist, and was permitted to do so in his father's company as drummer boy. The date of the enlistment was August 24th, 1861, seven days after his thirteenth birthday, whence arose the claim for him of being the youngest sol- dier of the war. He entered the service with an old drum that had been used in the war of 1812. He carried it during his enlistment, and still has it. The instrument possesses
historical interest, from having had a head knocked in for the purpose of destroying it, at Chickamauga, where it had been left on the field expecting capture by the rebels, though subsequently secured by its owner. Mr. Canfield served in all the battles fought by the Army of the Cumberland, up to and including Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, and the entire siege of Chattanooga. He was discharged shortly before the close of his three years' term, upon the re-enlistment of his regiment for the veteran service, as the government would not accept him in the veteran army on account of his age and size. His father was present with the army doing brave fighting up to the battle of Chicka- mauga, where he was taken prisoner, remaining as such till the close of the war, when he was released, although very much impaired in health, having passed through all the Southern prisons and their horrors. Thanks to a strong constitution he still lives, in Wood county, Ohio, in the enjoy- ment of good health, at the age of fifty-five. After, as a boy, serving his country like a man, for nearly three years, the veteran boy, though debarred from the siege and battle- field, was mustered into the ranks and engaged in a struggle where ignorance is the foe and knowledge the victory to be won. He enlisted in the army of schoolboys, and in that struggle he bore his part bravely, persistently, and success- fully. While his brave father was experiencing the terrors of Libby and other prisons, the son began carving out for him- self, against adverse circumstances, an education, in a way which reflected great credit upon himself for his untiring zeal and industry. There was one study which he was not required to pursue, the history of the Rebellion. That he had studied for three years, and knew well. Mr. Canfield began a preparation for college, finishing the course of study at Perrysburg High School, Ohio, in 1866, and at Saginaw, Michigan, in 1870, where he had gone on account of an old friend of his father's, J. W. Ewing, now of Ionia, Michigan, who was superintendent of the schools there. After gradu- ating at Saginaw he went to Oberlin College, Ohio, where, by extra work, he completed a four years' curriculum in two years, graduating in 1872 in the Scientific Course. Mr. Can- field then entered Michigan University, where he also grad- uated in 1875 in the Latin Scientific Course, taking the degree of Ph. B. During his successive courses of study he was obliged to earn his own way and labored in various capacities to secure the necessary means to carry him through. His edu- cational experience was as remarkable as his military service. At the age of eighteen he was principal of the public schools of Woodville, Ohio, and the next year, at nineteen, superin- tendent of the Union Schools of Bowling Green, Ohio. Dur- ing his college courses he engaged much in outside work, such as teaching, and teacher's institute work. Strictly lit- erary work also received much attention, and his articles of prose and poetry found place in many of the periodicals and public journals. Over the nom de plume of "George Wil- loughby," marking a boyhood fancy, his poems first appeared in the "Ladies' Corner" of Moore's Rural New Yorker, going thence to the magazines. During his course at Michigan University he rounded into shape his purposes for the . life of a journalist, in service which ultimately put him upon the corps of news writers of several journals. Immediately after leaving Michigan University he took an editorial position upon the Toledo Commercial, and in a few months became its editor-in-chief. In December, 1875, in company with Gen- eral Isaac R. Sherwood, he bought the Journal, the oldest
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