USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume II > Part 69
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of Wooster University, in which his daughter, Alice B. Rob- inson, his only surviving child, graduated in 1881. J. W. Robinson is about five feet ten inches in height, slen- derly built, graceful and quick in movement. He has a long beard, prematurely gray, a keen eye, and very kindly face. As a business man he is scrupulously honorable in all his dealings with his fellow-man. He is a man of excellent Christian character, a cheerful companion, urbane in manner, wise in counsel as a friend ; conservative, yet liberal, in view as a citizen. He is well known in Central Ohio as a dis- tinguished lawyer. He is a man in whose character are grouped many rare and noble qualities. His is truly a recog- nized life. He was married to Mary J. Cassil, February 8th, 1855, daughter of Judge John Cassil, of Marysville, Ohio. Arthur H., who died in his sixteenth year, and Alice B. Rob- inson, are their only children.
MARKBREIT, LEOPOLD, ex-minister of the United States to the Republic of Bolivia, was born in Vienna, in 1842, and came with his parents, toward the end of the year 1848, to America, settling with them in Cincinnati, where he lost his father in December of the same year. He received his early education partly in Sandusky, Ohio, partly in Phila- delphia and Cincinnati, in which latter city he studied law in the office of his half-brother, Hon. Frederick Hassaurek. After being admitted to the bar, he practiced law as junior part- ner of R. B. Hayes, who became President of the United States a number of years afterward. The firm was called Hayes & Markbreit, and had its office on the south-east corner of Court and Main Streets, in the Debolt Exchange Building. It did not remain long in existence, however, as both mem- bers entered the army shortly after the outbreak of the war of the Rebellion. Colonel Markbreit served at first as sergeant- major of the 28th Ohio Regiment, and was promoted right after the battle at Carnifex Ferry, for bravery on the field, to the rank of second lieutenant, and advanced rapidly to the rank of first lieutenant, adjutant, and assistant adjutant-general, with the rank of captain. He served under Generals Moor, Crook, Roberts, Cox, and Averell; took part in the battle of South Mountain, and in many other engagements, and was always a favorite with his superior officers and comrades. Unfortunately, in December, 1863, his military career was brought to a sudden close by Averell's so-called "Salem raid " into Confederate territory, for the purpose of destroy- ing railroad bridges, etc., during which Colonel Markbreit was captured and sent to Libby Prison, in Richmond. And now began the story of his sufferings, through which he attained a sad celebrity. After five months of ordinary im- prisonment, he and three other victims were selected as hostages, and placed in close confinement, to prevent the execution of four rebels, who were charged with recruiting within the Union lines, in Kentucky (which charge was of a rather doubtful nature, as that part of Kentucky could be considered as disputed ground), and had been sentenced to death as spies, by a military court convened by General Burnside. The four hostages were placed in a subterranean dungeon of the Libby, where they had hardly room enough to lie down at night. For months they were lying buried in this hole, and received only one meal a day. Even this meal was insufficient to appease their hunger, for it con- sisted generally only of a handful of corn-meal (into which the cobs had been ground), a little piece of rotten bacon and some rice or beans. This food was not enough for life,
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and too much for absolute starvation. The unfortunate men were soon reduced to skeletons, and would, doubtless, have died, if the negroes employed in the Libby Prison had not, from time to time, smuggled in some food to them. The rats which the prisoners killed with pieces of wood in their dungeon were cooked for them by the kind-hearted negroes, and taken back to their cells. The sufferings the poor pris- oners had to endure were beyond all comprehension, and only when they were transported to Salisbury, North Carolina, a change for the better took place. From Salisbury Colonel Markbreit was taken to Danville, Virginia, and from there back to the Libby, till at last, in February, 1865, his half- brother, F. Hassaurek, succeeded in having him liberated. He had been imprisoned for more than thirteen months. His health had been injured by these sufferings to such a degree that he never fully recovered. In the winter following his release he suffered from hemorrhage of the lungs, and had to take a trip to Havana for his health. The state of his health was since then very delicate, and this was one of the reasons why General Grant gave him a chance to reside in a temperate and uniform climate. Immediately after his release from captivity Colonel Markbreit was elected by his fellow-citizens in Cincinnati to a responsible city office, which he held for two terms. Governors Cox and Hayes made him a member of their staff, with the rank of colonel. In April, 1869, be was appointed United States Minister to Bolivia. During his stay there he visited all parts of that country, and, as there are but few roads fit for vehicles in Bolivia, made extended trips on horseback to Cochabamba, Sucre, Potosi, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, etc. The headquarters of the United States Minister were generally at the capital, La Paz, where he was an eye-witness to several bloody rev- olutions. On such occasions he protected, often at the risk of his own life, the lives and property of the members of the overthrown governments, who sought refuge with the United States legation. In 1871 he saved the life of Mariano Donato Muñoz, the prime minister of the overthrown President Mel- garejo. Muñoz had fled to the house of the United States Minister, and succeeded in escaping from there to Peru. Muñoz was especially odious to the victorious party, and would have been torn to pieces if the mob had got hold of him. In 1873 Markbreit was recalled, on account of the political course of the Volksblatt in the presidential election of 1872, although the State Department had before that time given him the most flattering testimonials of approval of his course. He returned to Cincinnati, but went in July of that year to London, and from there on a business mission to the governments of Brazil and Bolivia-for the second time to South America. He represented an American steam- ship and railroad company, who intended to establish an im- portant connection between Bolivia and the Atlantic. His mission was successful in every respect. During this journey he visited not only the two countries mentioned, but also Uruguay, Chile, Peru, and Ecuador, and made a long and dangerous voyage through the Straits of Magellan. The trip through the straits generally lasts but thirty hours, but the steamer on which Colonel Markbreit had taken passage had to brave such violent storms and was in such constant danger of getting among the breakers, that the passage occu- pied seven and a half days. At last, however, the Pacific was reached in safety, and Colonel Markbreit landed at Tacua, a Peruvian port, from where he traveled six hundred miles on horseback, over the mountains, to Sucre, then the
seat of the Bolivian government. During this second pass- age of the lofty and cold Andes he suffered from an attack of the " sorroche," a disease very prevalent in those regions, of which he had already suffered during his first passage. After a successful termination of his mission, he went by way of Lima, Panama, Curacoa, and St. Thomas, to Europe; visited England, France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, and Holland, and returned in January, 1875, to Cincinnati. In March of the same year he became a stockholder in the Volksblatt Com- pany, of that city, and was elected secretary and business manager of that company. In 1879 he visited Old Mexico, Havana, and other cities south of the United States; and in 1880 he made his third visit to Europe. In February, 1882, he was appointed assistant treasurer of the United States, at Cincinnati, which position he now holds.
ANDREWS, CHAUNCEY H., of Youngstown, Ohio, bank president, railroad builder, coal miner, and iron manu- facturer, was born in Vienna, Trumbull County, Ohio, De- cember 2d, 1823. His father, Norman Andrews, was born in Hartford County, Connecticut, in 1799, and removed to Trumbull County, Ohio, in 1818, where he engaged in farm- ing, and subsequently mercantile business. In 1842 he re- moved to Youngstown, and opened a hotel, the Mansion House, which won a wide and excellent reputation. In 1850 he retired from business, and in his advancing age he became noted for the youthful vigor of his spirits, and the zeal with which he took part in field sports. He was a man of strict integrity, who did every thing well that he undertook, and who, during a long life, retained the friendship and esteem of a very wide circle. He was married twice-first to Miss Julia Hummerson, by whom he had three sons and three daughters ; and secondly, to Mrs. Lucy Cotton, by whom he had one son and one daughter. One of the sons, Lawrence G. Andrews, was educated as a physician, but afterward took charge of the furnaces at Hazelton, and managed the busi- ness of Andrews Brothers, at that place ; he also was in charge of and managed the Niles Iron Company, at Niles. Wallace C. Andrews resided at Willoughby ; was a member of the firm of Andrews, Hitchcock & Co., of Cleveland, and was inter- ested in other firms. The development of the coal mines of Mahoning County attracted the attention of Chauncey H. Andrews, and ten years after his removal to Youngstown, Ohio, he commenced hunting for coal. For several years he prosecuted the search without success, spending several thousand dollars and exhausting his own means and all that he was able to procure from others. Success at length, how- ever, rewarded his efforts, and he entered upon an active and successful career as a mine owner and operator. In 1857 he opened the Thornhill bank, which in nine years produced half a million tons of coal. In 1858 he established the firm of Andrews & Hitchcock, and in 1863 they opened the Burnet bank, one of the largest mines in the Mahoning Valley, and were the first to ship coal over the Hubbard Branch Railroad. In the same year they opened the Hub- bard Coal Company mines, which produced furnace coal. In 1864, in connection with his brother, W. C. Andrews, he opened the Oak Hill and Coal Run mines, on the Mitchel- tree farms, in Mercer County, Pennsylvania, which devel- oped into large enterprises. In connection with these he made a contract with James Wood & Sons that resulted in the establishment of four furnaces and rolling mills at Wheatland, and the calling into existence of a thriving
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James Me. Jones
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town at that place. Those mines were sold in 1868 to James Wood & Sons. In 1865, in company with others, he pur- chased a large interest in the Westermann Iron Company, at Sharon, Pennsylvania, the property including a rolling-mill, two furnaces, and a coal bank, and being one of the largest iron works in all respects, owning its own railroad and equip- ment, as well as its own coal fields. In connection with these works was the Brookfield Coal Company, in which also he was interested. About the year 1868, in connection with his two brothers, he purchased the Stout mines, near Youngs- town, and afterward built what are called the Hazelton fur- naces, at which time he organized the firm of Andrews Brothers, which firm still continues to manufacture iron and mine coal. About the same time, in connection with Mr. William J. Hitchcock, he built the Hubbard furnace, in Hub- bard Township, which was one of the first sixty feet furnaces built in the Mahoning Valley. In 1868, also, in connection with W. C. Andrews and W. J. Hitchcock, he opened the Stewart mine, under the name of the Stewart Coal Company. This mine, which proved productive, was afterward leased to the Mahoning Coal Company. In 1869, in company with W. C. Andrews and the Erie Railroad Company, he com- pleted the Niles and New Lisbon Railroad, thirty-five miles (twelve miles of which had been partially built), from Niles to New Lisbon, through fine coal fields; twenty-two miles of the road were built in ninety days. The construction of the line was wholly superintended by him, and brought to a success- ful conclusion. This was the first railroad built in that part of the country strictly for cash. On the completion of the road, it was sold to James McHenry & Co., of London, by whom it was leased to the Atlantic and Great Western Rail- way Company. In 1870, after the construction of the railroad, he (in company with his brother, W. C. Andrews) opened up four mines of bituminous coal in Columbiana County, estab- lished the Ohio Coal and Mining Company, and the New Lisbon Coal Company, which furnished a fine quality of bituminous coal, and they likewise opened the Pennel mine, at Austintown, Mahoning County, on the Niles and New Lis- bon Railroad. In 1871, in connection with his brother, he opened up two mines, the Andrews Coal Company and the Holliday Coal Company, in Vienna, Trumbull County. In 1872 the firm of Andrews Brothers bought the Harris & Blackford rolling-mill, at Niles, doubled its capacity, and founded the Niles Iron Company. In the same year he and Mr. Hitchcock built a furnace at Hubbard, making the sec- ond at that place, both having proved successful. In 1872 the firm of Andrews & Brothers opened the Osborne mine, at Hazelton. This mine not only supplies the furnaces of the proprietors, but makes large shipments to the Cleveland market. In 1871 he helped to project and carry through the Mahoning Coal Road, in which he owned a large interest; this connected with the Franklin Branch (Lake Shore) Rail- road, at Andover, thus giving the Mahoning Valley an outlet to all points east and west over the Lake Shore Railroad and its connection, and also a connection with the harbor at Ashtabula. During the same year, with his brother, W. C., and William J. Hitchcock, he opened the Foster mine and formed the Foster Coal Company. This is a deep mine, which promises to be productive, and produces a coal of a peculiarly fine quality, which is shipped to all points, as far East as New York and Boston, where it has been successfully introduced to take the place of the English cannel coal. In 1876 Mr. Andrews was one of the organizers of the Pittsburg
and Lake Erie Railroad. He has taken an active interest in all the local enterprises of Youngstown and Mahoning County, having a greater or less pecuniary connection with them all. He is president of the William Anson Wood, Mower and Reaper, Manufacturing Company, which he assisted to es- tablish in 1880, at Youngstown. He is one of the principal stockholders in the Malleable Iron Works, established in Youngstown in 1881. He was chiefly instrumental in organ- izing the Commercial National Bank, of Youngstown, in 1880, of which he is president and a large stockholder. He is also vice-president of the Second National Bank, of Youngstown, and one of its chief stockholders. This bank was one of the first established after the resumption act. He was interested in the management of the Savings Bank, which has since merged into the Mahoning National Bank-he being one of its directors. Since the building of the Pittsburg and Lake Erie Railroad he has, in connection with W. J. McCreary, W. C. Andrews, and one or two others, built the Monto Railroad, connecting with the Pittsburg and Lake Erie Railroad at Monto Junction. In 1879 he established the Imperial Coal Company, which owns three thousand acres of coal land, and mine from one thousand to fifteen hundred tons of coal per day. This is one of the largest and finest coal fields in Western Pennsylvania, the company owning their own rail- road and equipments. He, in connection with Andrews Brothers and Andrews, Hitchcock & Co., opened in Mahon- ing County, Ohio, and Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, three very extensive limestone quarries, which furnish a consid- erable amount of freight to the Pittsburg and Lake Erie and the Lawrence Branch Railroads. In 1880 he associated him- self with W. C. Andrews and W. J. McCreary, and obtained the charter for the Pittsburg, Youngstown and Chicago Rail- road. They were afterward joined by W. J. Hitchcock and W. J. Mckinney, of Cleveland, and a few others. They formed a company, and Mr. C. H. Andrews was elected its president. This road will connect with the Pittsburg and Lake Erie Railroad, at Newcastle Junction, and will run through to Pittsburg by what is known as the River Division. In 1882 he obtained a charter for the Pittsburg, Cleveland and Toledo Railroad, of which he is also president. These are two very important railroads, fast approaching completion, to the con- struction and building of which he is now (1883) devoting all of his time and attention. He is one of the Hocking Valley syndicate, and a director and stockholder in the Hocking Valley Railroad. His busy life shows him to be a man of remarkable industry and an indefatigable worker. He was largely instrumental in making Youngstown the county seat of Mahoning County. In politics he is a Re- publican, though not an active politician. He was married in 1857 to Miss Louisa Baldwin, and has two daughters -- Edith H. and Julia L. In addition to his many other busi- ness enterprises he superintends several farms, rearing fine horses and short-horn cattle. He is most truly a represent- ative man of the Mahoning Valley, and enjoys the confidence and esteem of all who know him. Affable and pleasant in manner and conversation, he impersonates to a degree the busy, active, enterprising, and successful American gentleman.
JONES, JAMES M., lawyer and jurist, Cleveland, Ohio. Thomas Jones, Sen., and Mary A. Jones, the parents of Judge James M. Jones, who were of English and Welsh origin, removed from Herefordshire, England, and settled in Cleveland, in the spring of 1831, when it contained but a
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few hundred inhabitants. He purchased property, and estab- lished himself in business as a marble manufacturer, which he carried on until his death, which occurred June 19th, 1871, in the seventy-eighth year of his age. But a short time be- fore his death he and his wife had celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of their wedding day, surrounded by their eleven living grown-up sons and daughters. Thomas Jones, Sen., was universally respected in his life and at his death. He was always distinguished for his sturdy independence, the soundness of his judgment, his steady opposition to all forms of oppression, his devotion to what he believed to be right (whether popular or otherwise), and for the unim- peachable integrity of his character. He was very early, and for many years after his arrival in Cleveland, an active and influential official member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and a liberal contributor to its support. He was an early and uncompromising opponent of the vicious system of human slavery ; he helped to organize the old "Liberty party" in Cuyahoga County; and was one of eight persons who voted therein for James G. Birney for President of the United States, in the year 1840. He was a temperance man, and a total abstainer from all intoxicating liquors, at a period when either was uncommon. He withdrew from the Methodist Church on account of its attitude toward abolitionism, and its subserviency to the then potent slave-power, and helped to organize the Wesleyan Church, on a platform of (among other things) unrelenting hostility to the institution of slavery, and for many years he continued to be an active member thereof. But many years before his death he ceased to be a member of any Church, and gradually accepted the general theory of evo- lution-a belief in the government of the universe by fixed laws-and rejected the cardinal doctrines of the orthodox creed. Mrs. Mary A. Jones, his wife, was noted for the un- usual vigor of her mind and person, for the rare unselfish- ness and loveliness of her character, and for her unremitting devotion to her home and her large family of children. She is now over eighty years of age, in good health, and living with her son, Senator John P. Jones, of Nevada, at Gold Hill. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Jones, Sen., were the parents of thirteen sons and daughters, nine of whom are still living. The following are the names of the surviving : The eldest, Thomas Jones, Jr., is postmaster of the city of Cleveland ; William Jones, a marble manufacturer, in the same place; James M. Jones is Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, Cleveland; John P. Jones is in his second term as United States Senator from Nevada; Samuel L. Jones is superin- tendent of the "Crown Point" mine, and other valuable mines, in Gold Hill, Nevada ; Caroline is the wife of George B. Lester, Esq .; Cornelia G. is the wife of E. J. Gorham, Esq .; Frances Amelia is the wife of A. C. Hamilton, Esq. : all residing at Gold Hill, Nevada; and Fred Kitson Jones is at the head of the coining department of the United States Mint, New Orleans, Louisiana. Judge James Milton Jones, the subject of this sketch, was born in Herefordshire, in the parish of Cusop, on the banks of the river Wye, a beautiful little river, which is the dividing line between England and Wales. He was brought to this country by his parents in his infancy, and has resided in Cleveland ever since. He spent several years of his youth in passing through the various grades of common schools in Cleveland, and completed his education (so far as schools were concerned) at the excellent English and classical academy of W. D. Beattie, A. M., of Cleveland. After leaving school he became connected with
the firm of T. Jones & Sons, and learned and worked at the marble business for some time. He afterward worked in the Cleveland post-office, under his friend, the late J. W. Gray, the genial and witty editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. He became connected with and was a diligent and frequent student at the rooms of the Cleveland Library Association (so richly, since, endowed by the late Leonard Case, Esq.), and for several years was an efficient officer thereof. He became an active member of various literary and forensic societies, which exercised a decided influence on his future career ; they were composed of some of the brightest young men of the day, many of whom have since become distinguished in the realms of politics, law, literature, and theology. He very soon became known, through essays and debates, as a young gentleman with opinions and principles, and noted for the ability with which he maintained them. He was in the habit of thoroughly investigating and carefully preparing for all questions under consideration, and the breadth, vigor, and thoroughness of his discussions attracted attention and commendation. He was a frequent writer of essays, and for several years a contributor, in prose and verse, to the journals of the day. He studied law diligently for some months be- fore entering on a regular course of study and before decid- ing on the adoption of the law as his profession. In 1853 he decided to become a lawyer, and entered the office of the late Charles Stetson, Esq., as a regular student. He took charge at once of all the litigated justice business of the office, and managed it successfully without assistance. He was admitted to the bar by the District Court, at Delaware, Ohio, in June, 1855, and found himself with quite a number of cases on hand, which had accumulated by appeal from actions tried below before his admission to the bar. He very soon had acquired quite a respectable business, and steadily grew in the confidence and esteem of his clients and the public. In the year 1857 he received the nomination of his party for Judge of the City Court of Cleveland, but at the election his opponent and excellent friend, the late Judge I. C. Vail, was chosen to fill the position. He was an active participator in the discussion of all the important political questions of the day, and was successively a "Liberty party " man, a "Free-soiler," and a "Republican." He was married on the 8th of February, 1860, to Miss Ermina W. Barrows, daughter of Harmon and Leonora Barrows, of Chagrin Falls, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, and by her has had three children: Myrtie L., Jessie B., and Florence Wade Jones. In 1865 he was appointed attorney for the Western Union Telegraph Company, and for many years had charge of a large busi- ness for it, extending over a wide territory, and made, and had a fine opportunity to make, telegraph law a special study. In the year 1867 he was elected Prosecuting Attorney of the County of Cuyahoga, for a period of two years. Dur- ing his career as County Prosecutor many remarkable crim- inal trials occurred, in all of which his vigilance was unceas- ing, and his force, skill, and ability as a trial lawyer fully recognized. Conspicuous among these was the protracted trial which resulted in the conviction of Sarah M. Victor of murder in the first degree, for poisoning her brother; also the celebrated " Skinner murder " cases, in which every one of the conspirators was successively tried and convicted, although not a clue to the identity or guilt of either was at first apparent. After his term as prosecutor ceased he aban- doned criminal law, and devoted himself exclusively to his large and valuable civil practice, made up largely of litigated
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