USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume II > Part 73
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was sent with his regiment, by order of General Thomas, to Bourbon County, where he broke up and dispersed a reg- iment which was being organized by Humphrey Marshall. He then returned to Camp Dick Robinson, when he was ordered with his command to Wild Cat, which he reached in time to save the 2d Kentucky Regiment, under Colonel Gar- rard, and assist in defeating and routing the forces under General Zollicoffer. He then marched to Lebanon, Ken- tucky, where he rejoined Thomas, and then proceeded to Mill Springs, in which battle he commanded his regiment. He returned with Thomas to Lebanon, thence to Louisville, and immediately after the fall of Fort Donelson proceeded with his regiment to Nashville. From this city he moved with his regiment to Shiloh, and, under the command of Gen- eral Thomas, took part in that battle. After the fall of Corinth he was engaged in the pursuit of Bragg's army. He served with Thomas in the campaign which culminated in the battle of Perryville, Kentucky, in which action, having been promoted to the rank of brigadier-general, he com- manded the brigade of General R. L. McCook, who had been murdered in Alabama. In the battle of Stone River he was on the extreme right flank, but his troops were not engaged. After this battle he was assigned to the First Division of the Army of the Cumberland, ten thousand strong, and posted at Triune, Tennessee, where, for sixty days, his command was almost daily engaged in skirmishing with the enemy. In May, 1863, he was assigned to the command of the post of Murfreesboro, and the railroad defenses, and in the fol- lowing August was relieved from this command by General Rosecrans, and ordered to the front, in command of the First Division of the Reserve Corps. On September 16th, 1863, he received orders to make a reconnoissance in the direction of Ringgold, Georgia, and marched to that point, skirmishing with the enemy for three hours before reaching the town. After a severe skirmish with the advance of Long- street's corps, he fell back to the Chickamauga River, where he received an order to hold the bridge on which the main road from Chattanooga to Atlanta crossed that stream. This position he held during the 19th, the first day of the battle of Chickamauga. On Sunday, the 20th, he abandoned the bridge, and went to the support of General Thomas, arriv- ing with his command in time to save the remnant of the army on the field from rout and capture. His command suffered severely, losing about three thousand men in two hours. His horse was shot under him. For the part he bore in this terrible battle he was made a major-general, on a telegram to President Lincoln, asking his promotion for distinguished and gallant services on the field, and signed by Generals Rosecrans, Thomas, and Granger. When Gen- eral Sherman advanced from Chattanooga, in April, 1864, General Steedman was assigned to the command of the District of Etowah, extending from Stevenson, Alabama, to the rear line of the army, and to control the railroads in the headquarters at Chattanooga. This position he held until the close of the war. In June, 1864, the cavalry under Gen- eral Wheeler, having passed around the right flank of Sher- man, struck the railroad nine miles south of Dalton, Georgia, where he captured two companies of the 8th Iowa Infantry. He then invested Dalton, with fifty-five hundred cavalry, de- manding the surrender of the garrison-the 2d Missouri In- fantry, under the command of Colonel Siebold, who refused to surrender-and General Steedman, in personal command of two regiments, the 14th United States colored, and the 58th
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Indiana Infantry, moved by railroad, reached a point nine miles north of Dalton, where he left the cars, and moved stealthily, in the night, close up to the enemy, where he halted, and at daylight rushed upon him, routing with twelve hundred men Wheeler's entire force, and rescuing the garrison. When Hood-after Sherman moved in his "march to the sea" --- menaced Nashville, General Steedman, without waiting for orders, went with fourteen thousand men, on fourteen trains of cars, from Chattanooga to Nashville, arriving in time to participate in the battle. He was placed in command of the left wing of Thomas's army, and made the first attack on Hood's forces, driving them over half a mile, and capturing two lines of earthworks. On the second day he united with the Fourth Corps, under the command of General T. L. Wood, and, being the ranking officer, General Steedman directed the operation of both corps, and routed the enemy at Overton Hill. After the battle he was sent by General Thomas, with his corps, by way of Murfreesboro, to Steven- son and Huntsville, to intercept, if possible, the fleeing troops under Hood, at Florence, but the main body of the enemy had crossed the Tennessee River before Steedman reached Florence. His command, however, broke up and captured a large number of cavalry, under General Rhoddy. He then returned to Chattanooga, and was shortly afterward assigned to the command of the State of Georgia, with his headquar- ters at Augusta, where he remained until April, 1866, when he was detailed, by order of Secretary Stanton, to make a tour of the Southern States, and inspect the Freedman's Bureau, which service he duly performed, and in September, 1866, resigned his commission of (full) major-general. In February, 1867, he was appointed Collector of Internal Rev- enue, at New Orleans. After his return to Ohio he was elected a member of the Constitutional Convention of Ohio, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the resignation of Hon. M. R. Waite, who had been appointed Chief-justice of the United States Supreme Court. General Steedman was twice mar- ried. His first wife, to whom he was united in 1838, was Sarah M. Stiles. He was again married, in 1874, to Rose H. Barr, who died February, 7th, 1876. He was for some years editor of the Toledo Democrat, and was also at the time of his death filling the position of chief of police of that city.
STODDARD, HENRY, lawyer, was born in Woodbury, Connecticut, March 18th, 1788, and died in Dayton, Ohio, November Ist, 1869. He was a son of Asa Stoddard, a de- scendant of the Rev. Anthony Stoddard, of London, England, who settled in Boston in 1670, and whose numerous descend- ants have for more than two centuries occupied honorable positions in several States of the Union. Senator Sherman and also General Sherman are descendants from the Stod- dard family. Having received such education as the com- mon schools of his day afforded, our subject spent the last five years of his minority in the capacity of store clerk. He then read law, and was admitted to the bar in 1812. Four years later he came West on horseback, in company with the late Hon. George B. Holt, of Dayton, and in 1817 perma- nently located in that city. At that time Dayton was a village of some 600 inhabitants, in the center of a vast un- broken wilderness, and for many years Mr. Stoddard made the circuit of the courts in the different counties on horseback, riding for days through the storms of winter, and at night often sleeping in the bush. Of the early lawyers of Dayton,
Mr. Stoddard was one of the most prominent and successful. He threw his whole soul into his profession, and, by his in- tegrity and determined character, rapidly obtained a large and lucrative practice, and won the confidence and esteem of all acquainted with him. In all matters entrusted to his care, whether great or small, the same conscientiousness and accuracy characterized his action, and those best qualified to judge bear testimony that there was no attorney at the Day- ton bar whose cases were so carefully prepared, or whose business was more accurately conducted. Nor was he less distinguished for the professional learning and ability dis- played during trial. From 1840 to 1844 he was in partner- ship with Judge D. A. Haynes. Having by the latter year, acquired a handsome competency, he retired from active prac- tice, and devoted himself to the management of his private affairs. His mind was an encyclopædia of information rela- tive to the events of three-quarters of a century. He was one of the constituent members of the First Presbyterian church of Dayton, in which body he was for many years a ruling elder. He also held the office of vice president and life- director of the American Colonization Society. He was in fullest sympathy with all moral and religious movements, and toward such he ever maintained very marked liberality. The munificent gifts of his family of sons (as one with him in these operations) to the First Presbyterian church of Dayton, show that he has left behind him those who will do honor to the Stoddard name. For many years previous to his death he was an invalid. Mr. Stoddard's first wife was Harriet L. Patterson, who died October Ist, 1822, leaving one son, Asa P., now a resident of St. Louis, Missouri. Mr. Stoddard's second wife was Susan Williams, the daughter of an early pioneer family of Dayton. She died April 5th, 1861. woman of great strength of mind and true piety, she was the mother of three sons and a daughter, all of whom have done honor to her memory. The daughter is Mrs. Colonel S. B. Smith, of Dayton. The oldest son is a resident of California. The two youngest, John W. and Ebenezer F. Stoddard, con- stitute the manufacturing firm of John W. Stoddard & Co., one of the most extensive of its kind in the country. In 1861, Mr. John W. Stoddard married Miss Susan, daughter of Daniel Keifer, Esq., a retired business man of Dayton, and has had five children born to him, three living. Aside from that combination of qualities which constitutes a successful business man, Mr. Stoddard is characterized by an evenness of disposition, and a power of self-control amid the most ex- citing surroundings, that is most remarkable. He is a gen- tleman of very modest manners and great kindness of heart. He graduated from Princeton College, New Jersey, in 1858 ; studied law with his father, and was admitted to practice in 1860. He continued, however, but a short time in the pro- fession, and then turned his attention to manufacturing busi- ness. E. F. Stoddard, youngest son of our subject, graduated at Yale College in 1867, and in the autumn following engaged with his brother, John W., in the manufacture of linseed oil, in which business they continued five years. In 1872 he was made superintendent and secretary of the Dayton Steam Guage Company, and in 1875 became a member of the firm of John W. Stoddard & Co., and has since been superintend- ent of their manufactory. On November 10th, 1868, he mar- ried Miss Bessie W., daughter of Colonel John G. Lowe, of Dayton, and has had four children, two deceased. He is a gentleman of genial accommodating spirit, and is very sys- tematic, prompt and energetic.
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BIERCE, LUCIUS VICTOR, lawyer, was born in Cornwall, Litchfield county, Connecticut, August 4th, 1801, and died at Akron, Ohio, November 11th, 1876. His father was a Connecticut farmer. In his fifteenth year his mother died, and soon after his father removed with such of his children as were unmarried to Ohio, stopping at Nelson, Portage county, where some members of his family had already settled. Lucius earned his own education and ob- tained it in the University of Ohio, after which, having chosen the profession of the law, and proceeding South, he studied assiduously and was, in 1823, admitted to practice in Athens, Alabama. He then returned to Ohio, and after another year's study was examined by the Hon. Elisha Whittlesey, the Hon. John C. Wright, and Thomas D. Webb, and ad- mitted to practice in the courts of Ohio. The president judge of the court, the Hon. George Tod, becoming interested in him, in 1826 appointed him prosecuting attorney for the county, a position he subsequently held by appointment and election eleven years. Removing to Ravenna, where the court was held, he there remained until 1837, when he changed his residence to Akron, Summit county. In No- vember of that year, what was known as the Patriot war began in Canada, and, taking a strong interest in the revolu- tionary side under the lead of William Mckenzie, he aided in raising men and means for their cause, and going with his volunteers among them, obtained chief military command from those who assumed to be the Patriot authorities. Dis- obedience to orders on the part of one of his general officers caused the battle at Prescott, and disaster to the Patriot arms, and, with the force of Americans, or " sympathizers," as they were called by the British officers and authorities, General Bierce made his way through western Canada toward Detroit, where, after fighting at Sandwich and Windsor, against troops largely in excess of his own, he arrived in safety. A reward of £2,000 was offered by the British authorities for his capture, but as he never again set foot on British soil he was not captured; and although twice indicted in the United States courts for violation of the neutrality laws, and respond- ing on both occasions, the matter was finally dropped, and he resumed the practice of law at Akron. The whole move- ment was an unadvised one, and plainly a violation of inter- national law that, in his more mature life, he did not take much pride in. When the war of the Rebellion begun he was in his sixtieth year and exempt from military duty, but with the first call for troops he raised two companies of ma- rines, boarded and lodged for some days and partially clothed them at his own expense, and delivered them at the Washington navy-yard. Returning home, he raised a com- pany of one hundred men for the artillery service, and sent them into the field, being too old to take the command him- self. While thus engaged, he was elected to the Ohio senate by 3,000 majority. In May, 1863, President Lincoln ap- pointed him assistant adjutant-general of volunteers, with the rank of major. He reported for duty at Columbus, and served two years, during that time superintending the mus- tering in and properly recording the names and description of over a hundred thousand men. He had received and dis- bursed over $1,000,000, and closed his account with the gov- ernment without falling short one dollar. Subsequently he was ordered to Madison, Wisconsin, to muster out troops, and on the 7th October he, completing his labors, was himself at his request, mustered out on the 17th November, 1865, and returned to Akron, of which city he was subsequently
elected mayor six successive terms. In 1875, he made his will and oy it donated his entire property, valued at $35,000. in land, as a site for new public buildings. A member of the Masonic fraternity, he well earned the distinction of being elected, in 1857, grand master of the grand lodge of Ohio. Twice married, his last wife and only child both died before him. He had faults, but they were more than counterbal- anced by his merits; while his independence of character rendered him a man to be at all times found where he was generally believed to be. As a local historian, he was ex- celled by none and equalled by few, and this trait caused him to be regarded as authority at all times.
COOKE, ELEUTHEROS, lawyer, was born in the year 1780, in Granville, Washington county, New York. His an- cestors on the paternal side were among the first settlers of Massachusetts,- Francis Cooke, being one of the Pilgrim fathers, and the owner of the third house erected in Plymouth colony. He received a liberal education in his native town of Granville, and some time after leaving school commenced the study of law. He pursued his reading with such diligence and earnestness that he was enabled to pass his examination before Chancellor Kent with great credit to himself. Admit- ted to the bar in 1813, he then married Miss Martha Caswell, at Salem, Washington county, New York; and having com- menced, continued in the practice of his profession until 1815, when he and his wife, with the late Judge Samuel B. Cald- well, and his first wife, together with the late Henry Caswell, Mrs. Cooke's brother, descended in a keel boat from Chatau- qua Lake, by the Allegheny river, to Pittsburg, and thence, by the Ohio river, to Madison, Indiana, where they all took up their residence. The next summer Mr. Cooke, having occasion to revisit his old home, made the journey by the way of Bloomingville, Ohio, and at that place met, among other old acquaintances, Colonel Charles F. Drake, who in conver- sation on the growing population, mentioned and took his friend Mr. Cooke to see the then wonder of the neighborhood, the new city of Venice, so called, located at the mouth of Cold Creek, on the south shore of Sandusky bay, about four miles from the present city of Sandusky. This settlement, under the management of Major Frederick Falley, was growing rapidly, and was by him named after the city of the Adriatic in the belief that its location favored the likeness. It so happened that on the day the friends, Cooke and Drake, visited this later Venice, the manager, Falley, had a large sale of city lots, and as he had not a title to the land, he could give the purchasers only contracts to make a title when he should be so empowered. The terms of these contracts not being alike, and most of them rather complex, it was neces- sary to have them written. This was an opportunity favoring his friend Cooke, that Drake was quick to perceive. He at once informed Major Falley that Mr. Cooke was a good law- yer and a capital penman, and he could write up these contracts to the high satisfaction of the purchasers. When he had written the first, exhibited its fine clear penmanship and read it to the parties interested, they all exclaimed : "write one for me;" and he found himself with the best day's work that, as a scrivener, he had as yet enjoyed. When all the contracts for lots had been written and paid for, Mr. Cooke was next required to write contracts for building mills, wharves, and dwelling houses, mill-dams, mill-races, roads, streets, ditches, etc., and, at the end of ten days spent in Venice thus employed, he had earned and pocketed more money
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than he had acquired during the whole previous year at Mad- ison. Before proceeding further toward New York, he was so well pleased with the country and people that he bargained with the agent of the owners to purchase some hundreds of acres of land at and about the locality, a purchase that was subsequently called "Cooke's Corners." In November fol- lowing, he and his family and their friends, the Caldwells, bade adieu to Madison and arrived at Bloomingville near the close of the year, and there rested for a time. Meanwhile the prosperity of Venice had disappeared. Disease had taken many of its inhabitants to their graves and driven the re- mainder away. Neither mills nor wharves had been built, and the houses were deserted. Mr. Cooke decided to settle in Sandusky, did so, and there remained until his death. He became prominently identified with all the early enterprises of Sandusky and that part of the State, and, taking particular interest in the first railroad projected in the State, he advoca- ted the construction of it, as the Sandusky and Cincinnati Railroad, in the Ohio legislature. of which he was for many years a member. In 1833, he was elected to the twenty-third Congress from the Sandusky district then so called. In politics he was successively a member of the Federal, Anti-Jackson, and Whig parties, but in the latter years of his life affiliated with the republicans. In 1840, during the Harrison campaign, he was, in the great celebration of the battle of Fort Meigs, orator of the day. A prominent member of the Masonic fra- ternity, he was more than once elected orator of the Grand lodge of Ohio. As an advocate he was eminently successful, whether in his appeal to the jury, or in his argument before the bench. He was an animated, fluent, and, at times, even eloquent speaker, his style florid and his manners winning. With a fondness for land speculation and agricultural pursuits, while generally successful in the former he was very seldom so in the latter. By his marriage, he became father to, respec- tively, Pitt Cooke, born in 1819, Jay Cooke, born in 1821, and Henry D. Cooke, born in 1825. He died at Sandusky on the 27th December, 1864. His sons composed the well known firm of Jay Cooke & Co., so favorably identified with the ne- gotiation of the national loans during the war of the Rebellion, having their main house in Philadelphia, under the control of Jay Cooke, the founder of the firm; the branch house in New York City, with Pitt Cooke as resident partner, while Henry D. Cooke, who was the first governor of the District of Columbia, managed the Washington City office.
MCCLURE, ADDISON S., Wooster, Ohio, was born at Wooster, October Ioth, 1839. His earlier years were spent under the paternal roof and in attendance on the public schools. At the early age of fifteen he entered Jefferson College, Washington County, Pennsylvania, where he re- mained five years, and graduated in 1859. At college he distinguished himself for his thorough study ot and attain- ments in the Latin language as well as his own. He was one of the most active members in the literary societies of the college, and soon became conspicuous as an extempo- raneous speaker, and a fluent and logical debater. In the winter of 1856, a little over a year after he had entered col- lege, he carried away the honors of oration in the annual contest between the Philo and Franklin Literary Societies. After completing his college course he determined to engage in teaching, for recreation and temporary employment, and in pursuance of this determination he directed his course South, and in the winter of 1859-60 opened a school on the
plantation of Alfred J. Rowan, east of Natchez, Mississippi. In April, 1860, he returned to Wooster, and entered at once upon the study of law in the office of Hon. Levi Cox and Hon. Martin Welker. Mr. McClure was admitted to the bar in the spring of 1861. Hardly had he entered upon his pro- fession when the suppressed mutterings of Secession burst forth into the rumblings of civil war. He was one of the first in Wayne County to respond to the call of the President for sol- diers for the suppression of the Rebellion. He enlisted as a private in Company E, 4th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, the first company raised in Wayne County, in the latter part of April, his name being the fourth on the enlistment roll. On the 4th of June following he re-enlisted for three years. There- after he was promoted to a captaincy, and transferred to the 16th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in October, 1861. He was captured at the charge on Chickasaw Bluffs, Vicksburg, Mississippi, December 29th, 1862, and was held a prisoner of war, lying in rebel prisons until May 20th, 1863, when he was exchanged at Harrison's Landing, on the James River, Va. He was discharged on account of the expiration of his term of enlistment, in Louisiana, in August, 1864, when he re- turned home, and resumed the practice of law. In April, 1867, he was elected Recorder at Wooster. In May, 1867, he was appointed postmaster at Wooster, being reappointed in March, 1871, and again in March, 1875. He was a mem- ber of the National Convention, held at Chicago, in 1868, that nominated General U. S. Grant for the presidency, and also of the National Convention, in 1876, that nominated Rutherford B. Hayes. He has been a member of the Re- publican State Committee of Ohio at different times, and for eight years was Chairman of the Republican Central Com- mittee of Wayne County. In the Republican State Conven- tion, held in Cincinnati, in 1879, that nominated Charles Foster for Governor, the first time, Captain McClure was a prominent candidate for Lieutenant-governor, being placed in nomination by Major William McKinley, but being from the same section of the State as Foster, his name was with- drawn before the final ballot was reached, in favor of the candidates from Southern Ohio. In August, 1870, he be- came one of the proprietors of the Wooster Republican and assumed editorial charge of the paper, which position he held until his election to Congress, in 1880. In June, 1880, he was a candidate for the nomination as member of Con- gress, from the Eighteenth District, at the Congressional Convention held in Medina. Several other candidates were before the convention, the most formidable competitor being George W. Crouse, Esq., of Akron. On the ninth ballot Mr. McClure received a majority of the votes cast, and was de- clared the nominee. At the October election, after having made fifty-nine speeches in his district, he was elected as Hon. James Monroe's successor in Congress, by a majority of 5,098, running 398 votes ahead of the State ticket, and having the largest majority ever given in the Eighteenth District. In September, 1882, he was nominated to repre- sent in Congress the important Twentieth Congressional District of Ohio-his nomination being almost entirely unan- imous and unopposed. In politics an ardent Republican, he has, since the age of eighteen, taken an active part in each political campaign. He has devoted much of his time to the study of political economy, and is well versed in the prin- ciples of the constitution. Without doubt, one of the best historical scholars in the State, as well as general informa- tion, his library is crowded with classic, literary, and scientific
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