USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume III > Part 15
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West, and in Canada. In 1875, in connection with several partners, he commenced the erection of extensive works in Chicago for the manufacture of iron and steel. They now embrace a large rolling mill for beams and merchant bar iron, having attached to them a factory of seventy-five ma- chines for making cut nails, all of which are in successful operation, and form one of the most complete and best ar- ranged works of the kind in the country, and the first erected in Chicago. After and in compliment to him, they have been named the "Joseph H. Brown Iron and Steel Works." He was also interested in a blast furnace in Missouri, having 10,- 000 acres of land attached. He was elected president of the Youngstown Savings and Loan Association, and was a direc- tor of the First National bank of Youngstown. In political matters he takes no conspicuous part, but holds it his duty as a good citizen to cast his vote. When the war of the Re- bellion broke out he was zealous and liberal in the Union cause, placing all he had at the service of the country. In religious and benevolent movements he was always ready to assist so far as lay in his power. He possesses indomitable energy, great business sagacity, and that stability and integ- rity of character which is suggested by the general acknowl- edgment that "his word is as good as his bond." A man of large brain, well posted in political economy, as applied to the United States, he was called to a conference with lead- ing statesmen, that he might give his views on the tariff and other questions. He is a self-made man, whose marked success-after trying reverses-was not due in any degree to that usual assistance called luck. He married, in 1832, Miss Susannah Oellig, daughter of Dr. John Oellig, of Franklin County, Pennsylvania, and has six children living-John O. Brown, of the firm of A. B. Brownlee & Co., of Youngstown; Edmund L., general manager of the Ohio Powder Company, of Youngstown; Mary Jane, the wife of Edwin J. Warner, Esq., of Denver, Colorado; Susannah, the wife of Rev. C. E. Felton, D. D., of the Methodist Church, Baltimore, Maryland ; the two youngest daughters, Ella and Emma, still (1883) re- side at home.
SULLIVANT, WILLIAM STARLING, A. M. and LL.D., of Columbus, Ohio, was born January 15th, 1803, at the little village of Franklinton, Ohio, in the midst of the wilderness on which the city of Columbus, the capital of the State, now stands. He was the eldest son of Lucas and Sarah (Starling) Sullivant, the leading pioneer of the locality which afterward became Franklin county. When old enough, William was sent to a private school in Jessamine county, Kentucky, and, on the opening of the Ohio Uni- versity, became a student under Lindley and Dana. He afterward proceeded to Yale College, from which he graduated in 1823. His father had destined him for a profession, but his death recalled the son home, and family affairs engrossed all his attention. While a boy he had accompanied his father on some of his surveying expeditions, receiving at the time lessons, and gathering experience, which made him an expert surveyor, when called upon after his college career, to attend to the large landed estate of the family. It also devel- oped in him remarkable muscular strength and activity. On returning home from Yale, after his father's death, desiring active occupation, he engaged in the surveys of the Ohio canal, not in a professional capacity, but as an amateur de- siring employment. Subsequently, he took charge of the mills on the estate and remodeled them after plans of his own.
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Thenceforward he led an active, busy life. He became a member of the Ohio Stage Company for facilitating travel; was one of the original stockholders and directors of the Clinton bank, and for some time its president. He occupied, improved, and adorned the present site of the Central Ohio Lunatic Asylum. Here he enjoyed facilities for the study of natural history, principally ornithology and botany. For several years this study occupied his leisure hours, and the first result was an elaborate catalogue of the flora of Franklin county. He established a wide reputation as the result of years of quiet, but earnest labor. His published works re- flect the highest credit on his industry. Besides many papers in the scientific journals, he published "A Catalogue of the Plants in Franklin County;" " Musci Alleghanienses ;" "Con- tributions to the Bryology and Hepaticology of North America ;" "Mosses and Hepatica of the United States, east of the Mississippi River;" "Mosses and Hepatica collected during Whipple's United States Government Survey;" "Mosses brought home by Wilkes' United States Exploring Expedition ;" "Mosses and Hepatica collected in the United States Union Pacific Exploring Expedition ; " and " Icones Muscorum." All of these works were illustrated-many of the drawings by himself. He was one of the trustees under the will of the founder of Starling Medical College, and always held the presidency. He was a member of the Amer- ican National Academy, and 'also of several European scien- tific societies, his botanical and other writings being greatly esteemed by the most competent judges. Mr. Sullivant died in 1877.
PERRY, NATHAN, pioneer merchant, was born in 1786, in Connecticut, and died June 24th, 1865, at Cleveland, Ohio. His father, Judge Nathan Perry, first came from Con- necticut to Ohio in 1796, and continued during that season with the surveyors, who were engaged in running the boun- daries of that portion of the Western Reserve lying on the east side of the Cuyahoga river. The judge removed with his family to Cleveland in 1806, and on the organization of Cuyahoga county, in 1809, he was elected one of the judges of the new county. He died in 1813, leaving four children, a daughter who became wife of Peter M. Weddell, and three sons : Horatio, who settled in Lorain county; Horace who, for many years clerk and recorder of Cuyahoga county, died in 1835, very generally respected and esteemed; and the subject of this sketch. He, instead of coming to Cleve- land with the remainder of the family, settled at Black River, Lorain county, Ohio, in 1804, and engaged in trade at that place. By great effort he mastered the Indian dialect, and built up an extensive trade with the tribes which then occupied all the territory west of the Cuyahoga river. An incident of his life, given in the "Historical Collections of Ohio," relates that in the spring of 1807 a fishing expedition set out from Cleveland for Maumee river. The vessel was a Canadian sail-boat, on board of which there were goods "sent by Major Perry to his son Nathan, at Black River, and a hired woman named Mary, as a passenger to that place." The sail-boat was wrecked opposite what is now the township of Dover, and all hands were lost save a Mr. Plumb, who escaped by straddling the capsized boat and floating ashore, where he remained, nearly perished with cold and exhaustion, until news of the disaster reached Black River, when Nathan Perry and Quintus F. Atkins went to that place in the night, and lighting torches, found Mr. Plumb at the foot of a per-
pendicular cliff, and hauled him up its face by means of a rope; no easy task for men already worn down with the fa- tigue of a night's travel. In 1808 he removed from Black River to Cleveland, and began trading at that place, where for over twenty years he was the leading merchant. His store and house, under one roof, was located on the corner of Superior and Water streets, now the site of the Second National bank building. After a few years, a brick store and dwelling was erected in this place, it being the third brick building in Cleveland. It is related of him that, one time taking $12,000 worth of furs to New York, he followed the wagon containing them from Buffalo to New York. On ar- riving in that city he encountered John Jacob Astor, who en- deavored to get from him the asking-price of his furs. Mr. Astor becoming importunate, he was told sharply that he could not have the furs at any price. He had made up his mind that he could do better with any one else than with Mr. Astor, who was the great fur merchant of those days, . and therefore would not even show his furs. He was the pioneer merchant of northern Ohio. Endowed with a vig- orous constitution, exhaustless energy, and restless enter- prise, he was well qualified to encounter and subdue the hardships, exposures, and perils incident to the frontier life. The men of to-day can hardly realize the fatigue, self-denial, and anxieties of the merchant of sixty years ago, when goods had to be transported from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh by wagon, and thence by pack-horse or ox team to Cleveland, and bartered to Indians and rugged settlers in exchange for all sorts of commodities, under the constant personal inspec- tion and care of the trader. A distinguished trait of his character, developed in his youth, and dominating through his life, was the celerity with which he formed an opinion, and the extraordinary tenacity with which he adhered to it when formed. He was never known to relent, or to change his decision. When those lips were once firmly compressed, every one understood that the subject was finally disposed of. But he was a man of warm affections, generous and steadfast in his friendships, of the strictest integrity and honor, and ever active and influential as a citizen. When the village of Cleveland was organized, under the charter granted in December, 1814, he was one of the trustees elected at the first village election in the following June. He invested largely in real estate, which increased in value enormously, and made him at the time of his death very wealthy. A large part of his extensive real estate posses- sions in the heart of the city were purchased at from $5 to $10 an acre. His last illness was of about five weeks' du- ration. Paralysis set in, first attacking the lower extremities, and gradually working up until it reached the heart. He married, in 1816, a daughter of Captain Abram Skinner, of Painesville. His son, Oliver Hazard -named after Com- modore O. H. Perry, the hero of the battle of Lake Erie, and a distant relative of the family-met with a melancholy death from a railroad accident in December, 1864. His only daughter married Hon. H. B. Payne, of Cleveland.
BIRCHARD, MATTHEW, a judge of the supreme court of Ohio, and holding several other important public positions, was born in Beckett, Massachusetts, January 19th, 1804, and died at his home in Warren, Trumbull county, Ohio, June 16th, 1876. His parents removed to the Western Reserve in 1812 and settled in Portage county, where his father became one of the proprietors of Windham township.
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Nathan Perry
Western Biog! Pub Co
Yours very respectfully A Miller 1
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Educated in the common schools, and subsequently having attended the academies in Warren, he studied medicine a short time, but, discarding it, at the age of twenty-one com- menced to read law under the direction of General Roswell Stone in Warren. During his studies during the four follow- ing years he taught school in winter, and, in 1828, being ad- mitted to the bar, at once entered upon practice with David Tod, afterwards governor of the State, who was at that time a young and undistinguished lawyer. In 1832 Mr. Birchard was elevated to the common pleas bench, and in 1836 ap- pointed solicitor for the general land office of the United States at Washington City, and this position he held five years. During the latter part of this term he was appointed solicitor for the United States Treasury, to succeed Henry D. Gilpin. In 1841 he returned to Warren, and resumed the practice of his profession with his original partner, Mr. Tod, but in the subsequent winter he was elected a judge of the supreme court of Ohio. Though possessing qualities to adorn public life, Judge Birchard was not an office-seeker, never- theless he was more than once put in nomination for legis- lative positions. In 1867 he purchased the newspaper prop- erty known as the Warren Constitution, and in connection with his son, that journal was subsequently conducted by him until his death. In 1841 he married Miss Jane E. Weaver, daughter of a captain in the United States navy, and who bore him seven children, only two of whom survive, Jane, the wife of F. H. Mason, a newspaper editor, and William A. Birchard, who was associated with his father, under the firm name of M. Birchard & Son, in the management of the Warren Constitution. He served two years and a half during the war of the Rebellion as master's mate and en- sign in the United States navy. As a lawyer, Judge Birchard ranked high in his profession. His knowledge of the funda- mental principles of law was good and his tact in their appli- cation excellent. As an advocate he confined himself to the law and the evidence, presenting both calmly, and ignoring all emotional appeals to the jury, but relying for a verdict on their intelligence and good sense, rather than by an appeal to passion or prejudice. As a judge this disposition was eminently the proper one. His decisions were the result of careful consideration and diligent research-carefully sup- ported by copious citations from standard authorities and logical reasoning. As chief justice of the supreme court of Ohio, Judge Birchard was an honor to himself and the State, and his decisions in that capacity have an extended influence. Although descended from pious parents, he never connected himself with any church, and for many years, as have been many other seriously thoughtful and reasoning men, he was inclined to infidelity. But he was a habitual student of the scriptures upon which are founded the Chris- tian religion, and was governed by the rules inculcated by its founder. His kindness of heart, sympathy for the suffering or afflicted, and leniency towards those indebted to him were proverbial, and, a scrupulously honest man, he died enjoying the esteem and affection of all who knew him.
MILLER, JOHN HUSTON, lawyer and jurist, Steu- benville, was born January 30th, 1813, in Northampton County, Pennsylvania. His parents were Amos and Eliza- beth (Huston) Miller, natives of Pennsylvania. Amos Miller followed farming pursuits, in Pennsylvania, up to 1850, when he removed to Rock County, Wisconsin, where he died, in May, 1864. Our subject received his early education at
Stroudsburg Academy, Pennsylvania, but the greater part of his acquirements are due to an early and continuous de- votion to private reading. After quitting the academy he worked on the home farm, for a time, employing his leisure time as just indicated. In 1837 he commenced to read for the bar, and in 1839 he entered the law office of General Stokely, of Steubenville, to complete his studies under that gentleman's tutorship. He was admitted to practice in De- cember, 1840. He practiced his profession with success, until January, 1870, when he was appointed by the Governor Common Pleas Judge, to complete the unexpired term of Judge Mcllvaine, who had been elected to the Supreme Bench. He was elected his own successor, in the fall of 1871, over his Democratic competitor, J. M. Estep, Esq., of Cadiz. At the present writing he is the oldest member of the Steubenville bar. He is held in high esteem by his col- leagues, who accord to him the deference and respect which his acknowledged ability and position (as the senior lawyer of his bar) entitles him. He was married March 4th, 1841, to Ann C. Stokely, a sister of General Stokely. Two chil- dren were born of this marriage, a son and daughter. His politics are Republican, and he has pronounced convictions on the leading political questions of the day. He is a com- municant in the Presbyterian Church, and has been a mem- ber of the board of directors of Steubenville Furnace and Iron Company.
QUINBY, EPHRAIM, Junior, son of the late Judge Ephraim Quinby, the founder of Warren, Trumbull county, was born in that town April 13th, 1813. In 1824, he went to reside with his brother, Samuel Quinby, who was living in Wooster, holding the office of receiver of public moneys for the United States land office for that district, and, simultane- ously, the office of treasurer of Wayne county. He remained with his brother until July, 1828, assisting him in his office as occasion permitted, at the same time attending the village school. During this year he entered upon the duties of clerk in the store of the late John Larwill, at a salary of $100 and his board, and by strict economy he saved fully one-third of his wages. In July, 1829, Mr. Joseph H. Larwill having re- ceived from President Jackson the appointment of receiver of public moneys for the Tiffin United States land district, Mr. Quinby accepted the position of clerk in his office, re- maining there about one year, when he returned to Wooster, and entered the office of his brother Samuel, with whom he continued until the fall of 1834, and during this time, in addi- tion to his other duties, he made the monthly deposits of the government moneys, received from sales of public lands, for the Wooster and Bucyrus (formerly Tiffin) United States land offices, in the branch bank of the United States at Pitts- burgh. This duty was one of great responsibility and ex- tremely hazardous, the country then being sparsely settled, and the protection afforded by society and the laws not being surely established. The usual method of conveying the moneys to Pittsburgh was in a two-horse wagon, strongly built, although sometimes this would not answer the purpose, and a heavier vehicle had to be substituted. This was abso- lutely necessary in the instance of the deposit after the public sale of the Seneca Indian reserve, as the amount of the moneys received for that month exceeded $100,000, about $25,000 of which was in silver coin. In making these depos- its it was always necessary to exercise great prudence, and frequently the most extreme and circumspect caution, so as
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to elude watching. To avoid observation and not permit the contents of the loaded wagon to be known, was oftentimes a difficult matter, especially when an unusual amount of coin was being conveyed, and when the roads were bad and fre- quent stops had to be made at places where was seldom seen more money than they received from their customers for a night's lodging and other accommodations. In cases like these, Mr. Quinby -then but twenty years old -would drive his team pretty close to the tavern door, and request that it remain there until morning. Having generally a friend along with him, they would arrange to have a bed spread on the floor of the tavern sitting-room, vigilantly keeping an eye on the wagon containing the coin, the bank notes being about his person. After supper, and when other travelers and the family had retired, Mr. Quinby and his friend would quickly remove the boxes, each containing from $1,200 to $1,500, from the wagon to the sitting room, and closing the doors securely they would sleep in turns until quite early in the morning, and before there was any stir upon the premises they would stealthily replace the boxes containing the coin in the wagon. After breakfast they would renew their journey, not even the landlord or any one else about the premises knowing the value of their cargo, or the amount of money they controlled, such a state of profound ignorance being, no doubt, a source of comfort to Mr. Quinby. These special precautions, it is true, were only taken in suspicious localities and strange places; yet precaution, prudence and watchfulness was the rule at all times and under all circumstances. He never carried weapons of defense in all these perilous adventures, though often, indeed, apprehensive of molestation and rob- bery. In the autumn of 1834, he embarked in the mercantile business at Wooster, but disposed of it in the ensuing year. In 1836 he entered into partnership with Mr. James A. Grant, in the same town, but the principal part of the first purchases for the firm were lost on Lake Erie in a storm, by the sinking of a vessel containing the goods which were shipped from Buffalo. The vessel being subsequently raised, and the dam- aged goods recovered, they were sold at auction in Wooster at a loss of about $2,500, there being no insurance. Mr. Quinby immediately repaired to New York, by no means dis- heartened by the misfortune, and enjoying the confidence of the Eastern merchants, purchased a new stock of goods. The firm had a prosperous trade for three or four years which enabled them to retrieve their unfortunate loss. On the 12th October, 1837, he married Miss Catherine E. Mcconahay, daughter of Judge D. Mcconahay. She died October 18th, 1871. In 1836 to 1842 he turned his attention toward specu- lations in real estate, though still retaining and continuing his commercial interests, but in 1844 he retired from the dry goods trade, and devoted himself exclusively to the former business, for which he has peculiar capacity, and in the prosecution of which his good judgment and discriminating foresight have made him remarkably successful. In 1848 the Wayne county branch of the State Bank of Ohio was or- ganized, when he became a stockholder, and was chosen its cashier, which position he held until the expiration of the charter in 1865. The shareholders then organized under the United States National bank act in 1865, the Wayne County National bank, of Wooster, when Mr. Quinby was elected as its cashier. The University of Wooster being projected in 1866, and an enterprise being inaugurated by the Presby- terian synods of Ohio, to locate it in any suitable town or city wherever a reliable subscription of $100,000 should be pro-
cured and placed at their disposal, a subscription list was put in circulation in Wooster and throughout the county to raise the stipulated sum, one condition of which was a site for the university building, which was to be accepted as a portion of the $100,000 to be raised. The subscription was headed by Mr. Quinby with $10,000, which was followed by subscriptions of lesser amount. The final effort having been accomplished, after a thorough canvass of the county and city, it appeared that the amount raised was $32,000 short of the sum required, and the prospect of the location of the uni- versity in Wooster looked gloomy, and its abandonment seemed probable. At this juncture, however, the Presby- terian synod of Ohio, being in session at Wooster, after view- ing the site proposed by Mr. Quinby for the university, ap- pointed a committee, to confer with a committee of its citizens, and offered to accept the twenty acres of land as a donation from Mr. Quinby at $25,000, and in addition $75,000 cash subscriptions, which proposition was agreed to. There hav- ing been, however, but about $58,000 of cash subscriptions that might be considered reliable, the synodical committee agreed to accept a guaranty of Mr. Quinby and other citizens of Wooster for $17,000, which would complete the $75,000 subscription required. The money was subscribed by the citizens of the city and county, and the guarantors released from their obligations; and thus it was that the location of Wooster University was finally fixed. Since its construction and its having been opened for students, Mr. Quinby has liberally endowed a chair for a professor of the Greek lan- guage and its literature. Including other subscriptions, not referred to, he has donated to this institution a sum exceeding $55,000, besides which he has made liberal donations of real estate to churches and enterprises of public utility. Whether as office boy for his brother, clerk for Mr. Larwell, or con- veying the moneys of the government to their destination, or having charge of the receiver's office, or as merchant, or dealer in real estate, or as banker, he has discharged his duties with honesty, industry, prudence, and punctuality, as well as fidelity to every trust committed to him. These traits of character were developed in him in boyhood, and secured him the confidence of reliable and valuable friends. He be- gan well, and in his youth was careful in the business asso- ciations that he made. He first established a reputation for industry, honesty and prudence. These qualities, combined with energy, resolution, and indefatigability, prepared him for the training processes of life, and it is safe to infer that he he was an apt pupil, as unquestionably he was a successful one. When he has decided to execute a project he acts with decision, but with certainty. He is neither rash nor excita- ble, and in all his enterprises he "makes haste slowly." Mr. Quinby's name is indissolubly associated with the university of Wooster, for to him, far more than to any other man, is the city indebted for that noble institution. January 15th, 1880, Mr. Quinby was smitten with apoplexy, and after two weeks semi-unconscious helplessness breathed his last Janu- ary 30th, 1880, deeply regretted by his many friends, and those whom in his life he had shown himself their benefac- tor, by his munificient gift to Wooster University.
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