USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume III > Part 19
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vented a steady pursuit of learning and consequent store of knowledge, yet the formation of a singularly pure and upright character was doubtless aided and encouraged by the consid- eration of the example of his illustrious uncle. The father of James McClintick, the subject of the present sketch, died at Shippensburgh, Pennsylvania, leaving a widow and six children. The eldest daughter, Rachel, had married Dr. William McDowell, then residing at Newtown Stephensburg, Virginia. Thither Mrs. McClintick, with her family, repaired after the death of her husband, and in 1805 removed with Dr. McDowell to Chillicothe, the county seat of Ross county, and then the capital of the State of Ohio. Her son James, then twenty years of age, from that time on was the support of her- self and those of her children who remained with her. Soon after his arrival in Ohio he engaged in mercantile pursuits in connection with Dr. McDowell, and it was not long before he was able to establish his mother on a farm in the neigh- borhood of Chillicothe, where she resided until her death, on the 5th October, 1815, in the seventy-second year of her age. On the 14th March, 1811, he married Miss Charity Trimble, a sister of Major David Trimble, of Kentucky, and of Gen- eral Isaac R. Trimble, of Baltimore, Maryland. Miss Trim- ble was then receiving her education in Chillicothe, and resided in the family of General Samuel Finley, at whose house the wedding took place. He continued in business for about thirty-eight years, with that success which usually attends industry, economy and thrift, and retired with a competency ; afterward living a quiet, but not inactive life, devoting much of his time to general reading, the care of his property, and the interests and welfare of the church of which he was a member, and of the community in which he lived. He filled with honor various county and municipal offices, and was associate judge of the court of common pleas for Ross county, from the spring of 1824 to 1845, a period of twenty-one years. He was a firm believer in the Christian religion, and an active and leading member of the Methodist church during nearly the whole of his residence in Chillicothe. His piety was as a lamp that never burned low, nor grew dim; and his daily life and speech were such as to excite the utmost confidence in the minds of his fellow-men. He was tolerant to others, recognizing the right to difference of opinion, and made it a study to put the best construction upon the actions of his fel- low-mortals. In politics he was a Henry Clay whig, but never cared for or sought political distinction. For a long time a director in the Bank of Chillicothe, one of the earliest banking institutions of Ohio, he frequently served temporarily as presi- dent, and was one of its directors at the expiration of its char- ter. At the breaking out of the war of the Rebellion in 1861, all his love for the Union was fully aroused, and his mind was constantly engaged watching the course of events and the vicissitudes of the early period of the struggle. It was amidst the reverses of 1862 that his last illness came on, and his last thoughts were such as naturally grew out of that fierce discipline and trial through which the country was then pass- ing. He died of inflammation of the brain on Sunday, May 11th, 1862. His widow died at Chillicothe on March 2d, 1869, in the seventy-seventh year of her age. The children still live. James, the eldest son, a merchant of Chil- licothe ; William T., a lawyer by profession, of the same place; Martha Finley, the wife of James H. Holcomb, formerly of New York, now of Urbana, Ohio; Eliza Jane, wife of John H. Bennett, and Anna Maria, wife of John S. Mackey, both of Chillicothe, Ohio.
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HOLT, GEORGE B., lawyer and judge, was born in Norfolk, Litchfield county, Connecticut, in 1790. His own inclinations according with the wishes of his parents, he early made choice of the legal profession. He entered the law school of Judges Reeve and Gould in Litchfield, and in 1812 was licensed to practice. Oliio was then the "Far West," and the praises of the new and distant State kindled the en- thusiasm of the young advocate, and in 1819 he arrived in Dayton, then a village of from 500 to 700 inhabitants, and the following year opened an office as attorney at law. Railroads and even turnpikes were then unknown in the country, while the circuits extended over many counties in most of which the roads were mere bridle paths. Horse- back was almost the only mode of traveling, and as there were few or no bridges, when the streams were swollen by the spring freshets or heavy rains, members of the bar were compelled, after driving their horses across, to trust themselves to a frail canoe; or, plunging on horseback in the stream, trust to being thus brought safely through; then wet, chilled and weary, they were sometimes obliged to travel miles through the woods before reaching the hospitable log cabin, where they could find rest and refreshment. In 1822, Mr. Holt established, and for three years conducted the Miami Republican. In the fall of 1824, he was elected to the legislature and participated in the passage of laws which rendered that session one of the most important ever held in Ohio. Among the important measures adopted, was the ad valorem system of taxation. The columns of his paper had been employed by Mr. Holt in favor of a canal communica- tion between the lakes and the Ohio river, a measure which had excited public attention and bitter opposition. During this session the canal law was passed, under which the Ohio and Miami canals were commenced, and the policy of the State in favor of internal improvements was considered set- tled. Mr. Holt was on the committee to which the subject of a school system was referred, and the bill reported by them passed into a law, which established the present com- mon school system of Ohio. The measure was violently opposed. It was regarded as unjust and tyrannical, a daring infringement on the rights of property, drawing money from the wealthy to educate the children of others. The poor were taught to regard these schools as pauper institutions, and so great was the opposition that Mr. Holt owed his reelection, in 1825, to his services in securing the passage of the law for the construction of the Miami canal in which his constituents felt a deep interest. In the fall of 1827, he was elected to the Ohio senate for a term of two years, and was chairman of the committee on internal improvements, one of the most impor- tant in the body. During the last session he was elected president judge of the court of common pleas, and served for the constitutional term of seven years. The district was then composed of the counties of Montgomery, Preble, Clark, Champaign, Logan, Miami, Darke, Shelby, and Mercer. After the expiration of his term on the bench, under appointment of the court, he served one year as prose- cuting attorney of Montgomery county, one year in Mercer, and two terms in the county of Van Wert. At the session of the legislature of 1842-43, he was again called to the bench, and served out the constitutional term. Part of the interval between his first and second terms on the bench was spent in agriculture and stock-growing. He spent large sums in im- proving the breed of cattle, introduced into the counties of Montgomery, Mercer, and Miami, the first thoroughbred
short-horned Durham stock, and was for a time president of the Montgomery County Agricultural Society. On the break- ing out of the cholera in Dayton, in 1849, he was chosen president of the board of health, in which capacity his ser- vices were constant, efficient and highly valued by the citi- zens. In 1850 he was elected member of the constitutional convention, was chairman of the committee on jurisprudence and took a prominent part in framing the present constitution of the State. This service ended his official intercourse with the people. He partially resumed the practice of law, but, with advancing years, spent much of his time in gardening, a very favorite occupation. Politically, Judge Holt was for many years a democrat, but in later life had acted with the Republican party. Always opposed to the establishment of a slave power in the South, on the breaking out of the late war he was firm and decided for the Union. On the formation of the Montgomery County Pioneer Society, he was chosen its president, and retained that office till his death, which occurred on the evening of October 30th, 1871, in his eighty-second year. Before leaving his native State, Judge Holt had united with the Congregational church, but for more than a quarter of a cen- tury was a member of the Presbyterian church of Dayton. He married, in 1821, Mary, second daughter of Dr. Wil- liam Blodget, who, with three daughters, still survives him. What wonderful changes, during his more than four score years, he had lived to witness! Ohio as he found it, new and sparsely settled, with few facilities of communication, now a net-work of railroads and turnpikes, with beautiful bridges spanning every stream. Where now stands the Soldiers' Home,-the pride and ornament of the beautiful city of Dayton,-with its thousands of inmates, and the " silent city" where his remains rest, then stood unbroken forests; and the "Far West " he came to find, now removed to the regions of the Rocky Mountains.
WILLIARD, REV. GEO. W., D. D., President of Heidelberg College, Tiffin, Ohio, was born in Frederick County, Maryland, June 10th, 1817. His parents were John and Mary Williard, to whom seven children were born, all of whom were reared upon the farm and trained to habits of industry and economy. There being but few educational facilities at that time, they did the best they could for their children in the elementary branches then taught. Henry and George W. both gave themselves to the work of the Gospel ministry in the Reformed Church, and occupied im- portant positions in the Synod of Ohio. The subject of this notice began his preparatory studies for the ministry, when about seventeen years of age, in the high-school of York, Pennsylvania. The Reformed Church having removed its institution of learning from York to Mercersburg, Pennsyl- vania, where it established Marshall College in 1834, he re- paired thither at the opening of the fall term, entered the Freshman Class, and graduated in 1838. He was ordained to the ministry in 1840, and accepted a call from the Jeffer- son charge, Frederick County, Maryland, about six miles from the place of his nativity. In 1845 he accepted a call from the Reformed Church of Huntingdon, Pennsylvania ; but not finding it conducive to the health of his family, he only remained there two years, when he accepted a call from the Reformed congregation of Winchester, Virginia. In 1850 he received and accepted a call from the Reformed Church of Columbus, Ohio, where he remained until October, 1855, when he was called to the First Reformed Church of Dayton,
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Ohio, where he remained eleven years, when he was elected to the presidency of Heidelberg College, Tiffin, Ohio, which position he has continued to fill for eighteen years with marked success. Dr. Williard is widely known in the Re- formed Church, of which he is a minister, by the prominent part he has taken in all the efforts it has put forth for its full establishment and extension in the Wcst. When he first became a member of the Synod of Ohio, in 1850, it was then comparatively weak, being to a great extent missionary ter- ritory. He was active in the establishment and endowment of its institutions of learning-was for many years an active member of the Board of Missions, and served as the Stated Clerk of the Synod of Ohio for sixteen years, publishing an- nually a full account of its proceedings. In addition to his regular pastoral work, Dr. Williard edited and published the Western Missionary, the organ of the Synod of Ohio, for thirteen years, which brought him in contact with a large portion of the membership of the Church, and in this way gave him an extensive acquaintance throughout the bounds of the Synod. Whilst the pastor of the Reformed Church in Columbus, Ohio, Dr. Williard translated the Commentary of D Zacharias Ursinus on the Heidelberg Catechism from the Latin into the English language, and published it at his own risk and expense. This, although a work of great difficulty and labor, making a book of over seven hundred pages, has been greatly appreciated by the Church, judging from the number of copies sold, the book, large as it is, having passed through three editions. In 1879 Dr. Williard wrote and pub- lished a History of Heidelberg College, in which he incorpo- rated the Baccalaureate sermons he preached to the classes graduating under his presidency, making a book of three hun- dred and fifty pages. In 1882 and 1883 he conceived and exe- cuted the design of preparing a book with special adaptation to the family, including the general topics of the Being and Character of God, the Church, the Family, Life, Death, and Heaven, in the publication of which he was assisted by Rev. E. Herbruch, Ph. D., Dayton, Ohio, Rev. M. Loucks, A. M., Dayton, Ohio, and Rev. E. R. Williard, A. M., Germantown, Ohio. This book, which is published under the title of "A Treasury of Family Reading," has met with a cordial recep- tion, and been highly commended by the press. As a min- ister of Christ, Dr. Williard has been abundant in labor. The charges which he served in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Ohio bear testimony to the zeal and fidelity with which he discharged the duties of his calling, and the deep interest he took in the spiritual well-being of those to whom he ministered in holy things. But whilst successful as a minister, pastor, editor, and writer, his greatest and most important work has been in the college as an educator. Serving, as he has, eighteen years as President of Heidelberg College, he has been during this time brought into the most direct contact with a large number of the youth of the day, and contributed no little to the formation of their characters. Two hundred and five gentlemen and ladies have graduated since his connection with the college, whilst a much larger number have been in the institution for a few years, their means not allowing them to take the full course. About one hundred and twenty have left the theological seminary, which is connected with the college, all of whom, with a few ex- ceptions, were students of the college, and are now in the active duties of the ministry, mostly in Ohio and the Western States. When he assumed the presidency of the college its finances were in a discouraging condition, its income not
being sufficient to pay the salaries of the professors. Its friends were disheartened, and at a loss to know what to do. Soon, however, confidence was restored, and the friends of the college came to its support. The endowment was in- creased, more professors employed, and a fuller and more thorough course of instruction adopted, until the college now ranks with the older colleges of the State. Although in his sixty-seventh year, Dr. Williard is still hale and robust, and performs an unusual amount of work for a man of his age. He is often out in the Church presenting the claims of the college, lecturing on a variety of subjects, assisting in the dedication of churches and in special religious services, vis- iting and encouraging the young men who have left the in- stitution in their pastoral work, and preaches with the force and energy of one much younger in years. He was mar- ried to Miss Louisa C., daughter of Dr. P. W. Little, of Mer- cersburg, Pennsylvania, April 21st, 1841, with whom he had five children, two of whom have preceded him to the spirit world. His wife having died, September 10th, 1863, he was married the second time to Miss Emma J., daughter of Col. John Hivling, of Xenia, Ohio, on the third day of January, 1866, with whom he is still living pleasantly and happily. Two of his children, John Newton and Dr. George Parker Williard, are living in Tiffin, Ohio, the former in the insur- ance business, and the latter in the practice of medicine, whilst his youngest son, Rev. Edwin Rush Williard, is the pastor of the Reformed congregation of Germantown, Ohio.
EDWARDS, JOHN STARKE, lawyer, oldest son of Pierrepont Edwards, one of the most distinguished lawyers of New England, and judge of the district court of the Uni- ted States, for the district of Connecticut, and grandson of the famous Jonathan Edwards, was born in New Haven, Connecticut, August 23d, 1777, and died in Ohio, January 29th, 1813. He received a liberal education, graduating at Princeton College, New Jersey. On his return to New Haven he studied law, attended lectures at the law-school in Litch- field, Connecticut, and was admitted to the bar in New Haven. Early in 1799, after he was admitted to practice, he removed to Ohio, settling first a: Mesopotamia, on the Western Re- serve. In July, 1800, he was appointed by Governor St. Clair, the first governor of the territory of the Northwest, to the office of recorder of Trumbull county, and immediately on receiving the appointment he removed to the county-seat at Warren. In October of the same year he attended the opening of the court for the Northwest Territory, held at Ma- rietta, and was there admitted to practice in the courts of the territory. He devoted himself assiduously to the duties of his office and to the practice of his profession, making occa- sional visits to Connecticut. In 1809 he became interested in the subject of merino breeding, which had been brought to public attention by the importation into New England of some Spanish merino sheep, by Colonel David Humphreys, American minister at the court of Madrid. In company with his brother Ogden, he purchased from his father Put-in-Bay island, in the southwestern portion of Lake Erie, and stocked it with merino sheep, brought at heavy expense from New England. The enterprise was not successful, although much labor and money were expended. In the war of 1812 he re- ceived the commission of colonel in the 4th division of Ohio militia, under General Elijah Wadsworth, and after General Hull's surrender at Detroit, by which the whole northwestern frontier was thrown open to the enemy, he took an active
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part, with other patriotic citizens of the menaced territory, in planning and putting into execution prompt measures for the common defense. In October, 1812, he was elected one of the six representatives in Congress of the newly-organized State of Ohio, his district being numbered the sixth, and cov- ering the whole northeastern part of the State, but he never took his seat. In January, 1813, at a very inclement season, he undertook a journey through the whole northwestern frontier, and, among other places, to visit his sheep farm on Put-in- Bay island. On his way home from the island he was taken with the then prevailing fever, and after an illness of but two or three days, died at Huron, Ohio, January 29th, 1813. His death at so early an age, cut short a career that promised to be one of distinction and public value. He had won his way in professional and public life by the solid worth of his char- acter, rather than by showy brilliance or anxiety for distinc- tion. His ability was everywhere recognized; his candor and honorable conduct won him general respect and warm individual friendship; his reputation for integrity was never sullied with a breath of suspicion. He had an unconquer- able dislike for everything in professional or private life not strictly honorable, and was not disposed to conceal his feel- ings in that respect. He married, February 28th, 1807, Miss Louisa Maria Morris, daughter of General Louis R. Morris, of Springfield, Vermont, by whom he had three sons, two of whom died young. The third one, William Johnson Edwards, agriculturist, was born at Warren, Trumbull county, Ohio, December 26th, 1811, and is, at the present time, living at Youngstown, Mahoning county, in the same State. In his earlier years he attended the common schools of the country, afterward taking courses at schools in New York, and finish- ing at the Military Academy in Middletown, Connecticut. His hearing having been seriously affected from an early age, he labored under many difficulties in obtaining an edu- cation, but surmounted them all, although incapacitated for taking any very active part in public or professional life. He therefore at an early age turned his attention to agriculture, for which he displayed a strong predilection. In 1848 he re- moved to Youngstown, and devoted his time and attention to the improvement of his lands at that place. At the same time he felt an interest in all that concerned the welfare of the country, although studiously avoiding notoriety and court- ing retirement. He unobtrusively did his part toward sup- porting measures of a patriotic, benevolent, or public-spirited character, and by his unostentatious liberality, and his many social and personal virtues, won the esteem of his fellow-cit- izens. The only public office he consented to fill was that of member of the board of trustees, and president of the board of the Rayen school, a position he filled for a number of years with marked ability. He married, in 1839, Miss Mary, daughter of Dr. H. Manning.
BURNETT, CHARLES C., member of the House of Representatives, and president of the Sturtevant Lumber Company, of Cleveland, was born in Orange Township, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, April 21st, 1843. His parents were Stephen and Lomira (Gardner) Burnett. His father, who was a farmer, was the son of one of the first settlers in Cuyahoga County. Besides being a farmer, he, in those early pioneer days, on the Chagrin River, kept tavern, and occupied the village pulpit of the Disciples' Church, for some forty years. He settled on his farm as early as 1813; and on that farm, inured to all the hardships of
a pioneer life, the subject of our sketch was born ; attend- ing school, such as the times afforded, during the winter season, and working on the farm during summer. Later, he attended the village school. After having exhausted, or rather, made his own, all the knowledge the teachers there had to impart, he attended the State University of Indiana, at Vincennes. At the age of eighteen, in July, 1862, he en- listed in the army, to aid in putting down the Rebellion, and was speedily promoted to lieutenant. His army service was mostly in Kentucky, where he took part in several skirmishes, and in East Tennessee, under General Burnside. He was stricken down with the typhoid fever. After lying in hospital for two months, he was so debilitated as to be unfit for service, and was compelled to resign, leaving the army in the fall of 1863. He then went to Nashville, where he clerked in a gro- cery for about one year. He was then appointed to the po- sition of assistant assessor of the Internal Revenue Depart- ment, in Georgia. He was also in the department of the Freedman's Bureau, for about three years. "His next move was to Toledo, Ohio, where he went into business in the manufacture of cane-seat chairs. In one year his factory was destroyed by fire. In the spring of 1869 he came to Cleve- land, and engaged in the lumber business, and the manufac- turing of doors, sashes, and builders' materials. The com- pany of which he is now president is one of the largest of its kind in the State, employing three hundred men. It was originally a private company, of which he was principal owner, but was incorporated in 1882, and Mr. Burnett elected presi- dent. The name given to the company was in honor of Isaac Sturtevant, the pioneer lumberman of Cleveland, who started in Cleveland in 1846, and whose estimable daughter, Adelia M., was married to Mr. Burnett, February 14th, 1867. They now have a family of five children-two boys and three girls. In politics Mr. Burnett is a Republican. In the fall of 1883 he was nominated by his party for member of the House of Representatives, and was elected by a grand majority, which was all the more noteworthy from the fact that only one other Representative and one Senator of the Republican party was elected at that time for his district. As an employer he is held in high estimation, and he considers the action of his employés at the time of election as one of the greatest com- pliments ever paid him. The whole three hundred men in the employ of the company turned out and worked for him at the polls, and cast their votes, as they worked, in his favor. He has been a director of the Cleveland Infirmary. In the Masonic order he is a Royal Arch Mason; a member of the Royal Arcanum, and of the Legion of Honor. He is a prac- tical business man, a man of enterprise and foresight, of keen, clear perception, born in him and grown up with him. When a boy he evinced the same characteristics. His father, on the farm, used to raise trees, and broom-corn, which was made into brooms; and the young man, at the age of twelve, was pro- vided with a team (but no money) and a stock of trees or brooms, and started off to make what he could, and he was eminently successful. His first attempt was. when only ten years old. He had started out with an older brother, who could not dispose of his brooms, and was going to drive home; but he would not consent to that, and so he pitched in, and sold the brooms himself. These early characteristics of pluck, energy, and perseverance are still retained, and as a result he has become a large and prosperous business man, enjoying in his elegant home and pleasant surround- ings the love of his family, and the honor, respect, and esteem
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