USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume III > Part 25
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mained as one of his military family through all his promo- tions for nearly two years, when a change of command for each separated them for the remainder of the war. He was with Grant when Holly Springs was sold out, and marched with Leggett's brigade as far south as Water Valley. He was at Port Gibson, Mississippi; at Raymond, Jackson, Champion Hills, and during the siege of Vicksburg; and his brigade-General M. D. Leggett's, had the honor of be- ing the first to march within the fortified lines after the sur- render, July 4th, 1863. During the Vicksburg campaign he was division hospital director of Logan's division ; and later in the season was detailed to start the convalescent camp, within the city, and had placed under his charge, besides, all the sick and wounded Confederates within the lines. He was with Frank P. Blair on the Yazoo raid; with Sherman on the Meridian raid, and on the attempted raid to Shreve- port, Louisiana, which failed upon reaching Monroeville, on the Wachita River, by reason of the great amount of sick- ness among the troops. In the spring of 1864 he veteranized with the 78th Regiment for the remainder of the war, when the time of enlistment of that regiment was about to expire. He was in General Lew. Wallace's division, as the army was organized at Shiloh, and afterwards in the army of the Tennessee, under Grant, Sherman, and McPherson, until on the Atlanta campaign, when he was transferred, by reason of promotion as major surgeon, into the 2d Division of the 23d Army Corps, under Schofield. He followed the fortunes of the army under Sherman until the end of tliat campaign; and when Sherman started off on that long picnic "to the sea," he came north with Schofield, and was at Columbia, Spring Hill, Franklin, and Nashville; and after the ruin of Hood's brave, chivalrous, and magnificent army at Franklin, under Schofield, and at Nashville, under Thomas, he was transferred with the 23d Army Corps via the Tennessee and Ohio Rivers to Cincinnati; thence by rail to Washington City and Alexandria, and by ocean steamer Cassandra to Fortress Monroe and Smithville, at the mouth of Cape Fear River, and directly to the four days' siege of Fort Anderson ; then to Town Creek, and then across Cape Fear River by night to the assistance of Terry at the siege of Wilmington, which was evacuated on the morning of the 22d of Febru- ary, 1865-the birthday anniversary of George Washington. On his way to Raleigh, North Carolina, after the junction with Sherman's "bummers " at Goldsboro, he heard of Lee's surrender at Appomattox, and Joe Johnston's capitulation soon followed. At the close of the war he was division hospital director of the 2d Division, 23d Army Corps, and one of the three surgeons of that division that constituted the "Operating Board." He had campaigned for three years and three months, in six different States ; and had traveled, whilst campaigning in the army, more than nine thousand miles, as the armies of the South and West were generally "going somewhere." After the close of the war he settled on a farm two miles north of London, the county-seat of Madison County, Ohio, which is his present post-office ad- dress, within three miles of his former location; and in his profession he includes the same territory over which he has traveled for the past twenty-eight years, excepting that it is more extended than when he was a younger man. He now has a model farm of about eight hundred acres, where he lives, "with accompaniments," and is the fortunate possessor of a reasonable competency besides. In the fall of 1869 he was elected by the Republican party of Madison County-his
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native county-to the State Legislature; and in the fall of 1871 he was elected by the Republican party to the State Senate, by the counties of Madison, Clarke, and Champaign ; and at the Ohio Republican State Convention, held in the city of Columbus, in June, 1873, he was given forty-six votes as a candidate for the office of Lieutenant-governor. He is a member of the Madison County Medical Society, and has been its president; of the Central Ohio Medical Society ; of the Ohio State Medical Society, and in 1881 was elected its first vice-president. He is also a working member of the American Medical Association ; and at its session in June, 1883, in Cleveland, Ohio, he was chosen to represent Ohio on the committee appointed for the selection of officers of the Association for the ensuing year. He also read a paper be- fore the Association on the subject of "Milk-sickness," which was reprinted in pamphlet form, and widely distributed in the Old World as well as in the New. He is a member of the Masonic Fraternity, of the Grand Army of the Republic, and also of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee. He was married on the 12th day of June, 1860, to Miss Lucy E. Wilson, of Lafayette, Madison County, Ohio, only daughter of James and Elenor (Smith) Wilson, born in Summerford Township, Madison County, Ohio, Marclı 28th, 1844. Mary, their only child, was born near Lafayette, Madison County, Ohio, July 9th, 1862; and graduated A. B. at Rutger's Female College, 489, 490, and 491 Fifth Avenue, New York City- the valedictorian of the class-June 19th, 1882.
GOFORTH, WILLIAM, of Cincinnati, physician, was born 1766 in the city of New York. After receiving a fair preparatory education, he commenced to study medicine under various eminent teachers. On one occasion, while at- tending a course of lectures on anatomy, the class was violently dispersed by a mob raised against the promotion of anatomical investigations. This occurred in the winter of 1787-88. He at once resolved to leave New York, and pro- ceed west, and on the Ioth June, 1788, landed at Maysville (then called Limestone), Kentucky. He soon after settled at Washington, four miles from the river, and was not long in acquiring a large practice. He remained here eleven years, and then determined on removing to Cincinnati, Ohio, and in the spring of 1800 arrived at his destination, having in the meantime spent several months at his father's residence in Columbia. His father was Judge Goforth, one of the earliest settlers of the State. Dr. Goforth occupied the Peach Grove House, formerly the residence of Dr. Allison, to whose prac- tice he succeeded. He again obtained an extensive profes- sional practice owing to his high reputation and good family connections. In 1801 he introduced vaccination among his patients in Cincinnati, the small-pox infection having in the previous year been brought from Europe to Eastern cities. In 1803, at great expense, he dug up a mass of huge fossil bones at Bigbone Lick, Kentucky, but lost this valuable ac- quisition through an Englishman named Ashe, with a French alias. This man, pretending to be a Frenchman, gained his confidence, and was entrusted with the bones to convey to Europe. There he disposed of them, and was never more heard of. This was not the only instance in which his good nature was imposed upon by adventurers. He was very par- tial to French people and sympathized warmly with refugees from that country. His admiration of the French, and his love of change, led him to form the plan of taking up his residence in Louisiana, which in 1803 had been sold to the
United States by France. Accordingly in 1807, he left Cin- cinnati on a flat-boat for the lower Mississippi. Soon after his arrival he was elected a parish judge, and the Creoles of Attacapas elected him a member of the convention to form a constitution for the new State. During the invasion of Louisiana by the British in 1812, he was an assistant surgeon in the American army. In May, 1816, being dissatisfied with his prospects in the South, he returned to Cincinnati, after a . voyage of eight months by river. During this journey he contracted a disease from which he never recovered. In Cincinnati he met with a flattering welcome, and at once re- sumed his popularity. In the spring of 1817 he died, sin- cerely regretted by the entire community. He was the second physician who had died in Cincinnati, Dr. Allison having been the first. In manner he was original and eccentric. He was devoted to the Masonic fraternity, and invariably adorned his signature with some Masonic emblem. His dis- tinguished pupil, Dr. Daniel Drake, says of him, that "he had the most winning manners of any physician he ever knew." His memory is preserved in Cincinnati, not only by those who actually knew him, but by the whole medical pro- fession of the city. In all the relations of life he proved himself a man of great ability, a general benefactor, and a warm and disinterested friend.
BUTTERWORTH, BENJAMIN, Commissioner of Patents, lawyer by profession, and late Member of Con- gress, was born in Warren County, Ohio. His people are all Quakers, on both sides, and he himself is a member of the John Street Meeting, in Cincinnati. John Linton, who was conspicuous among those who came to Pennsylvania with William Penn, was his maternal ancestor. His father came to Ohio, from Virginia, in 1814-the Butterworths and the Lintons being among the early pioneers in the Miami Valley. His parents, William and Elizabeth But- terworth, still reside at the old homestead, in Warren County, his father at the age of eighty-one, and his mother at the age of seventy-seven. Until he was eighteen years of age, Ben lived on the farm, with such advantages of ed- ucation as farmers' children usually had in those days. As is generally the case with young men of talent and rest- less ambition, farming soon proved uncongenial to his tastes. He decided to fit himself for a professional life, and entered the law office of Durbin Ward and William M. Ramsey. in Cincinnati, where he pursued his legal studies for two years, and graduated at the Cincinnati Law School in 1861. No sooner had he established himself in the practice of the law than his personal popularity became universal, and he was thus early called into public notice. His public life began in 1868, when he was appointed Assistant United States Dis- trict Attorney, under Mr. Warner M. Bateman. He filled this position ably until he resigned to engage in the practice. In 1871 he was nominated for the Ohio State Senate, in the thoroughly Democratic district composed of the counties of Butler and Warren. He was beaten, after a hard fight, by one hundred and twenty-six votes. In 1873 he was nomi- nated again, by acclamation, for the same office, and suc- ceeded in carrying the district, by eighty-six majority. He performed his duties as State Senator with great acceptability to his constituency and credit to himself, and was recognized as one of the readiest debaters and hardest workers in that body. Upon the termination of his term, in the spring of 1875, he removed with his family to Cincinnati, and con-
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tinued the practice of the law with the Hon. Ferdinand Vogeler, now Consul General at Frankfort-on-the Main. In 1878 the Republican Convention of the First Congressional District, composed of twelve wards in the city of Cincinnati and half of the county of Hamilton, nominated Mr. Butter- worth for Congress. The Hon. Milton Sayler was his com- petitor. The contest was earnest, but free from personalities, and resulted in the election of Mr. Butterworth by a majority of seven hundred and twenty. In 1880 he was nominated again, by acclamation, his opponent being the popular gen- tleman and orator, Hon. Samuel F. Hunt. Mr. Butterworth again carried the district, by an increased majority of twelve hundred and ninety-eight. In 1882 he was, for the third time, nominated by acclamation; but, although he ran far ahead of his ticket, was defeated by the Hon. John F. Follett. The defeat was confessedly due to the defection of the German Republicans, on account of the temperance agitation, the Germans being determined to resent any attempt to interfere with their social customs, and to that end defeated the entire Republican ticket. In Congress Mr. Butterworth sprang at once into prominence. He occupied prominent positions upon leading committees, and in his numerous speeches he never failed to get that most difficult thing to obtain, "the ear of the house." During his four years in Congress he was a hard worker in committee, and, on the floor, one of the most brilliant speakers. His influence was largely felt, did much in shaping the legislation of those years, and won for himself a national reputation as a legislator and orator. Mr. Butterworth was a member of the National Convention at Chicago which nominated Garfield and Arthur, though he was a devoted friend and ardent supporter of John Sherman. At the close of the Forty-seventh Congress, he returned to the practice of law, at Cincinnati, in business association with Mr. Powell Crossley, a prominent young attorney of that city. Soon after resuming practice he was retained by the Attorney-general of the United States, as special counsel of the United States, to assist at the prosecution of the election cases in South Carolina. In June, 1883, he was appointed, by the President, as Commissioner to inspect certain portions of the Northern Pacific Railroad. In October of the same year he was, by the President, tendered the office of Com- missioner of Patents, which he accepted, the duties of this office being in the line of his profession. It is an open secret that President Arthur desired and intended to make him Postmaster-general, after the death of Mr. Howe, but Indiana had a good man for the place, as well as strong claims for recognition, and Judge Gresham was selected. The office of Commissioner of Patents is, however, one which should by right rank as high as the Postmaster-generalship, though it is not of a nature to bring it so much under public notice. There are nearly five hundred employés under the commissioner, and the pay-roll foots up to nearly six hundred thousand dollars per annum. It has furthermore attached to it very grave responsibilities, that require both sound judg- ment and the strictest integrity, and one reason of the gen- eral satisfaction over Mr. Butterworth's appointment lies in the well known fact that he possesses the qualities to an ex- ceptional degree. His good, clear common sense is prover- bial, and his honor has never been questioned, even by his strongest political opponents. He is not only unusually pop- ular with all members of Congress, irrespective of party, and other officials with whom he has come in contact, but is per- sonally much liked among the leading families in Washing-
ton. He is, in his personal relations, very happily situated; noted for his never-failing humor and good-fellowship, yet not inviting undue familiarity ; strong in his friendships, yet quick to forgive an affront or enemy ; ready to go far out of his way to aid a friend, and do a kindness to those who would injure him if they could. He is also happy in his family relations; nor could it be otherwise, with his excellent and accomplished wife and four bright, interesting children. He is their companion. He was married November 2d, 1863, to Miss Mary E. Seiler, daughter of Hon. Jacob Seiler, a prominent lawyer, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. As a hus- band, he is devoted; as a father, indulgent; as a friend, earnest and faithful ; as a lawyer, he is indefatigable and brilliant; as a legislator, untiring and able; and as a statesman, ready, well-equipped, and possessed of broad and liberal views of men and measures. In his present executive and judicial capacity it is predicted that he will prove a great success.
CASE, LEONARD, land-owner, was born in Westmore- land county, Pennsylvania, July 29th, 1786, and died De- cember 7th, 1864, at Cleveland, Ohio. His life furnishes one of the most extraordinary examples of strength of character to be found in human annals. He was the son of Meschach Case, a farmer of his native county. In 1788 the family re- moved to Washington county, remaining there until 1800, when another removal was made to the township of Warren, Trumbull county, Ohio. Whilst in Washington county he attended school in the winter and worked on the farm in the summer, but the new farm in Ohio required his undivided at- tention, he being the oldest of the children, and his father in ill health. In the fall of 1801 he was himself prostrated with inflammation of his lower limbs, and after more than eighteen months of suffering, rose from his bed a cripple, without hope of recovery. During his long illness he had forgotten nearly all he had learned at school, but his first endeavor was to regain what he had lost. His crippled condition, and the limited facilities afforded by the circumstances of the family and of the neighbors, made this difficult work, but with some paper and an old arithmetic, obtained from Pitts- burgh, and a borrowed fragment of a book on surveying, he studied from 1803 to 1806, earning his living, by bottoming chairs, making baskets, sieves, etc. In March, 1806, he was called to write in the office of the clerk of common pleas. Here he studied the Ohio statutes diligently, and mastered their contents, so as to be able to make prompt reference for any information required. In the following spring his knowl- edge of mapping was tested and added to by some work in the land-agency office of General Simon Perkins. Having passed an examination for clerk of supreme court, he was appointed to that position in Trumbull county, August 21st, 1807, and was reappointed in 1814, holding the position until 1816, when he resigned. Soon after his appointment as su- preme court clerk, in 1807, he was also appointed deputy collector of non-resident taxes for the sixth district of Ohio, and made the collections and returns with remarkable prompt- ness and accuracy. In the same. winter he made a list of the owners and lands drawn in the drafts of the Connecticut Land Company, that afterwards proved of much value in tracing the records of the property. During this period he found occasional employment in the recorder's office, where his knowledge of land titles was increased. Whatever spare time he had was taken up with the study of law, and in 1814 he was admitted to practice in the State courts. In
Leonardllase
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August, 1809, he was elected justice of the peace, was reelected in 1812, and again in 1815. From 1812 to 1816 he also held the position of collector of the sixth district, being annually appointed by the legislature. The office was one of yearly increasing responsibility, but with little more than nominal salary, his collections in the last year of his service being over $58,000, and his compensation but $450 and traveling expenses. In 1816 he was appointed cashier of the new Commercial Bank of Lake Erie, and removed to Cleveland to assume the position. The bank failed after a few years, and he resumed the practice of law in Cuyahoga and the neighboring counties, continuing until 1833, when the increased severity of his physical infirmity compelled him to relinquish active practice, which had been, during the last preceding thirteen years, carried on in the United States as well as State courts. In 1820 he was appointed auditor of Cuyahoga county, and whilst in that position was required to make out a new list of lands, under a new system, and at the same time to act as clerk of the county commissioners. The next year he was reappointed, and in the two succeed- ing years was elected to the same position by the people. When he took the place the county was $1,500 in debt, and he left it in 1824 with all its debts paid, and $2,000 in the treasury, his own compensation for four years of labor being $650. In 1824 he was elected to represent the county in the legislature. That legislature had to determine the location of the Ohio canal, and to devise a new system of taxation, and in both those tasks his previous experience rendered his services valuable. So well were his constituents satisfied with his course, that he held the same position in the two succeeding years. In 1832 (March 20th) the Commercial Bank of Lake Erie was resuscitated. He settled the affairs of the old corporation, giving an accurate account to the new owners, and was by them made president. Some time pre- vious to this he had been appointed agent of the State of Connecticut to take charge of the lands and debts belonging to its school fund. On accepting the position, he supposed it would be a small matter, lasting but a short time. It proved a long and difficult task, occupying over thirty years, during which he sold land requiring four hundred contracts, had long-standing and tangled mortgage demands to settle with purchasers of the mortgaged lands, and collected and paid over about $500,000 in money without having more than one lawsuit growing out of the contracts. In November, 1855, the final settlements were made with the land com- pany's commissioners without the alteration or questioning of a figure. In everything relating to the interests of Cleve- land he took an active interest. From 1821 to 1825 he was president of the village council, and was active and energetic in pushing forward such improvements as the circumstances of the people justified. At all times he manifested a lively interest in the welfare of the population, the convenience and beauty of the streets and public grounds, the efficacy of the schools, and the spread of moral and religious influences. For these purposes he contributed liberally of his means, and rendered no less valuable service by his wise counsels and his force of character. His foresight and public spirit sug- gested and carried forward to considerable extent the work of ornamenting the streets with shade trees, which has been followed until Cleveland has become widely known and praised as the "Forest City." When it was proposed to build the first of the many lines of railroad now centering in Cleveland-the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati-he
gave the enterprise his strong indorsement, headed the sub- scription list with five thousand dollars-a large sum in those days-and became one of the directors of the company. He foresaw the future prosperity of the city, and as fast as he obtained money beyond his immediate wants he invested it in land within or near its limits, thus laying the foundation for great wealth in the future. He shunned debt, and his land purchases and other transactions were made on the principle of never contracting a debt beyond his ability to pay within two years without a sale of property. In all his dealings he was scrupulously just, and at the same time gen- erous. He was never guilty of an act of oppression or un- kindness. His strong, clear sense enabled him to judge men with almost unerring readiness, and to the honest he was a reliable and generous friend. He died in the seventy-ninth year of his age. He had two sons, William and Leonard. William, the elder, was born in Cleveland, Ohio, 1818, and died at the same place April 19th, 1862, having lived a life of usefulness and good works. After being twice elected and serving two terms as mayor, he was, in 1853, elected presi- dent of the Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula Railroad Company, retaining that position until 1858. During his management the railroad was very prosperous, earning large profits, and ranking as one of the most profitable and best- managed railroads of the country. He strongly advocated the construction of the water-works in Cleveland, and was prominent in the early history of that undertaking. On the establishment, by legislative enactment, of the sinking fund commission of the city, he was appointed one of the com- missioners, and retained that position until his death. He projected, and carried forward nearly to completion, the Case block, at the time by far the largest and finest building in the city, his death occurring before it was finished. He possessed fine literary and artistic tastes, was fond of hunt- ing and fishing, and took great interest in natural history, horticulture and agriculture. Of large hearted generosity, he was of a modest disposition that shrank from notoriety, and his charities, though numerous and extensive, were as far as possible kept from public knowledge.
WRIGHT, CYRUS MANSFIELD, D. D. S., Profes- sor of Physiology and Pathology in the Ohio College of Dental Surgery ; President of the Mississippi Valley Dental Association ; late President of the American Dental So- ciety, of Europe, etc., was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Feb- ruary 18th, 1842. His father, Cyrus Wright, was a native of Massachusetts, and his mother, Miss Roxanna Morse, of New Hampshire. Both directly descended from the old Puritan stock. They were married in Boston, Massachu- setts, and from that city emigrated to Ohio and settled in Cincinnati in 1830. Mr. Wright was long associated with Mr. Mansfield in the lumber business in that city, the firm being Mansfield & Wright. He died, greatly respected, in 1856. Among Dr. Wright's ancestors, on both sides, were many ministers, principally of the Presbyterian faith, while all inherited the strong moral and religious characteristics which led their progenitors to endure the perils of the sea and privations of a new continent in order to worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences. Dr. Wright's preliminary education was obtained in the public schools of that city. He was one of the first pupils that at- tended Professor Chickering's school before it became an academy. His first employment was at fourteen years of age,
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