USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume III > Part 27
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74
Governor of Ohio by the Union party, appointed him Judge Advocate General on his staff, with the rank of colonel; but soon after, by reason of previous professional engagements, he was reluctantly forced to resign the position. In the fall of 1863 he was elected by the Union party to the Ohio Sen- ate, from the district composed of Portage and Summit Counties. Having been in the fall of 1864 elected judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio, he resigned his position as Sen- ator. In 1869 he was elected to a second term as Judge of the Supreme Court. In 1874 he was again nominated by the Republican party for the same position, but, the State going largely Democratic that year, he was defeated. In 1875 the Legislature created a commission, consisting of three persons, to revise the statute laws of the State. In April of that year he was appoined by Governor William Allen, who had the fall before been elected Governor by the Democratic party, one of the Revising Commissioners. In the fall of 1875 an amendment of the State Constitution was adopted, creating a Commission in aid of the Supreme Court, in the disposi- tion of the large number of cases pending in that court. On February Ist, 1876, Governor R. B. Hayes appointed him a member of that Commission. Accordingly, he resigned his membership of the Revising Commission, and entered upon the duties of the Supreme Court Commission, where he re- mained three years, when the Commission expired by con- stitutional limitation. While on the Revising Commission be aided in the collation of the statutes, which were frag- mentary and scattered through many volumes, and rewrote a portion of them, which were afterwards embodied in the Revised Code, and enacted as part of the laws of the State. While connected with the Supreme Court he was four years Chief Justice, and one year Chief Judge of the Supreme Court Commission. The results of his judicial labors appear in fifteen volumes of the Ohio State Reports, where his pub- lished opinions, measured only by their real merit, will re- main for him a sufficient memorial of his judicial ability. After the expiration of his judicial service he returned to the practice of the law, to enable him to give his children a liberal education, and now, in 1884, he finds himself again engrossed in the duties of his profession. The children of his first wife were Emily L., William R, and Edward L. Of these, Emily L. married George E. Fairchild, and is settled in Ravenna. William R., who is a graduate of Michigan Uni- versity, resides in Canton, Stark County, Ohio, and is a prom- inent member of the Stark County bar. Edward L., a boy of bright promise, died of diphtheria, at the age of twelve. By his present wife he has had six children. Mary E., the eldest of these, a most lovely child, died of diphtheria when but five years old. Charles F. is a graduate of Williams Col- lege, Massachusetts, and David B. is at the Western Reserve University, Ohio. Robert H. and Anna B. are children at home, and John L., the youngest child, died in his infancy. During the war for the preservation of the Union Judge Day took an active part in the recruiting service, and few civilians rendered more efficient aid to the Union cause. During those years he contracted a slight throat trouble, occasioned by too much out-door speaking, from which he has never fully recovered. More than a passing mention of his services is due to this memorable period, which witnessed the most active portion of his whole life. A life-long Democrat of the Jackson school, prominent in the councils of his party, he ever acted with those who sustained the integrity of the Union. The first gun that was fired on Sumter lifted him to
668
BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPÆDIA AND PORTRAIT GALLERY.
a higher arena. Abandoning party affiliations, he devoted himself to the Union cause with a zeal and enthusiasm that knew no abatement until the Republic won its imperishable crown at Appomattox. In raising and organizing the Ohio Union forces, Governors Dennison, Tod, and Brough re- spectively sought liis co-operation, and he entered into the work with characteristic ardor and devotion. Having urged the assignment of General Garfield, then President of Hiram College, to the command of a regiment, he joined him in the work of its organization; and the meeting in the church at Hiram, addressed by Judge Day, was a memorable occasion, when the young men of the college and vicinity volunteered to form the first company in the old 42d Regiment of Ohio, whose first leader was destined to historic fame. Throughout this entire period the demands on Judge Day for his services on public occasions of every kind were almost unlimited; and the fervor of his public addresses roused men to action at home, and sent encouragement to those on the field. For himself permitting no reward, and asking no honor, he de- voted the whole energies of his being to the success of the
cause. Born among the hills of Eastern New York, and spending his academic years at Castleton, Bennington, and Middlebury, Vermont, he has ever had an enthusiasm for the mountains that nearly amounts to a passion; and when worn with overwork he is accustomed to resort to them for rest and reinvigoration. For many years he and his family have spent part of the summer months among the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts, where he has found the most delightful episodes of his busy life. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, to which he seems much attached. But in religious views he is tolerant and liberal, and regards the life, rather than the creed, the best exponent of Christian character. In all religious, benevolent, and moral enterprises he takes a strong interest, giving to them liberally according to his means. Socially he is courteous and refined, exerting, in a quiet, unobtrusive way, a healthy and refining influence on the society around him; and in his community he stands high as a man of integrity and ability.
YEATMAN, THOMAS H., of Cincinnati, Ohio, banker, and president of the Cincinnati Pioneer Association, was born July 8th, 1805, in Cincinnati, Ohio, the only son of Griffin and Jane Yeatman. His father was one of the pioneers of Cincinnati, whither he removed from Westmoreland county, Virginia, June 20th, 1793, at which period Cincinnati was but a small village. The subject of this sketch received his ed- ucation at the Lancasterian Seminary, under Rev. Joshua H. Wilson, Caleb Kemper and Edmund Harrison, and gradu- ated at the Cincinnati College, under President Elijah Slack. At the age of sixteen he left home, and through the influence of General Harrison, afterward President of the United States, received the appointment of midshipman in the United States navy. He was ordered to report at once to Captain Spence, United States navy, at New York, then in command of the corvette "Cyane," a vessel captured, with the "Levant" from the British, by the United States frigate "Constellation," off the coast of Africa, in 1814. The "Cyane" was on the eve of sailing for the coast of Africa to aid in the suppression of the slave trade. He reported himself, and was very soon on his way to the West Indies and the African coast. The "Cyane" lost on this cruise one-fourth of her crew from black fever in fifteen days. In 1822-23 he was off the coast of South America and the West Indies, on board
the frigate "Constitution," and was subsequently in active service under Commodore D. Porter, the hero of the " Essex," who was in command of what was known as the " Mosquito fleet," engaged in the suppression of piratical acts in the West Indies. He narrowly escaped a watery grave by ship- wreck, off Wilmington, North Carolina, while on his return to the United States on board the schooner "Terrier." After serving five years in the navy, he returned to Cincinnati in 1827, and married Miss Elizabeth Hartzell. He then retired from the service, preferring civil life. In 1828 he commenced business as a broker, and afterward connected himself with the firms of Yeatman, Wilson & Shield, and Shield, Voor- hees & Co., in the manufacture of steam-engines, sugar- mills, and foundry-castings, a business which contributed largely to the commercial prosperity of the city of Cincin- nati. In April 1841, Mr. Yeatman was one of the marshals of the funeral cortege which received the remains of Ex- President W. H. Harrison, at Cincinnati, on their way from the national capital for interment at North Bend, Hamilton county. In 1848 he gave much of his attention to the culti- vation of the grape and wine-making, then in its infancy in this country, and in 1851-52 visited various countries in Europe for the purpose of more thoroughly acquainting him- self with wine-making. He was afterward successful in ob- taining the first premium for wine at the World's Fair in London and New York; also from the State fair in Philadel- phia, and the Vine Growers' Association in Missouri, at St. Louis and Cincinnati. In 1863, Secretary Chase tendered him the position of assistant treasury agent for Memphis, Tennessee, which he retained for nearly two years. During the civil war he was appointed government purchasing agent at Vicksburg. After the war he returned to Cincinnati. In 1867 he was nominated by President Johnson as postmaster of Cincinnati, but the senate, for party reasons connected with the president, did not confirm the nomination. In 1868 he was elected president of the Cincinnati Pioneer Associa- tion; and in the fall of 1869, was elected State senator for Hamilton county, Ohio. It was his vote (the parties in the senate being eighteen democrats and nineteen republicans) that passed the Fifteenth Amendment. Mr. Yeatman saw the city of Cincinnati grow up from a few hundred to nearly three hundred thousand inhabitants, and was full of recollections of Ex-President Harrison, St. Clair, Moses Daw- son, Charles Hammond, Israel Ludlow, Nicholas Longworth, Judge Este, Jacob Burnet, David Gano, James Findlay, Rob- ert T. Lytle, Peyton Symmes and other distinguished early residents of Cincinnati and its neighborhood. In politics he was of the old whig school, but of late years had pursued an independent course. He was made a Freemason in Lafay- ette lodge of Cincinnati, in 1829, celebrated his golden wed- ding, February 8th, 1877, and died December 19th, 1878.
JOHNSTON, ROBERT ALEXANDER, M. A., Judge of Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas, was born No- vember 17th, 1835, at Mount Carmel, Clermont County, Ohio. His father, the late Campbell Johnston, Esq., was a native of Ireland, and, in company with a brother, James, emigrated to the United States during the war of 1812, " their young hearts full of sympathy for the American cause." After some years spent in Pennsylvania and St. Louis, trading, these brothers entered into the wholesale grocery and dry goods and hard- ware business, on the west side of Main Street, a few doors below Second, in Cincinnati, in 1820. This continued until
John Hasbeen
669
BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPÆDIA AND PORTRAIT GALLERY.
1832, under the firm name of C. & J. Johnston, when Camp- bell Johnston retired to a large farm, near Mount Carmel, where he died in 1843, leaving Robert A. an orphan, in the eighth year of his age. Concerning his father, it has been said, that he was greatly respected and esteemed ; that "he was absolutely fair and honest in all his intercourse with others ; that he was a. Presbyterian in faith, and worshiped at the old frame building where now stands the imposing First Presbyterian Church of Cincinnati, on Fourth Street, near Main (the Rev. Dr. Joshua Wilson then being pastor) ; · that upon his removal to Clermont County he and his brother James organized a Presbyterian society, and erected a sub- stantial church building at Mount Carmel, which has still an influence for good in that community, but now supplanted by an imposing brick edifice; as a merchant made frequent voy- ages, in keel boats, to New Orleans, and as a farmer was pro- gressive, expending much in the introduction of fine breeds of horses and cattle; and that in politics he was an unflinching Democrat, and a great admirer of Andrew Jackson, whom, in personal appearance, he much resembled." Judge John- ston's mother was Miss Jerusha Sandford, of Bridgehampton, Long Island, New York. Of her it was said, that " she was a devoted wife, a kind mother, and lived the life of a true, noble Christian woman." She died in 1854. They lie side by side, at rest, in Spring Grove Cemetery. Five children survived them, all of whom are now living: John, James S., and Nancy C., born at Cincinnati; and Hannah H. and the Judge, born at Mount Carmel, Ohio. James S. is an exten- sive farmer and stock and fruit grower, in Bond County, Illonois; Nancy C. is now Mrs. Thomas Sherlock, of Clifton, with whom her sister, Hannah H., is now residing; Hon. John Johnston, the first mentioned, was educated at Miami Uni- versity, and is a prominent member of the Cincinnati bar. He first studied law under General Thomas L. Hamer, then under Judge Bellamy Storer, and graduated at the Cincin- nati Law School. He served as a soldier through the Mexican War. He practiced law at Batavia, Ohio, for several years, served as Prosecuting Attorney of that county, and as State Senator for Clermont and Brown Counties. He has the rep- utation of being a sound and able lawyer. Upon the death of the father, John was appointed guardian of the person and estate of Robert A., who, under his guidance, was educated, first in the schools of the immediate neighborhood of the old farm homestead, including a course at Gains' Academy (then of much local distinction), and then at Hanover College, In- diana, where the degree of Bachelor of Arts was conferred upon him, in 1854, and Master of Arts in 1882. Judge Johnston taught school for a while, then studied law under his brother John, graduating from the Cincinnati Law School in the spring of 1857. He immediately began the practice of his profession, in Cincinnati, continuing per- severingly and with gratifying success until 1864, when his preceptor and brother, John, removed from Batavia to Cincinnati, and entered into partnership with him, under the firm name of J. & R. A. Johnston, with their office at the southeast corner of Third and Walnut Streets. This firm soon became a strong and influential one, commanding the confidence of the community, and securing its share of the legal business of that city and vicinity. No firm manifested more energy, displayed more professional skill, or transacted its business with more faithfulness to its clients, for its years, than did this, until it was dissolved by the election of Robert A. as Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, in the fall of
1876, to which office he was re-elected in 1881. Judge John- ston was a member of the City Council of Cincinnati, from 1861 to 1863. He served as a soldier in the one hundred days' service, during the late war, in the 138th Ohio National Guard, Colonel S. S. Fisher commanding, the regiment being stationed at Fort Spring Hill, on Appomattox River, near City Point, Virginia. He was for six years Mayor of Avon- dale; and a trustee of the Presbyterian Church of that suburb, where he resides in a beautiful home of his own con- struction. Judge Johnston married Miss Elizabeth T. Moore, a daughter of the late Lindsay C. Moore, of Batavia, Clermont County, Ohio. She is a niece of the Rev. J. F. Chalfant, D. D., and is an accomplished lady, and an active member of the Presbyterian Church. These are the names of their chil- dren : Campbell Moore, Lindsay Coats, Elizabeth Chalfant, Thomas Sherlock, Roberta Alexander, and Robert A. Thus it will be seen that the steps of Judge Johnston have been stead- ily upward. In every trust-private, public, professional-he has been found faithful. His growth as youth, man, lawyer, and judge, has been steady and marked, fully answering the expectations of his friends and constituents. His private character is blameless; his reputation as a lawyer clear; his probity as a judge unquestioned. Completely wedded to the science of the law, he is still an incessant, laborious student, and his judicial opinions carry with them the respect of the bar, and the concurrence, in general, of his associates on the bench. And he is but in his prime.
HARBEIN, JOHN, was born in Washington county, Maryland, January 17th, 1804, and was the oldest of the six children of Daniel and Elizabeth (Reber) Harbein. He had but one brother, the Hon. Thomas Harbein, of Missouri, who is still living, and in the late war served on the side of the Union with the rank of colonel. His oldest sister, Catharine, widow of Samuel Boyd, Esq., of Maryland, died a few years before his own decease. The next sister, Susan, widow of the late Hon. William H. Grimes, of Kansas, is still living ; as is also his sister Mary, widow of the late Hon. Joseph G. Gest, of Greene county, Ohio. The fourth sister Eliza, wife of the Rev. S. N. Callender, of West Virginia, also survives him. His father and mother were of French and German descent. His father's ancestors were Huguenots, and left France, fleeing from persecution. They sought asylum in England, and, upon the accession of James 11 to the throne, emigrated to America. · In 1749 Peter Harbein purchased a tract of land of Thomas and Richard Penn, in the province of Pennsylvania. The family still retain this land, and treas- ure the old deed from the Penns; and to-day the old stone house and barn, built over a century ago, rival many modern farm houses and barns, even in Pennsylvania. From this homestead, "the old hive," Daniel Harbein with his family moved to Washington county, Maryland, where his son John received his elementary education at a school in Clearspring. He finished his studies at an academy in Pennsylvania. Promptly upon leaving school he began looking about for a business occupation, and finding none of sufficient promise in his own State, concluded to try the West. In the spring of 1826 he came with his father to Ohio, and purchased a farm and mill property about five miles west of Xenia, in what is called the Beaver valley, than which there is none more beautiful or fertile in the State. Upon the farm at the time of his purchase, still stood the block houses or forts, as they were called, "Greene county's first mill, and the old log court
670
BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPÆDIA AND PORTRAIT GALLERY.
house," described by Thomas Coke Wright in "Ohio Histor- ical Recollections." There also were a few tombstones, which now, moss covered and mouldering, still mark the last resting place of the county's first senators. After the pur- chase they returned to Maryland, and on the 2d August, 1827, Mr. Harbein married Miss Hetty, daughter of Rudolph and Magdaline Herr, who had the bravery to accompany him in their own carriage, over the rough mountains and through gloomy forests, to the new home he had selected. Here for a time they were obliged to live in a primitive style, but Mr. Harbein with characteristic energy, at once went to work, and in a few years erected a large house (the present home- stead), and established a thriving business. The great need of the county in those days were good public roads and rail- roads, to secure which he worked hard and contributed largely. Owing to the poor roads, it was not easy for the early settlers to procure medical aid, and Mr. Harbein for years was frequently called on to use the lancet and supply medicines himself. While developing his business interests, he did not neglect his farm, which steadily improved. He was a strong believer in the use of fertilizers, and through his liberal supply of ground bone, plaster, etc., to tenants, which seemed extravagant, still the increased crops and improved soil more than compensated. He introduced the wheat now so largely raised, and generally known as the " Mediterra- nean," into the West, and had he lived a year or two longer the traveler over the railroad crossing his farm might have seen beautiful fields of white poppies, as he had made ar- rangements to try opium culture. Mr. Harbein not only had the discouraging features of a new undeveloped country to overcome, but had to resist the depressing influence of the oft-volunteered warning of older well wishing settlers, but people of less advanced views, who would tell him in great seriousness that "wise men may dream of mammoth mills, but only the foolish would try to realize the dream;" the "minnow will swallow the whale," and other sayings of like tenor. Still the mills went up, and house after house was built, until he became proprietor of a large distillery, flouring mills, saw mill, woolen factory, oil mill, and many houses and large tracts of land in Ohio and some of the Western States. When he made his first barrel of flour he branded it "Alpha," from which the neighboring post-office (a mile dis- tant) took its name, and though now it is removed to the village of Harbein, still retains it. By doing thoroughly whatever Mr. Harbein attempted, much was added to his patrimony, but he was not tenacious of his means. His habits were temperate, his manners unostentatious and quiet, of a kind disposition, easily touched, even to tears, by tales of disasters or misfortunes, never during his life turning the real needy away empty-handed, and so secretly were his alms given, that only he and his God ever knew all his charities. On several occasions he gave young men the means they re- quired for collegiate education. As each of his own children arrived at the age of discretion, he furnished them liberally with means to start out in life. Of a family of eight children, Daniel R., Jacob H., Mary E., Hetty M., Sarah J., Ann C., John T., and Benjamin F., the first, third, and sixth are de- ceased. Mr. Harbein was usually a good judge of men, was not of speculative habits, but of an emotional nature, and rather inclined to take every man to be honest, until he proved otherwise, than to apply the contrary rule. This faith in mankind was sometimes paid for, but in the aggregate probably resulted more beneficially than otherwise. He lost
money and some friends by being surety for them, but it was not in his philosophy to grieve over losses. When young he was a good singer, and was very fond of music. He was not of a disposition to add many to his list of acquaint- ances, and never forgot the friends of his youth, with whom, though separated often by hundreds of miles, he visited and corresponded from time to time throughout his life. While he was genial and social with his friends, he never permitted himself to speak harshly or disparagingly of others. A whig, he had little taste for politics, and after the organization of the republican party voted with it. In 1856 he retired from business. Fond of travel, he devoted a portion of almost every year to it. In 1868, soon after the opening of the Union Pacific Railroad, he went with one of his sons to California, and afterward made but a few other trips. In 1872 he was smitten with paralysis, and though afterward nearly recover- ing, never referred to his sickness nor lost his cheerfulness, but evidently never expected to survive the second stroke. On the morning of his last birthday he called at the home of a friend, and on entering said, with cheerful voice but slightly saddened countenance, "Three score years and ten are allotted to man," and very shortly afterward he received another stroke, and died June 8th, 1873. Thus lived and died one of Greene county's most prominent and useful men. Though for years surrounded by influences incident to a new country, his sympathies and nature were always opposed to the rude hilarity of pioneer life. His dignified mien, superior intelligence, polish and quiet bearing, commanded the re- spect of all those about him, and the effect on the manners and morals of Beaver Creek township, by the influence of his example for upward of forty-five years, is plainly observable.'
ALEXANDER, ISAAC N., a prominent lawyer of Van Wert, came of Virginia parentage, of Scotch-Irish an- cestors on the paternal side, and of German descent on the side of his mother. His grandfather and father were natives of Virginia, as was also his mother, whose maiden name was Nancy Hurlass. In 1815 his father, Isaac Alexander, moved from Virginia to Ohio. He purchased land in Harrison County, where he settled his family, and where the subject of this sketch was born, December 14th, 1833. A farmer's boy, young Alexander grew up like the other youth of the neighborhood, assisting in the work of the farm, and going to such publio and private schools as the place afforded. At the age of six- teen he was sent to Carroll County, where he attended for a while the academy at Hagerstown, but he subsequently en- tered the Oberlin University, and completed his collegiate education there. Choosing for a profession the law, he com- menced reading in the office of Scott & Bingham, a leading law firm of Cadiz, Ohio, and had for his preceptor John A. Bingham, the distinguished jurist and statesman. About this time he was twenty-one. A year later a presidential campaign was coming on ; and, espousing the cause of Fre- mont, he became the editor of the Van Wert American, a weekly paper, published at Van Wert, devoted to general news and the advocacy of the Free-soil party. In the mean- time he prosecuted his law studies. That election over, he abandoned journalism, and continued preparing for the bar, until 1857, when he was admitted by the Supreme Court of Ohio. Commencing to practice his profession at Van Wert, he soon had numerous clients, and acquired, in a short time, the reputation of being an energetic and industrious attorney, a capable and safe counselor, and a successful jury advocate.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.