USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume III > Part 28
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After a few years' practice, and just when he had become fairly established in business, the war of the rebellion broke out. At the first call for troops, the young lawyer, feeling impulses of patriotism, promptly responded by joining, as a private, the Istlı Ohio Volunteers. He first saw service in West Virginia ; was at Philippi, also at the affair at Rich Mountain, and at the sharp fight at Garrick's Ford, where the rebel General Garnett, in command, was killed. His term of enlistment expired August Ist, 1861. A month later he re-enlisted for three years, and went into the 46th Ohio. That regiment was organized in Camp Lyon, at Worthington, Ohio, and, being forwarded to Paducah, Kentucky, became a part of General Sherman's command. He could have been major of the 46th from the beginning-the place was offered him- he chose, liowever, to decline the honor, feeling the position required larger experience than his, or that it should be won by meritorious conduct in the field. He accepted the second place in the company, and shortly rose by promotion, for valor and discretion, to the rank of lieutenant-colonel of his regiment. His division was ordered to the department of Western Tennessee, and to the conflict in the southern part of the State. He was in the memorable battle of Shiloh, in the skirmish line of General Sherman's division, that line which held the enemy in check for an hour and a half, and until it was driven in by the rebels resorting to a regular line of battle. Of the seven companies under the command of Colonel Alexander in that fight, one-third were either killed or wounded. The Confederates, forty thousand strong, were defeated, and Johnston-their general-in-chief-was slain. Beauregard, retreating to Corinth, fortified himself. In the siege which followed, Colonel Alexander participated. He remained in Western Tennessee until the enemy aban- doned that vicinity, when he was sent to take part in the operations against Vicksburg. There, under the burning sun of June, exposed to the malarial vapors of the swamps, the colonel performed the duties of a soldier with valor and steadiness. He was there when that Gibraltar of the Mis- sissippi succumbed-when, on July 3d, 1863, Pemberton sur- rendered to Grant the hundred and seventy-two cannon, fifteen generals, and twenty-nine thousand men. He was afterward engaged in the movements against Beauregard's third line of defense, extending through Central Mississippi to Alabama, and was in the fight at Jackson, which for the time ended the campaign in Mississippi. Upon the prospect of a decisive fight in East Tennessee, the colonel's regiment was hurried, by boat, to Memphis; thence it was hastened to Chattanooga, to have a part in the battle to be waged for possession of that gateway to the South. It arrived in time to be assigned a very responsible situation-a situation which Sherman, in his official report, designated the "key to the position," for it made practicable that brilliant bayonet charge at Missionary Ridge, executed under the terrible fire of the Confederate guns. Then, after participating in the operations to relieve Burnside, who was shut up by Longstreet at Knox- ville, Colonel Alexander's regiment went into quarters, for rest, at Scottsboro, Alabama. That was in the winter of 1863-64. The regiment was there reorganized, and being furnished new Spencer repeating rifles, joined, on the follow- ing May, in the march from Chattanooga to Atlanta. He was in the two days' conflict at Resaca, was under fire at Dallas, and again at Noonday Creek, Kennesaw Mountain, and at a point near where the lamented McPherson fell. In the battle of Kenesaw Mountain, Colonel Alexander com- C-13
manded the right wing of the skirmish line-that line which preceded the storming column, and, diverging, gained the crest of the mountain, and a position which the Confederate General Cockerell, in his official report, speaks of exposing him to a raking enfilading fire, and great loss. At one time in the fight of July 22d, the division of General Leggett became especially the object of the enemy's maneuvering. The plans of the rebels for his capture were nearly com- pleted when the brigade of General Walcutt, of which the colonel's regiment was a part, by a skillful and rapid move- ment, flanked the Confederates, under the command of Gen- erals Cleaborn and Cheatam, thereby spoiling their arrange- ments and losing them the day. Colonel Alexander was also in the actions to the right of Atlanta-at Ezra Church, Janesboro, and Lovejoy's Station, at which last place the battles before Atlanta terminated. Subsequently a force to which he was attached encountered a body of seven thousand rebels, at Griswoldville, Georgia. They had a battery. The Union troops were scarcely a fourth of that number. The en- gagement which ensued was fierce and bloody. In that victorious, and the last battle in which Colonel Alexander took part, the enemy suffered heavily, and that small detach- ment of Union soldiers lost sixty men. Colonel Alexander served his country well. He was among the first to rally around the old flag, and to risk his life in defense of the nation. He went through the West Virginia campaign, and that of the department of Western Tennessee, and of the operations in Mississippi. He fought his way to Georgia, and shared in the vicissitudes, encounters, and dangers of "Sherman's March to the Sea." " His only brother capable of rendering assistance to his aged parents was now wounded, and was held as a prisoner of war by the Confederacy. Having, on the 21st of December, reached Savannah and the sea, the colonel, after nearly four years of military services, bearing the scars of many a wound from rebel missiles, re- signed his commission in the army, and returned to Van Wert. Applying himself to the recovery of the clients that had wandered away, he was soon again in the enjoyment of a large and increasing practice. He renewed his reputation of being an accurate lawyer, an honest adviser, and a direct and forcible speaker. He is gifted with tenacity of purpose, possesses great enduring qualities, and is noted for his per- sistence in appealing from adverse decisions until he can ob- tain one favorable, or can go no further. He is the leading attorney of his bar, and is of counsel in most of the im- portant litigations of his county and judicial district. He is the general solicitor of the Cincinnati, Van Wert and Michigan Railroad, and the legal adviser of the Atlantic and Chicago Road. A number of young men have received their first lessons in law from him, and in his office prepared them- selves for the bar, among whom, successfully practicing at Van Wert, is G. M. Saltzgaber, ex-State Senator of Ohio. In 1872 the colonel was elected to the convention called to amend the constitution of the State. He was an active mem- ber of that body, and discharged the duties of that high trust in a manner satisfactory to his constituents. In 1876 he was chosen to represent his district in the Electoral College, and cast his vote for Rutherford B. Hayes. He was always op- posed to slavery, and ever since he commenced voting has been a steadfast adherent of the Republican party. In re- ligious matters he is liberal-manifesting no marked par- tiality for any particular denomination, but he attends more than any other the services of the Presbyterian Church, of
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which his wife and children are active members. The col- onel is a public-spirited man. He has encouraged railroads, and rendered them material aid. And upon the demands for assistance in improvements for the substantial welfare of Van Wert he has always cheerfully responded. He is a warm friend of the education of youth, especially the common school system, and for a number of years has been a work- ing and useful member of the School Board. In 1857 he was married to Rebecca Alban, a native of Stark County, Ohio, and daughter of William Alban, of same place. He has had three children, all living, two daughters and a son. His daughters, Ella and Emma, are graduates of Wooster University, and his son, Willie, is still in the preparatory school. In person the colonel is tall, and strongly built. His hair and eyes are dark, and his complexion is fair. In habits he is temperate, and in manners unaffected. His home is in Van Wert, where he has a beautiful residence, and where he is actively engaged in his profession, assisted by a former pupil of his, whom he has taken into a law partnership.
GOODRICH, WILLIAM H., D. D., Presbyterian minister, was born in New Haven, Connecticut, and died July IIth, 1874, at Lausanne, Switzerland. He came of ancestors distinguished for literary abilities and piety, his father being the late Professor Chauncey A. Goodrich, D. D., of Yale Col- lege, his grandfather, Hon. Elizur Goodrich, formerly repre- sentative in Congress, and for twenty years mayor of New Haven, and his great-grandfather Rev. Elizur Goodrich D. D., an eminent clergyman and astronomer. His mother was daughter of Noah Webster, LL. D., the lexicographer. He was carefully trained at home by his mother, and then studied at Yale, where his father was a professor, graduating finally from the theological department. He became a tutor, and whilst in that position his personal courage was put to a severe test during a college disturbance, in which he received a dangerous wound in the head that affected all his after-life. He was obliged to relinquish mental work and spend some years in rest and travel, part of the time in Europe, before entering upon the duties of the ministry, to which he had de- voted himself. In 1850 he was settled as pastor of the Con- gregational church of Bristol, Connecticut, where he re- mained for four years, and was then called to the pastorate of the Presbyterian church in Binghamton, New York, re- maining there until 1858, when he was called to Cleveland as assistant pastor of the First Presbyterian church, the duties being from the first substantially those of pastor. His training for the work had been admirable; without being a genius his intellect was a good one; with a capacity for labor and a correct judgment in its application. He was sur- rounded from childhood with the sweetest and purest influ- ences, as the family was in such easy circumstances that he was not restricted in literary pursuits, and for which he had an exquisite fondness, by want of means. Though an ex- tensive reader, he was not pedantic, nor did he neglect the study of men. He had a power of organization which would have made a successful man of business, but which, under a calm exterior, a casual acquaintance would not have sus- pected. In applying this faculty to sacred affairs, he believed that God would help those most who adopted the most judi- cious means. Educated at Yale under high Calvinistic influ- ences, these naturally colored his theological views, although his temperament was liberal and clearly in the opposite di-
rection. During fourteen years service in the Cleveland pulpit he did not deliver a sermon which was not carefully prepared; as literary productions they were logical and symmetrical, sometimes garnished by sentences of original poetry. In the desk he was never common-place, never prolix, and yet never excited. Without eloquence his diction was always interesting, and his manner attractive, because he was deeply in earnest. His voice was clear and pleasant. He did not fail in the philosophy of religion, but the argu- mentative portions seemed to coalesce with the fervor of his exhortations. He did not fall into mannerisms, nor relapse into those monotones and alliterations so common in the pul- pit. Though he was moderate and easy of delivery, he was not lacking in impressiveness. As an extemporaneous speaker he was even more happy than in written addresses. At lectures, funerals, and on public occasions his faculty of holding an audience with clear, flowing, well-chosen senten- ces, apparently without effort or preparation, was rarely equaled. When the war of the rebellion broke out he took the cause of his country to his heart. He has been heard to say that he longed to be on the field in some useful capacity, and had a strong inclination to range himself in the line of battle. The necessity of war was acknowledged by him. Looking through history, he saw the finger of God in the con- troversies of nations, especially in religious wars. He had fears of a contest of this sort in this country at some future time. During a short time he was with the army of the Potomac in the Christian commission, he came near his death from a disease of the camp. The results showed themselves in a subsequent sickness, through which he barely lived. It was evident his career could not be a long one, but hoping for better results, he went to Europe in 1868, remained eight months, and returned much better. But soon his health again gave way, the serious consequences of the injury to his head in his college'days manifesting themselves. He again sailed for Europe in 1872, with his wife, and at first received considerable benefit from the journey. But, when making preparations for returning to the United States, he suffered a relapse, and after much patient suffering he died peacefully. The news of his death was received with great sorrow in Cleveland and wherever he was known. The tributes to his memory were spontaneous, touching, and general, it being felt that not only his church, but the city at large, and the whole country, had suffered a loss.
DUHME, HERMAN, manufacturing jeweler and mer- chant, of the house of Duhme & Co., of Cincinnati, was born on a small farm in the ancient dukedom of Osnabruck, kingdom of Hanover, Germany, June 14th, 1819. He re- ceived a common country school education, which was asso- ciated also with thorough religious teachings. In August, 1834, the father of Mr. Duhme concluded, on account of the unsettled state of European affairs, to come to America; and being a man of influence in his community, he per- suaded a number of families, numbering in all about one hundred persons, to accompany him and try their fortunes in the United States. He chartered a small vessel at Bremen, and departed with his family and friends for New York, where they arrived after a seven weeks' voyage. The entire party proceeded at once to the State of Ohio, and settled at Springfield, where the subject of this sketch, then a boy of fifteen years, found employment with Mr. Griffith Foos, one of the old pioneers of Clarke County. Mrs. Foos took a
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great interest in the lad, and devoted much time to his train- ing and education. From her he learned to speak and read the English language. He remained with the family two years; and so great was the attachment that grew up between them that twenty years later Mr. Foos, after the death of his wife, came to Cincinnati, and spent the remainder of his life at the home of Mr. Duhme. In 1840 Mr. Duhme went to Cincinnati, where he found employment in a dry-goods store as salesman. He filled this position with satisfaction to his employers for one year, when he accepted a similar position in a wholesale jewelry and fancy store. At this business, which he liked better than any of his former occupations, he remained three years, laboring hard in the interest of his employers, and frugally saving a portion of his earnings with a view to future contingencies. In the winter of 1841-2 came dull times; trade fell off and money became scarce; salaries were reduced to a minimum; and it was then that his savings enabled him to cherish an idea of starting busi- ness for himself. Being at that time (1842) just past his majority, he went to New York, taking with him the few hundred dollars he had saved, and there bought goods from the best houses he could find in the trade, and, returning with his small stock, he opened a wholesale jewelry and fancy store. From this small and unpropitious beginning has grown one of the finest jewelry establishments in the world, which is pointed out with pride to the stranger, and of which the Queen City is justly proud. The dust and sweepings during a year from this concern amount to more than ten times the entire capital from which it grew. But the house we now see did not spring up in a day. Its growth, how- ever, more than kept pace with the growth of the city. Every exertion was made by Mr. Duhme to make his estab- lishment first-class in every department ; business grew rap- idly, and soon a larger establishment was needed. Conse- quently, a few years later he established himself at the Commercial Bank buildings, on Main Street. These build- ings were at the time situated in the very center of the busi- ness portion of the city. About this time American-made watches were for the first time offered to the public. The interest of Mr. Duhme was solicited in their favor, and, as he firmly believed in patronizing home manufacture, he became a great friend to the enterprise, and induced many a pur- chaser to try an American, when his preferences were in favor of the foreign article. He was the first who, through persistent efforts, enlisted the favor of our Western people to this branch of American industry. He held the agency for the sale of American watches for many years. In 1851 the great World's Fair was opened in Hyde Park, London, England. Mr. Duhme visited it in the interest of his trade. He visited the leading manufacturers in England, France, Germany, and Switzerland, and completed arrangements for importing his goods from those countries direct. In 1858 Mr. Duhme removed liis business to his present excellent location on the corner of Fourth and Walnut Streets. Here the great monetary crisis of 1857, which swept many of the oldest and best houses in the city out of existence, found him. A season of depression unprecedented was experi- enced on all sides, which lasted until the declaration of our great civil war of 1861, when both calamities swept his entire capital away. But he was saved from complete ruin by the good reputation he had earned for himself during the years of his successful business, and with indomitable pluck and energy he resolved to recover, if possible, his lost fortune.
Soon he had the satisfaction of seeing his business improve; circumstances the reverse of those he had just experienced came fortunately to his aid, and in a few years the house was more prosperous and doing a larger business than ever. The greatly increasing demand for articles of elegance in the West prompted the idea of establishing a manufactory in connection with his store, his main object being to keep the money at home that was flowing to the East for articles of all descriptions in his line. The attempt was made in a moderate way, and was followed with success. Soon this enterprise grew to large proportions, and with singular judi- ciousness one department after another was added from time to time. New and perfect machinery was provided, and the best artisans were engaged in the various departments. A special feature was made of diamond setting, designing was introduced, alchemy was added, and nothing was left undone until a complete diamond setting and gold and silver ware manufacturing establishment was perfected, and where every one of the beautifully wrought and elaborately finished arti- cles to be seen in Duhme & Co.'s magnificent salesroom can be produced, a manufactory where nearly three hundred skilled hands find constant employment, among whom can be found representatives of almost every European nation- ality. It is the largest jewelry concern in the West, and of its kind the most complete in the world. Mr. Duhme's life has been an exclusively business one, having never partici- pated in politics or public matters in any way, though a most liberal and open-handed supporter of such enterprises and institutions as are calculated for public benefit and the cause of humanity. He has identified himself in an unmis- takable manner with the material interests of Cincinnati, and has always thrown the full force of his excellent charac- ter and sound judgment into whatever promised to insure her progress. He is a man of the highest type, of unflinch- ing moral purpose, inflexible integrity, simple and retiring in his habits, and genial and courteous in his social relations. Mr. Duhme has been married twice-first, in April, 1847, to Miss Mary Ann McNicol, daughter of Peter McNicol, an early pioneer of Cincinnati. Of this marriage there are two children now living, Herman and Frank, both exemplary young business men, associated with their father. In August, 1865, he married his present wife, Miss Mary C. Galbreath, of which union there are also two living children-Lottie, aged sixteen, and Albert, aged four years,
BAKER, WILLIAM, lawyer, son of Hon. Timothy Baker, was born in Norwalk, Huron county, Ohio, February 5th, 1822, and living April, 1883, in Toledo, Ohio. He grad- uated at Dennison University, Ohio, entered the law office of General Charles P. Goddard, of Zanesville, and took the full course at the law school of Harvard University, graduating in 1844. In that year he was admitted to the Ohio bar, and commenced practice in Toledo the same year. In 1847 he formed a partnership with Hon. M. H. Tilden, which con- tinued until 1850. In 1857 he formed a partnership with Hon. W. A. Collins, which lasted until 1869, after which he remained alone, having a general practice in the courts of the State, his special and favorite field of labor, however, being in commercial and real estate law and chancery. He was concerned in many of the leading business enterprises of Toledo and the surrounding country; was a director of the Milburn Wagon Works Company, one of the organizers, and for fifteen years director, of the Toledo and Wabash Railroad,
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and was one of the foremost in originating and carrying to final success the Toledo, Norwalk and Cleveland Railroad, which ultimately became part of the Lake Shore Railroad. He was also the regular attorney for several banks, railroads and other business corporations. He took an active interest in political affairs, being a whig and republican, holding it the duty of a citizen to interest himself in the affairs of the country, but he uniformly declined political preferment. During the war he was active and liberal in all measures for the support of the Union. Of thorough education and fine culture, he was, as a lawyer, a quiet, indefatigable worker; faithful and scrupul- ously conscientious with his clients; sound and well read; a careful, trusted adviser. In political matters, although no office-seeker or ambitious politician, he was influential and threw the weight of his strong and important influence on the side of honesty and capability. As a citizen, he was public- spirited and liberal. Every Christian church in Toledo, of whatever denomination, counted him among its benefactors, and all charitable enterprises had his name upon their rolls as a liberal giver for the public good. Although chiefly identified with the Baptist church, he was liberal toward all. He married in August, 1849, Miss Frances C. Latimer, daugh- ter of Peter Latimer, Esq., of Norwalk, Ohio.
SAGE, GEORGE R., United States Judge for the Southern District of Ohio, was born at Erie, Pennsylvania, August 24th, 1828, the eldest son of Rev. O. N. and Eliza- beth B. Sage-the former a native of Vermont, and the latter of New York. His father is a retired Baptist minister. The family came to Ohio in 1835, and in 1843 removed to Covington, Kentucky, where they remained until 1849, when they returned to Ohio, locating at Cincinnati, where they have since then resided. Judge Sage was educated at Gran- ville College, now Dennison University, Granville, Ohio, where he graduated in 1849. Before entering college he learned the printer's trade, and during his vacations through- out his college course employed his time in setting type in various printing-offices. The year following his graduation he taught mathematics in the academy at Lebanon, Ohio, at the same time studying law. He afterwards entered the Cincinnati Law School, where he was a classmate of the late Oliver P. Morton, of Indiana. He was admitted to practice at Frankfort, Kentucky, in June, 1852, and on the same day argued his first case in the Court of Appeals of Kentucky. The case involved the control of the property of the Western Baptist Theological Institute, of Covington, Kentucky, then worth $400,000, and turned upon questions of constitutional law. Charles K. Morehead and M. M. Benton were the leading counsel with him, and Attorney General Harlan, father of Justice Harlan, of the Supreme Court of the United States, and Governor Morehead, of Covington, the opposing counsel. In November, 1852, he was admitted to practice at Cincinnati, and in February, 1853, became a member of the law firm of King, Anderson & Sage. In 1857 he entered into partnership with Hon. Thomas Corwin, whose daughter, Eva A., he married in 1855. In 1858 the firm removed to Lebanon, Ohio, where Judge Sage was engaged in practice until Governor Corwin's death, in December, 1865. He returned to Cincinnati, Jan- uary Ist, 1866, and soon secured a large and lucrative prac- tice in important cases. In 1867 the law firm of Sage & Hinkle was formed, which continued up to Judge Sage's ap- pointment to his present position by President Arthur, March
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