USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume III > Part 3
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center. He died at his home in Kinsman, where he had re- sided for so many years, April 26th, 1875, in the seventy-first year of his age.
BLENNERHASSETT, HARMON, was born in 1767, of an Irish family of wealth and distinction, while his parents were on a temporary visit in Hampshire, England. The residence of the family was Castle Conway, County Kerry, Ireland. Harmon received his education at Westminister School, a collegiate institution of the highest class in England. On quitting school, he entered Trinity College, Dublin, from which, in due time he graduated, with apparently a bril- liant career before him. His personal appearance was un- usually attractive, and his manners prepossessing. He was admitted to the Irish bar in 1790, and then, as was customary with the scions of families of distinction, made the tour of Europe. Being heir to a large fortune, he was not solicitous of engaging in his profession. In 1796, his father died, and Harmon, then twenty-nine years of age, came into full pos- session of his fortune. Becoming involved in some political troubles in Ireland, he disposed of his property there, and removed to England, where he was at once received in the highest social circle. Here he married Miss Margaret Agnew, daughter of Lieutenant-governor Agnew, of the Isle of Man. The Earl of Kinsale, an Irish noble, married a sister of Mr. Blennerhassett. The family of Blennerhassetts were staunch monarchists, while Harmon himself had imbibed republican principles. This fact rendered his position, among the higher circle in which he moved, very uncomfortable, and he finally decided on removing to the United States, where society and politics would be more congenial to his tastes. Before leaving England, he provided himself, abundantly, with everything which could contribute to the luxurious en- joyment of a home in the new world, including an extensive library. He arrived with his wife and some attendants, in New York, in the year 1797, bringing with him letters of in- troduction to some of the first families in that city. He remained in New York several months, and his society was much courted. He made inquiries respecting the most eligi- ble and attractive portion of the country in which to settle. In the fall of 1797, he crossed the mountains to Pittsburgh, and after spending a few weeks in the examination of the sur- rounding country, purchased a large flat-bottomed boat, which he richly furnished, and floated down the Ohio river to Marietta. Here he landed and passed the winter, exploring the country around for an eligible spot on which to erect a residence. A few miles below the mouth of the Muskingum river there is an island, nearly opposite the settlement of Belpré, Ohio. This island presented to him many attractions. It contained two hundred and ninety-seven acres of excellent land, and in 1798, Mr. Blennerhassett purchased of its pro- prietor, Elijah Backus, the upper part of this island, com- prising one hundred and seventy acres, for $4,500. A large block-house, which had been erected as a place of refuge during the Indian wars, still stood on his newly acquired land, and of this, Mr. Blennerhassett, his wife, and one child took possession. He then commenced to erect that which, for the time and place, was a magnificent mansion for his residence, surrounded by ornamental grounds, in which a great amount of labor and money was expended. Boat-houses were erec- ted on both sidesof the island, and boats of costly construc- tion procured. Negro servants were trained in the various occupations of boatmen, grooms, gardeners, etc. The outlay
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upon the buildings and grounds amounted to $40,000 in gold, an immense sum of money in those days. Mr. Blennerhassett was mild and courteous in his intercourse with others, and was considered a great public benefactor, his large expendi- ture giving an impulse to improvements in roads, buildings, and agriculture, for many miles around. In this home, sur- rounded by every luxury that wealth could command, Mr. Blennerhassett and his family lived for eight years, and during this period two more children were born to him. From accounts handed down to us, the place must have been a little paradise, and its proprietor found his happiness in making all around him happy. In 1805, Aaron Burr, a political enthusiast, who had been vice-president of the United States from 1800 to 1804, visited the island and first met the owner. Blennerhassett became ultimately involved in the "Burr conspiracy," his beautiful home was invaded by armed men, his family subjected to insult, and his property ruined. The owner after many adventures, was arrested and tried for complicity with Burr in the crime of treason. He was acquitted, but this proved only the beginning of a long succession of troubles; misfortune followed upon misfortune, and he died in poverty, in the island of Guernsey, En- gland, in 1831. His accomplished wife survived him eleven years, and died in New York, in 1842. Not a vestige re- mains of their once beautiful home on the island of the Ohio.
MOORE, OSCAR FITZALLEN, lawyer, Portsmouth, Ohio, born near LaGrange, Jefferson county, Ohio, on the 27th January, 1817. He was the son of James H. Moore, a respectable farmer in easy circumstances, and of Irish de- scent. His mother was of German descent. Having re- ceived the necessary primary education, he prepared for col- lege by attending the Wellsburg Academy, and graduated with honor in 1836 from Washington College, Pennsylvania. In October, of the same year, he entered the law office of Wrights & Walker, of Cincinnati, the senior partner of the firm being an eminent jurist, lawyer and author, while Tim- othy Walker was an eminent jurist also, and a man of much distinction in his profession, both gentlemen being members of the faculty of the Cincinnati Law School. During the course of 1836-37, Mr. Moore attended the lectures of this school, after which he entered the law office of D. L. Collier, at Steubenville, Ohio, where he remained until his admission to the bar in 1838. The following year he located at Ports- mouth, Ohio, and under favorable auspices commenced the practice of his profession. Being thoroughly prepared, and having strong powers of endurance and great industry, his practice became a rapidly growing one, although at that time the Portsmouth bar was composed of very able gentlemen. In 1843 he married Miss Martha B., youngest daughter of Judge Thomas Scott, of Chillicothe, a man of great native ability, and, in his days a prominent lawyer and jurist. The issue of this union was Clay B., wife of George O. Newman, the law partner of Mr. Moore, and Kate S., wife of Hon. James W. Newman, editor and proprietor of the Portsmouth Times. An old line whig, Mr. Moore was elected to the last session of the State legislature under the old Constitution in 1850, served with credit to himself, and was elected to the senate the following year, when he attained the front rank both in the dispatch of business and in debate. This was one of the most important sessions of the legislature which has ever been held, being the first after the adoption of the new Constitution, and new machinery for the purposes of govern-
ment had to be set in motion. Mr. Moore's services were especially valuable at this time, having served the previous year in the house of representatives; and he did valuable work in committee upon the judiciary and common schools. So highly pleased were his constituents with his conduct in the State legislature that, in 1854, they elected him to the Thirty-fourth Congress. In 1856 he supported Millard Fil- more for the Presidency, ran for Congress upon that ticket, and was defeated, owing to a division of the voters; there being three candidates in the field. Being thus free from public office, he applied himself to the practice of his profes- sion with great success at Portsmouth, and in the adjoining portions of the State, and occupied his time in this manner until the war of the Rebellion was inaugurated. As a war democrat he counselled the maintainance of the Union at all hazards, and at once tendered his services to Governor Den- nison, who appointed him-lieutenant-colonel of the 33d Ohio volunteer infantry, mostly composed of men who had volun- teered from his district. The regiment did very effective ser- vice, having been engaged in most of the hard fought battles of the army of the Cumberland, namely, Perryville, Ken- tucky; Stone River, Tennessee; Chickamauga, and Mission Ridge. They accompanied Sherman on his famous march to the sea, and participated in all of the battles fought by him on that march. On the promotion of Colonel Sill, the com- mander of the 33d, Lieutenant-Colonel Moore became col- onel of that regiment, and served until ill-health, superin- duced by a wound received at the battle of Perryville, caused him to resign in July, 1864, after three years of active ser- vice, almost continuously in the face of the enemy. On vari- ous occasions during the war, Colonel Moore distinguished himself by his coolness and bravery. On retiring from his command, and after an interval of repose required for the restoration of his health, he resumed at Portsmouth the prac- tice of his professsion, in which occupation he has since been engaged. He has as a practicing lawyer gradually risen in the public esteem, until at the present time he takes rank with the foremost practitioners in the State. With quick percep- tive powers, he has a naturally legal mind. His remarkable success as an advocate is due to his legal knowledge, that enables him to grasp the strong points of his case, and his ability to make a brief, clear and convincing statement of them. He is also fertile in resources, and his intelligence and manner of meeting emergencies, make him to his client valuable, and to his opponent a formidable antagonist.
KING, RUFUS, lawyer, was born at Chillicothe, Ohio, May 30, 1817,-living at Cincinnati, April, 1883. Both the paternal and maternal grandfathers of Mr. King were men of much dis- tinction. The one, Rufus King, a leading actor in the Ameri- can Revolution, was, for three years, a member of the Conti- nental Congress, and, after the organization of the government. served, for eighteen years, in the United States Senate from New York. The other, Thomas Worthington, a prominent pioneer of Ohio, was a member of the convention which framed the first constitution of the State, became its first United States Senator, was elected its fifth governor in 1814, serving two terms, and is remembered as one of the most earnest and energetic promoters of public improvements in its early his- tory. Edward King, father of the subject of this sketch, was an accomplished and eminent Ohio lawyer, who followed his profession first at Chillicothe and subsequently in Cincinnati Mr. King received his early education at home, under the
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personal care of his mother-well and widely known, from her second marriage, as Mrs. Peter-a lady remarkable as well for her active benevolence as for her literary taste and talent. From her domestic supervision the son was sent to Gambier, Ohio, and placed under the charge of Bishop Philander Chase, then engaged in founding Kenyon College, where he remained four years in the grammar school and entered the college itself. He was then transferred to Harvard University, where, after passing through the academic course, he entered the law school-at that time under the instruction of Judge Story and Simon Greenleaf. After thoroughly qualifying himself for his intended profession, Mr. King returned to Ohio, in 1841, and was admitted to the bar at Cincinnati. During the early period of his professional life he, for a time, turned his attention some- what to literary work, writing frequently for the Cincinnati Evening Chronicle, then edited by Edward D. Mansfield, and thus took an active part in the larger political controversies of the day as a member of the Whig party. Later, however, he devoted himself more entirely to his profession, in which he soon gained high position as a successful counselor and advo- cate. Although often solicited to accept office, Mr. King nearly always refused any political advancement. He was offered, by Governor Brough, in 1864, the position of a judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio, on the resignation of Judge Gholson, but declined ; and almost the only political position which he ever accepted was a membership of the last State Constitutional Convention, in which he succeeded Hon. M. W. Waite as presi- dent, after the latter's appointment as chief justice of the United States Supreme Court. Mr. King, however, always took warm and active interest in all educational progress, and never de- clined to accept such positions as would enable him to serve the cause of popular education. In 1851, he was elected one of the trustees of public schools in Cincinnati, and four years later, on the resignation of Judge Bellamy Storer, became presi- dent of the board of trustees, continuing to fulfill the duties of this office until 1866, when he also resigned. It was during the period just indicated, throughout which Mr. King gave his best energies to this department of effort, that the public schools of the city advanced from their original elementary condition to their present admirable system. Mr. King was largely instru- mental in founding the Public Library of Cincinnati, which grew out of the separate libraries collected under the law of 1853 for sixteen or eighteen public schools then existing in the city-those separate libraries having, at his suggestion, been combined so as to form a single collection called the School Library, with which the library of the Mechanic's In- stitute was subsequently united. In July, 1870, Mr. King was chosen president of its board of directors. Other positions held by him were those of president of the Law Library asso- ciation, director and dean of faculty in the Law School of the Cincinnati college, and president of the board of trustees of the University of Cincinnati-the latter an institution which promises to be one of the leading seats of learning in the United States. The School of Design and Art, now part of this university, had the active interest of Mr. King in its es- tablishment. Mr. King distinguished himself during the con- troversy as to whether the Bible should be excluded from the public schools, by a careful argument in favor of permitting moral and religious instruction in the schools-an effort which was highly commended for its ability, logical force, and learning. Possessing an extensive knowledge of law in general, with skill to make it available, Mr. King specially excelled in equity jurisprudence. To a mind naturally gifted
with peculiar clearness and penetration, he added the habit of earnest study, and in his law practice made it his rule never to present a case in court without exhaustive research and thorough preparation. Mr. King married in 1843, Margaret, daughter of Dr. Landon C. Rives.
HARMON, CHARLES. R., legislator and farmer, was born at Aurora, Portage County, Ohio, October 3d, 1811. His parents were Ebenezer and Mary (Sheldon) Harmon, who came to Ohio in 1804 from Suffield, Connecticut, and settled in the then wilderness of Northeastern Ohio, known as the Western Reserve. His earlier ancestors were of the old Eng- lish Connecticut stock. His father was a farmer, and like all boys of humble parentage in that rude day his educational advantages were greatly limited. He attended common school, however, in a log-house, until about fourteen years of age, when his schooling ended. He being the youngest son and the only one left at home at the death of his father, the management of the farm fell upon him at that early age, and no further thought of an education could be entertained. He learned readily, however, and at the age of nineteen by some private study he was able to teach and took charge of the home school for four months, but this was only a tem- porary resort, and as his early life and education prepared him for farming, he modestly concluded he was not fitted for any thing else, and decided to make that his life pursuit. He continued on the farm, conducting it successfully until about thirty years of age, when, his health failing, he resolved to venture in the more easy pursuit of trading in the Northwest. He traded for some time with the French settlements in the Northwest Territory, dealing principally in produce, and made his home for two years of that time in the settlement of Mil- waukee. This was during the first existence of that city, and the lots being for sale, he, with his brother, bought a lot in what is now a business center of East Milwaukee for $200, on which they erected the second frame house ever built in that place. The financial crisis in 1837 so injured his trade that he gave it up and returned to Ohio, but continued to hold the lot, which he sold some seven years later for $4,400. It is now worth probably $80,000. On returning to Ohio he began a cheese trade with cities along the Ohio River, trans- ferring some across the country from Louisville to Nashville, Tennessee, in wagons. In 1839 he, in company with three other men, resolved to and did enter upon the cheese trade on an extended scale, but this project was ill-starred, and meeting with heavy losses the enterprise was soon given up. He contin- ued, however, to carry on the trade by himself on a smaller scale until within a few years back. Also retaining his land, he has kept up the pursuit of farming to the present time. In 1848 he bought a store in the village of Aurora, and has carried on a dry goods and general merchandising business there up to the present time. Although engaged in these various pursuits, during most of his life he has always re- sided on a farm, with two years' exception, and has always given his principal attention to that business. He is a large land owner, and has been known long and well throughout the county as an honest and able man. At the time of the war he was strongly in sympathy with the union cause, and although not entering the service on account of his age he aided much by large gifts to the cause in money. He was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives on the Repub- lican ticket from Portage County, in the Fall of 1877, and returned again in 1879, serving through the 63d and 64th
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sessions. His record there, though unassuming, is fair and honorable, having been placed on several important com- mittees. He was married first to Hannah Baldwin in 1838; a second time in 1865 to Miss Orsey Bentley. By his first marriage there were four children, three of whom are now living.
PEASE, CALVIN, lawyer and a judge of the supreme court of Ohio, was born at Suffield, Hartford county, Con- necticut, September 9th, 1776, and died at Warren, Trumbull county, Ohio, September 17th, 1839. He studied law in the office of his brother-in-law, Gideon Granger, was admitted to the bar in Hartford county, in 1798, and commenced prac- tice as a lawyer at New Hartford. He removed to Ohio in March, 1800, and settled in Youngstown, receiving the ap- pointment as first postmaster of that place, and holding the office until his removal to Warren, in 1803. He was admitted to practice by the general court of the territory northwest of the Ohio river, at a term held at Marietta in October, 1800. Two months before, on the 25th August, he was appointed clerk of the court of common pleas for the newly organized county of Trumbull, and retained that position until the adoption of the State constitution. The court held its first session in the open air in Warren, the judge sitting between two corn cribs, with split logs thrown across for a roof. Ohio was admitted into the Union as a State in 1803, and the legis- lature that year divided the State into three judicial circuits. The third circuit comprised the counties of Belmont, Wash- ington, Jefferson, Columbiana and Trumbull; of this circuit he was appointed president judge, being then not quite twenty-seven years old, and looking even younger. He held the position nearly seven years. During his term an impor- tant decision was made that occasioned much excitement. A case coming before him under the act of 1805, defining the duties of justices of the peace, he held that the sections of the act giving justices of the peace jurisdiction exceeding $20, and preventing plaintiffs from recovering costs in actions commenced by original suits in the court of common pleas, for sums between twenty and fifty dollars, were repugnant to the Constitution of the United States and of the State of Ohio, and therefore null and void. For this decision, the first holding that the legislature can not enact a law which is repugnant to the Constitution, and declaring such pretended enactment void, he was impeached by the house of represen- tatives and brought to trial before the Senate. The charges were made under three heads, and after a thorough examina- tion he was unanimously acquitted on one point, escaped conviction on the second by lack of the necessary two-thirds against him, and was acquitted on the third by a vote of six- teen to eight. In his answer to the charges he maintained the right of the court to pass upon the constitutionality of a law and to declare it void when unconstitutional, and that principle has since been established by numerous decisions. Although escaping the punishment an angry legislature de- signed for him, he determined to resign his position, and did so March 4th, 1810. After his resignation he resumed the practice of law, and for several years acted as agent for the postoffice department, rendering important service in organ- izing mail routes and establishing postoffices throughout the entire Northwest. At the October election, in 1812, he was chosen a senator from Trumbull county to the State legisla- ture. He performed his legislative duties with the same fidelity and ability that distinguished his career on the bench, and at the session of the legislature in 1815-16 he was chosen
a judge of the supreme court, and at the expiration of his term, in 1822-23, he was reelected for another term of seven years. In 1830 his last term of service on the bench of the supreme court expired, and he again commenced the practice of law, which he continued during the remainder of his life. In the fall of 1831 he was elected, with Professor Kirtland, to represent Trumbull county in the legislature. This was his last public office, and during his term he rendered important service to the State by the earnest and able support which he gave Professor Kirtland's bill for the erection of a new peni- tentiary, and establishing and regulating prison discipline. The bill became a law in March, 1832, and introduced the present system. He was for a long time a director and for several years attorney for the Western Reserve bank. In 1839 he was over-fatigued in attending a Fourth of July cel- ebration at Beaver, Pennsylvania, was taken sick on his re- turn, and died. He was a man of great strength of charac- ter, of keen perceptions and of almost unerring judgment. His purity and integrity as a judge were never assailed nor questioned-friends and foes alike placing confidence in his honesty and uprightness. On the bench he never permitted the technicalities of the law to override the justice of a case. As a member of the bar he was much respected, being always fair and honorable in practice, never seeking an ad- vantage not due to truth and justice. In social life he was a great favorite, having a ready wit, a keen sense of the ludi- crous, and a never-failing fund of humorous anecdote and allusion. In 1804 he married Miss Risley, of Washington City, who, with five children, survived him.
TAYLOR, ROYAL, real estate dealer, Ravenna, Ohio, was born at Middlefield, Massachusetts, September Ist, 1801. His parents, Samuel and Sarah (Jagger) Taylor, were natives of Massachusetts, and descended from the pioneers of New England, his earliest ancestor in America coming from Eng- land about 1640, and settling in the vicinity of Hartford, Connecticut. In 1807 his father removed with his family to Portage County, and became a pioneer of Northeastern Ohio. Royal Taylor, who was only six years of age at the time of the removal, received his early education at the common school, afterwards studying privately, under the di- rection, at different times, of the Rev. John Seward, Oliver Forward, and Chauncey Forward, all teachers of some note, the latter two being brothers of the celebrated lawyer, Walter Forward, of Pennsylvania. Under these circumstances he soon acquired a fair education, and began teaching school at the age of twenty-one, giving instruction three years in Ken- tucky, when he returned, and taught two years in Ohio. At the end of this time, resolving to adopt the legal profession, he studied law for two years, first under Jonathan Sloane, then under Van R. Humphrey. Although his legal course was about completed at the end of this time, he was dis- suaded by his wife from continuing further in the profession, and was never admitted to the bar. From 1831 to 1842 most of his attention was given to the Western Reserve cheese trade, which he carried on extensively with points along the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. This he gave up in 1842 to accept a land agency for the State of Connecticut, and took charge of the school fund lands belonging to that State in Ohio. This, together with land agencies for private capitalists in the East, has occupied most of his attention up to the present time. These agencies, which have placed in his care as much as five hundred thousand acres of the best
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