USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume III > Part 48
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unknown in his experience. He has, at least, learned that "riches have wings." Cincinnati has passed through three great monetary panics since he began his business career in it ; but, while many were sorely pressed or failed entirely, he came through unscathed, with a solid business, and conse- quently, a credit sounder, if possible, than before. He has crossed the ocean thirteen times since he became an Ameri- can, chiefly for his health, and to visit his old mother, who is still living. On the first of these trips his brother, Joseph, came with him to this country, and has now become the active man of the house of Wm. F. Thorne & Co. Mr. Thorne has recently brought into the business his son, W. H. Thorne, a young man full of the enterprise and business vigor of his father. Like most mercantile men of his times, Mr. Thorne has found most of his education in the school of the world. He has been too busy to be a politician, but has always been a Whig in principle, and an earnest ad- vocate 'of the best Republican interest of the country. He is a member and officer in St. Paul Methodist Episcopal Church, has been many years superintendent of its Sunday- school ; is one of the directors of the Wesleyan Female College ; is vice-president of the Young Men's Christian As- sociation, and was one of the earliest supporters of the old Methodist Bethel, having been its superintendent for nine years. He is now one of the stirring, earnest workers of his Church. Always a consistent, active, temperance man, he was one of the warriors in the romantic temperance move- ment of 1848, and one of the most persistent workers in the recent crusade. A man whose practice has never varied from his principles, whose motto in business has ever been honor, and the key to his success, work,-Mr. Thorne has made his mark, and the world is better for his having lived in it.
WEITZEL GODFREY, soldier, born November Ist, 1835, at Cincinnati, Hamilton county, Ohio, son of Lewis and Susan Weitzel, who had emigrated from Rhenish-Ba- varia, and settled in Cincinnati. He received his prepara- tory education in the public schools of his native city, and was a member of the first class started in the Central High School. In 1850, he was offered and accepted the appoint- ment of cadet at West Point, from which he graduated in 1855, standing second in a class of thirty-three, and was made brevet second-lieutenant of engineers July Ist, 1855, To this followed in August, 1856, his promotion to second- lieutenant ; July Ist, 1860, to first-lieutenant, and March 3d, 1863, to captain. November Ist, 1855, he reported to Captain ·and Brevet-Major Beauregard, as assistant engineer in the construction and repairs of the fortifications in Louisiana, and in August, 1859, was ordered back to West Point to act as assistant professor of civil and military engineering. In January, 1861, he was ordered to report to the commanding officer, company A, engineers, and with them proceeded to Washington city for duty as the body-guard of Abraham Lincoln, during the inauguration ceremonies. In April, 1861, Lieutenant Weitzel accompanied his command to Fort Pick- ens, Florida, and while here, twice penetrated the enemy's lines to reconnoiter, under confidential orders from Colonel Brown. October Ist, 1861, he returned to West Point, and soon after reported to General Mitchell, commanding the district of Ohio, as chief engineer and recruiting officer for company D, Engi- neers. December 10th, 1861, he was transferred to the engi- neer battalion of the army of the Potomac, and was placed
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in command of a company. Lieutenant Weitzel's reputation as an engineer had been rising in the army, and he was now selected as engineer to General Butler's expedition to New Orleans, and ordered to report for duty on the staff of that general. During the four years he had served under Beau- regard in the repair and construction of fortifications in Louisiana, he had necessarily become well acquainted with the country around New Orleans, and the knowledge he had thus acquired now became of signal service to the govern- ment. Arriving at Ship Island, between the mouths of the Mississippi and Mobile, Lieutenant Weitzel was at once taken into the consultation between Captain (since Admiral) Far- ragut and General Butler, and gave these commanders an accurate idea of the country around New Orleans. Acting upon his advice, they were enabled to reduce the defences, and he then guided General Butler and his troops into the city. For this eminent service, he was appointed assistant military commander, and acting-mayor of New Orleans. He was also placed in charge of the organization of troops in Louisiana. After the battle of Baton Rouge, he was ordered to report there for temporary duty, and while at that post laid out the intrenchments which have since served as the basis for the fortifications at that point. In September, 1862, he was raised to the rank of brigadier-general of volun- teers, and given the command of a brigade, consisting for the most part of raw troops. Ordered to proceed against the enemy, he entered the La Fourche district, and completely routed the rebels, changing the condition of affairs there to one of order and safety. April, 1863, his brigade, with other troops, moved across the country to Port Hudson, and did effective service. After the surrender, he was placed in command of the Ist division, 19th corps. December, 1863, he was ordered to Ohio on recruiting service. Shortly after- ward he applied to be transferred to Butler's command in Virginia. This was effected April, 1864, and he was made chief engineer, and assigned to the command of the 2d div- ision, 18th corps, as chief engineer ; he constructed the lines of defence, works, and bridges on the James and Appomat- tox rivers, including the approaches for the famous pontoon bridge, by which the army of the Potomac crossed the James. September, 1864, he was assigned to the command of the 18th corps. December following, he was placed in com- mand of the 25th corps (colored), which he held until mus- tered out of the volunteers. He was the first to enter Rich- mond, April 3d, 1865, taking up his quarters in the house deserted by Jeff. Davis only the evening before. Here he received President Lincoln on his visit to the rebel capital. On April 12th, he prepared for his transfer to Texas, where he served under General Sheridan, until February, 1866, when he was mustered out as major-general in the volunteer service, and returned to his own corps, the engineers. During his service in Texas he was a warm sympathizer with the Mexican republicans, in their effort to throw off the yoke of the imperialists, under Maximilian. After quitting the volunteer service, he engaged in engineering, and among other works, made the plans and estimates for improving the canal around the falls of the Ohio, and superintended those improvements until their completion. Toward the end of the war, General Weitzel married the daughter of Mr. George Bogen, prominent in the wine trade of Cincinnati. General Weitzel died March 19th, 1884, at Philadelphia, Penn., aged forty-eight years, four months, and eighteen days, and his remains were brought to Cincinnati for interment.
STARBUCK, CALVIN W., son of John and Sophia (Whipple) Starbuck, was born in Cincinnati on the 20th of April, 1822, and died November 15th, 1870. His father, John Starbuck, was an old Nantucket whaler, who, after fol- lowing the sea for many years, removed to Cincinnati and purchased a residence on the west side of Vine Street, just above Front, where Calvin was born. Like almost all in the West at that early period in the history of the city, his par- ents were of limited means, though having enough, with in- dustry and frugality, to maintain existence in that "golden mean " so favorable to habits of sobriety and thrift. Young Calvin received such education as his parents could afford, and while yet a boy was obliged to rely on himself. He com- menced his career in a printing office as an apprentice, and after finishing his trade, having saved some money, he resolved on starting a newspaper. At the age of nineteen he founded the Cincinnati Evening Times. Being the fastest type-setter in the West, and desiring to economize his funds until his en- terprise proved self-supporting, he for years set up a great por- tion of the paper himself, also assisting in its delivery to sub- scribers. From this humble beginning the Cincinnati Times grew until it had the largest circulation of any newspaper in the West. On January Ist, 1845, Mr. Starbuck was married to Miss Nancy J. Webster, by whom he had twelve children, nine of whom survived him -- three sons, Frank W., Daniel F. M., and Calvin W .; and six daughters, Clara B., Fanny W., Ella M., Jennie, Jessikate, and Sallie W. He was a most kind husband and indulgent father. While a very assidu- ous and careful business man, his whole nature seemed to be devoted to the relief of the less fortunate of his fellow- beings. To his generosity and exertions is mainly due the success of the Relief Union, one of the most deserving of our charities. Besides his devotion to this institution, his private charities were numerous, no needy person being turned empty-handed away. He was "great in goodness," and that, too, not in the kind which is vapid, sentimental, and pretentious, but which is practical and efficient. His nature was a well-spring of benevolent sympathies. They did not need to be pumped by special, pressing appeals to give forth occasional and stinted supplies, but they were perennial and fresh, flowing forth in the spontaneity of their own nature, responding to the magnetism of every appeal of suffering, of sorrow, and making for themselves channels in every avenue of life along which the headwaters of his benevolence might flow. Mr. Starbuck also largely inter- ested himself in the founding of the Home of the Friendless and in building up the Bethel institution. He was foremost in patriotic works when the republic was.in peril. When the government called for funds with doubt as to the liberality of the capitalists, Mr. Starbuck at once stepped forth with his cash as a matter of duty. When, in 1864, the final effort was to be made for crushing the Rebellion, and when the Governor of Ohio tendered the home guards for one hun- dred days' service, Mr. Starbuck went as a private, when his business demanded attention, and when a substitute could easily have been secured. He proved an excellent soldier, serving until the expiration of his term of service, and receiving an honorable discharge. To the families of those of his employés who enlisted he continued to pay their weekly salaries. Mr. Starbuck never made a public pro- fession of religion, but he reverenced Christianity and sought to embody its spirit in his life. Owing, doubtless, to his early training, he did not value the forms of an outward profession,
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but esteemed the spirit more than the letter and the reality, more than the symbols that represented it. The time may come when the name of Calvin W. Starbuck will fade away from the memories of the citizens of Cincinnati, but it will not be until the widows of this generation are dead; it will not be until the poor, beggarly urchin of to-day shall have told his children's children the kindness of this good man to his mother, to his brothers and sisters, and to himself; it will not be until there are no poor in Cincinnati that shall need the benefactions of a relief fund ; it will not be until the ex- istence of such an institution itself shall have been forgot- ten, and its transactions obliterated from the records of mankind. Till then the name of C. W. Starbuck will be remembered ; till then his memory will be blessed, and the people of the community will speak it forth as one of the monuments of their noblest civilization, the example and in- spiration of every worthy deed. He may not be remembered as a rich man, an editor, or statesman, but far down in the distant future he shall be held in grateful and loving remem- brance as a good man and the friend of the poor.
CROOK, GEORGE, soldier, was born near Dayton, Montgomery county, Ohio, September 8th, 1828. He entered West Point in 1848, graduated July, 1852, and was appointed to a brevet second-lieutenancy in a regiment serving in Cal- ifornia. He saw some service among the Indians, and was once severely wounded. In 1853 he was promoted to sec- ond-lieutenant; in November, 1856, to first-lieutenant, and in May, 1861, to a captaincy in the regular army. On his arrival in New York in August, 1861, he was tendered the colonelcy of the 36th Ohio infantry, then in course of enlist- ment in Marietta, Ohio. Accepting the appointment, he applied himself to the work of disciplining the regiment. Early in the spring of 1862, Colonel Crook was placed in command of the 3d brigade of the army of West Virginia, and on the 24th May defeated the rebel General Heath, cap- turing all his artillery and many of his men. In July he was transferred to the army of the Potomac, and took a prom- inent part in Pope's retreat, and in the battles of South Mountain and Antietam. For services in these campaigns he was made brigadier-general of volunteers. and was given the command of the Kanawha division, composed almost entirely of Ohio troops. In January, 1863, at the request of General Rosecrans, he was transferred to the army of the Cumberland, and assigned to the command of the 2d 'cav- alry division. Immediately after the battle of Chickamauga, he was ordered to pursue and destroy the rebel cavalry force under General Wheeler, whom he utterly routed and sent flying in confusion, after capturing all his artillery. For this he was recommended for promotion by both General Rose- crans and General Thomas. In February, 1864, he was as- signed to the command of the 3d division, department of West Virginia, then lying in Kanawha valley. On May 9th he attacked the enemy in strong force at Cloyd Mountain, under command of General Jenkins. The rebels lost-two pieces of artillery and nearly one thousand men, killed, wounded and captured, among them General Jenkins, who was mortally wounded. He encountered the rebels again at New river, drove them from their position, captured two pieces of artillery and a large quantity of ammunition. General Crook's force was then ordered to Staunton. His division'led the advance in General Hunter's movement upon Lynchburg, and covered the rear upon the retreat. His
command had been on duty for two months, marched nine hundred miles, crossed different ranges of the Alleghany and Blue Ridge sixteen times, continually on short rations, frequently without any ; had fought and defeated the enemy in five severe engagements; had participated in numerous skirmishes; had killed, wounded and made prisoners of nearly two thousand rebels, and had captured ten pieces of artillery. It had not lost one man captured, and neither a gun nor wagon had fallen into the hands of the enemy; but nearly one-third of its number had been left dead on the field of battle, or had been carried away wounded. The Ka- nawha division never lost the right to be called the best in an army where all were good. On the 20th July, General Crook was brevetted major-general for distinguished .gal- lantry and efficient services in the preceding campaign. When Sheridan organized the army of the Shenandoah, the army of West Virginia became a part of it, and the latter was conspicuous in all its movements. For gallant conduct at the battles of Opequan and Fisher's Hill, General Crook was recommended by General Sheridan (after the war) for the rank of brevet major-general in the regular army. After the successful fall campaign in the Shenandoah valley in 1864, he was made a full major-general of volunteers, and his division went into winter quarters. On the 21st February, at two o'clock in the morning, by the adroit movement of a party of guerillas in Federal uniforms, under a lieutenant named McNeil, he was taken prisoner from his private room at his headquarters at Cumberland, Maryland. The guerillas escaped with their prize, and it was not until a month after (March 20th) that the general was exchanged, when he again assumed the command of the cavalry of the army of the Potomac. He bore a brilliant and conspicuous part in the closing scenes about Richmond. After the surrender, when General Sheridan was assigned to a command in the South- west, General Crook was placed in command of the cavalry corps, which he retained until relieved at his own request. about the Ist July. In August, 1856, he was ordered to re- port to General Schofield, in the department of North Car- olina, and assigned to the command of the district of Wil- mington, in which position he was honorably mustered out of the volunteer service on the 15th January, 1866, and again entered the regular army, in which he at present (1884) holds the rank of brigadier-general. He has been for several years on frontier duty, in command of the department of the Platte, with headquarters at Omaha, and has the reputation of being a good Indian fighter.
SHERWOOD, ISAAC R., Toledo, was born at Stan- ford, Dutchess County, New York, August 13th, 1835. His parents, Aaron and Maria Youmans Sherwood, were both natives of Dutchess County, where the family lived until the death of the father in 1844. The mother was of Scotch lineage, and is still living at Wauseon, Ohio, at the age of seventy-six. Isaac Sherwood, the grandfather of Isaac R., was a soldier of the Revolutionary War, and was present at the battles of Ticonderoga, Crown Point, etc. General Sher- wood's education began in country schools in his native county. At the age of seventeen he was sent to Amenia Seminary, where he spent one term, then to Hudson River Institute, where he remained two years. Subsequently he entered Antioch College, at Yellow Springs, Ohio, which was at that time under the charge of Horace Mann. Mr. Sher- wood pursued his studies at this institution for some time,
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though he did not remain to complete the full course of study. In 1856 he entered the Law College at Cleveland, where he took a full course, graduating in 1857. His tastes, however, were not for the practice of law, so he did not en- gage in it. Immediately after graduating he located at Bryan, Ohio, where he started a Republican paper, the Ga- zette, the first Republican sheet published in Williams County. Its publication was continued till 1861, the outbreak of the rebellion. Isaac R. Sherwood was the first volunteer soldier in Northwestern Ohio, outside of the city of Toledo. He en- listed April 18th, 1861, as private in the Fourteenth Ohio Vol- unteer Infantry, under Colonel, afterwards General, Steed- man, of Toledo. He served as private four months in West Virginia, where his regiment was sent, and participated in the battles of Philippi, Laurel Hill Mountain, Cheat River, and Carrick's Ford, the first battles that were fought in West Vir- ginia. The regiment being three months' men was then mustered out, whereupon General Sherwood re-enlisted in the One Hundred and Eleventh Ohio, and was commis- sioned first lieutenant, and, upon the organization of the regiment, was appointed its adjutant, serving as such through the Buell campaign in Kentucky and Tennessee, participat- ing in all its battles. On February Ist, 1863, after the battle of Stone River he was, by the unanimous request of the field and line officers, promoted from adjutant to major, and was placed in command of his regiment steadily for the following year, both the colonel and lieutenant-colonel being unable to take command on account of sickness. He commanded his regiment in East Tennessee under Burnside. At Knox- ville, in the Fall of 1863, upon the resignation of the lieuten- ant-colonel, Major Sherwood was promoted to that position. Colonel Sherwood covered Burnside's retreat from Lenore to Campbell's Station, having been placed in command of the skirmishers, losing fifty-two men killed and wounded. He commanded his regiment at Loudon and Campbell's Station, where, for six hours, they were exposed to the concentrated fire of the enemy, when a shell from one of Longstreet's batteries burst within four feet of him, causing permanent deafness in the left ear. He was also in command during the siege of Knoxville, at Blain's Cross Roads, Dandridge, Strawberry Plains, and Mossy Creek. In the Spring of 1864 he was promoted to colonel, but had lost so many men that he was not mustered in as such. In the Atlanta campaign, through all of which he passed, his regiment suffered a loss of two hundred and twelve out of three hundred and eighty. The principal battles of that campaign in which he was en- gaged were Rocky Face. Resaca, Burnt Hickory, Dallas, Pine Mountain, Lost Mountain, Kenesaw Mountain, Chatta- hoochie, Nickajack Creek, Decatur, Peach Tree Creek, Utoy Creek, Atlanta, Lovejoy Station. He was also at Columbia and Franklin. For gallantry in the battle of Franklin, Colonel Sherwood was made brevet brigadier-general. In that battle, of one hundred and eighty men engaged twenty-two were killed on the field and forty wounded. Many were killed by rebel bayonets. So close was the conflict that once the flag of his regiment was snatched from the hands of the color-bearer, but the rebel was instantly killed, and the flag rescued, and he himself had a horse shot under him. General Sherwood was engaged in the two days' fight in front of Nashville, during which his command was severely damaged. On the second day he made a desperate charge with his faithful men, and captured three rebel battle-flags and a large number of prisoners. His regiment afterwards
took part in the pursuit of Hood, and took an active part in the capture of Fort Anderson and in the battles of Town Creek, Goldsborough, and Raleigh. General Sherwood was afterwards ordered before a board of officers at Salisbury, North Carolina, where he was examined and recommended for promotion and retention in the regular army. He was made, accordingly, colonel of the One Hundred and Eighty- third Ohio Infantry, and was summoned to Washington for instruction. He was ordered by the War Department to re- port to Major-general Saxton for duty, according to rank of brigadier-general, as commissioner of the Freedmen's Bu- reau for the State of Florida. The general, however, imme- diately tendered his resignation and asked to be mustered out, which was granted. After the close of the war he located in Toledo, and immediately assumed the editorship of the Commercial, in which he bought an interest, which position he filled for one year, when he accepted a posi- tion on the staff of the Cleveland Leader. He remained nearly a year on the Leader, and then, in 1867, bought his old paper, the Bryan Press, which he had started before the war, and which was changed from the Gazette, and began editing and publishing it again. In 1868 General Sherwood was elected Secretary of State, of Ohio, and, in 1870, was re-elected. On the expiration of his secretaryship in 1872, he was the Republican nominee as representative to Con- gress from the Sixth District, and his popularity won him a majority over his opponent, Hon. Frank Hurd, of over one thousand votes. Again, in 1874, he was a prominent candi- date, but by some wire-pulling on the part of some delegates in convention he failed to secure the nomination. The suc- cessful nominee, A. M. Pratt, of Williams County, was de- feated, however, by Mr. Hurd, Mr. Sherwood's unsuccessful opponent, by a majority of eighteen hundred. While in Congress General Sherwood was a member of the Committee on Railroad and Canals, which then had under consideration the Jetty system at the mouth of the Mississippi River, tak- ing a very active part in advocacy of the enterprise. He also took an active part in the debates of that assembly, and was among the first to make a speech in Congress advocating free banking. He was among the founders of the Green- back party, having long before its organization advocated its principles. In 1874 General Sherwood again located in Toledo and, in company with George S. Canfield, bought the Sunday Journal, and has been engaged in editing and pub- lishing it ever since, though, for the last three years, most of his time has been occupied by the duties of Probate Judge, having been, in 1878, elected to that office for Lu- cas County, on the Greenback ticket, by nearly one thou- sand majority over the Republican candidate. Again, in 1881, he was nominated by both Greenbackers and Demo- crats and, though a strong effort was made to defeat him by the Republicans, he was re-elected by one hundred and five majority. He had previously filled the office of Probate Judge, having been elected to that office in Williams County in 1859, but, on the outbreak of the war, he resigned to enter the service. He had also been elected Mayor of Bryan before the war, which office he likewise resigned. In 1875 General Sherwood was tendered by President Grant desirable positions in the Territories, which were respectfully declined. It is a significant fact that he has never been defeated for any office for which he has received the nom- ination. September Ist, 1859, General Sherwood married Miss Kate M. Brownlee, daughter of Judge Brownlee, of
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