USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume III > Part 50
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Mansfield. He did so, and in 1852 was admitted to the bar, and engaged in the practice of his profession until the first year of the war of the Rebellion. During four of those nine years, however, he varied the monotony of legal life by be- coming editor and proprietor of the Mansfield Herald, in which capacity he made a State reputation as a vigorous writer, and during 1860 as a bold and attractive orator. In September, 1861, he entered the service of the United States as first lieutenant and quartermaster of the 64th Ohio volun- teer infantry. In November following he was promoted to the rank of captain and assistant quartermaster of volunteers, and during the winter was assigned to duty at Bardstown, Kentucky. After the capture of Nashville, Tennessee, he was placed in charge of land and river transportation in that city, and, after the battle of Shiloh, or Pittsburg Landing, in April, 1862, he was put in charge of the field transportation of the army of the Ohio. Having, after the capture of Cor- inth, Mississippi, obtained sick leave of absence, he went home, and while there was ordered to Augusta as chief quar- termaster of the State of Maine. Subsequently he was trans- ferred to Washington City as post quartermaster, and re- mained there until 1865, when he was commissioned under the law enacted by Congress in 1864, a colonel and inspector of the quarter master's department of the United States army. Retained on duty at the war office by Secretary Stanton until November, 1865, he was then ordered to Cincinnati as chief disbursing quartermaster at that point for the department of the West. Here he so remained until September following, when he was by brevet made a brigadier-general of volunteers, and on the 1st October, 1866, mustered out of the service at his own request. The course of promotion here shown is sufficient assurance that General Brinkerhoff performed all the duties assigned him with honor to himself and satisfac- tion to the authorities. His knowledge of all the minutiæ of the particular department of the army in which he spent five full years is best indicated by his book, published by Van Nostrand, entitled, "The Volunteer Quartermaster," and which is regarded as a standard for the officers and employès of that department. After the close of his service in the army, General Brinkerhoff engaged at Mansfield in the prac- tice of law until called to the cashiership of that institution on the organization of the Mansfield Savings Bank, and in which position he has exhibited his usual financial ability and careful management. In February, 1852, he married Miss Mary Lake Bently, of Mansfield, Ohio, the grand- daughter of General Robert Bently, who has made him a pleasant home and given him an interesting family of four children, two sons and two daughters. In politics, General Brinkerhoff is a Jeffersonian democrat, a believer in free trade, hard money, home rule, and the non-interference principles of government generally, the advantages of which he paints with power to convince his hearers that in going beyond the levy of duties by the government other than those necessary to provide the necessary means to administer it, in its various departments, the monopolists only are served, and the people at large are oppressed. As a free-trader, he is one of the leading authorities in this country, and upon that sub- ject has lectured in most of the larger cities of the Northern States, with great acceptance, During the slavery agitation and the war of the Rebellion, General Brinkerhoff acted with the republicans, and continued to do so until the final settle- ment of the terms of reconstruction, by amendments to the Constitution of the United States; but after that, as he had
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always done previous to the repeal of the Missouri compro- mise, he acted with the Democratic party, holding that the Republican party having accomplished its mission, which in the nature of things was limited and temporary, it ought to disband and give place to the time-honored principles of the fathers of the republic, as administered by Jefferson, Jackson, and their compeers. In manner and bearing, whether in daily intercourse or upon the platform, General Brinkerhoff's deportment bespeaks the true man and sincere patriot.
BAKER, WILLIAM, lawyer, Toledo, was born at Nor- walk, Huron County, February 5th, 1822. His father, Hon. Timothy Baker, was a native of Massachusetts, and came to Norwalk in 1818, where, for sixty years, he occupied a prom- inent position, not only in active business, but in public af- fairs, having served for twenty-one years with special accept- ance on the bench of the Common Pleas Court. William pursued his academical studies at Norwalk Academy, and his collegiate course at Granville College, Ohio, now Deni- son University, where he was graduated, with special credit, 1841. He at once commenced the study of law in the office of Goddard & Converse, at Zanesville. In the autumn of 1842 he entered the law school of Harvard University, where he enjoyed the valuable instructions of Judge Joseph Story and Professor Simon Greenleaf, receiving his Bachelor's Degree in the Spring of 1844. In November of that year, at the age of twenty-two, he went to Toledo, and at once entered upon his life-work in the practice of the law. During his first year, he was placed in charge of several very im- portant Chancery cases, which made necessary thorough reading, sound discretion, and considerate action; in all which he was successful. With a just appreciation of the true nature and aim of his profession, he, from the first, as- sumed and held the position of a conscientious, thorough, and reliable practitioner, and his practice had a steady and substantial growth. In 1847 he entered into partnership with Hon. Myron H. Tilden, who at that time resigned the posi- tion of President Judge of Common Pleas Court for North- western Ohio, which connection continued until 1850, when Judge Tilden removed to Cincinnati. From January, 1857, until January, 1870, Mr. Baker was associated in practice with William A. Collins, Esq., who, at the latter date, with- drew to assume the office of Judge of Common Pleas, to which he had been elected. Mr. Baker continued alone the large and laborious service of his office until 1880, when his youngest son, Rufus H. Baker, having completed his pro- fessional course at Columbia College Law School, joined him; and in 1881 was followed by Barton Smith, Esq., when the firm became, as it yet remains, Baker, Smith & Baker. The professional business of Mr. Baker has been large and exceptionally successful, mainly in the lines of commercial and real estate law and in equity. His strong, active, and well-balanced mind, industrious and methodical habits, and recognized integrity of character, early attracted the notice of sagacious business men, and brought him into close rela- tions with moneyed men and corporate bodies, who sought his counsel and relied on his varied business capacity, no less than on his sound legal judgment. For more than thirty years he has been the correspondent and adviser of Eastern par- ties and large corporations, who, through him, have loaned in Toledo vast sums of money, and in that way contributed largely to the growth of the city. In this connection he was called to pass upon the titles and value of real estate, and
upon the character of other securities to the amount of mill- ions of dollars, such business extending through different periods of panic and requiring the exercise of the closest scru- tiny and most careful judgment. While thus devoted to his profession Mr. Baker has also been active in promoting the moral and material advance of the city. He was closely identified with the organization of the Toledo, Norwalk, and Cleveland (now of the Lake Shore) Railway ; was one of the constituent organizers, and for fifteen years a director in the Toledo and Wabash Railway Company ; was active in es- tablishing the Milburn Wagon Company and the . Toledo Mower and Reaper Company, in each of which, from the start, he has been an active director and the legal counsel; and in other manufacturing enterprises he has rendered pe- cuniary aid and legal assistance, contributing materially to their support in struggling weakness and to their subsequent prosperity and success. Politically Mr. Baker was originally a Whig, uniting with the Republican party at its organiza- tion, and continuing such relation. Always taking an active interest in political affairs, he never was a seeker for office, contenting himself with what he could do toward the promo- tion of sound political principles and good government. Throughout the war of the Rebellion his sympathy and his unremitting efforts were with the cause of the Union and human freedom. As a citizen he has always been public- spirited and liberal in the contribution of means for the moral and intellectual welfare of his fellow-men. Mr. Baker's literary qualities and ability as a writer are of a high order. The limited extent to which these have come to be known, has denied him the appreciation in that respect to which he is entitled. While more particularly identified with the Bap- tist Church his active interest in religious objects has em- braced all denominations of Christians and associations for Christian Charities. In June, 1882, with Mrs. Baker he went to Europe, traveling there for eighteen months, and visiting every European country, Russia and Turkey only excepted. August 28th, 1849, he was married at Norwalk to Miss Frances C. Latimer, daughter of Peter Latimer, Esq. They have four sons, William L., engineer and superintendent of Detroit Bridge and Iron Works; Herbert and Arthur E., iron founders, Toledo; and Rufus H., lawyer; and one daughter, Miss Kittie.
GALLOWAY, HON. SAMUEL, was born March 20th, 1811, at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. His youth was spent in his native village, and just before his majority, and very soon after the death of a most worthy father, he removed to the State of Ohio to make his home among relatives in High- land County. From his home he entered Miami University, Oxford, passed through the curriculum of study, and gradu- ated with distinguished honor in the class of 1833. In his college associations were men who have since attained to prominence in professional and political careers. His emi- nence was not in mere text-book scholarship, but he added to this the broader attainments that foreshadowed his future success as teacher, orator, and leader. On leaving college he at once, in accordance with tastes that were the outgrowth of temperament and mental characteristics, and no doubt early fostered by daily intimacy with his distinguished townsman, Thaddeus Stevens, for whom he entertained profound admi- ration, entered upon the study of law at Hillsborough. In the midst of these studies he became deeply impressed with the obligations of religion, and promptly abandoning his law
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studies, he was entered as a student of theology at Princeton, New Jersey. At the end of a year the bent of nature, the strong bias of taste and temperament, so obviously unfitting him for the proprieties and the rigid decorum of the pulpit, but so clearly drifting him to the bar and the political arena, asserted their rule and carried him back to the law. He did not at once complete his legal studies, but accepted for a term the chair of Greek in his Alma Mater, Miami Univer- sity, and went from there to South Hanover, Indiana, to enter upon the congenial pursuits of literature and language. His success as a teacher in these departments is attested by most competent colleagues, who expressed the deepest regret at losing him from the faculty. His attainments in classical literature were thorough and extensive, rendering him an elegant scholar and a graceful and ready writer. He soon renewed and completed his preparation for the bar, during which time he became intimately and zealously identified with the temperance agitation, which awoke the public senti- ment to the necessity of an organized reform, and was styled the Washingtonian movement. By constant example, fervid speech, and active work, he promoted this much needed movement. In 1843 he began the practice of law with Nathaniel Massie, in Chillicothe. He made his maiden speech at Hillsborough, in the presence of several of the most distinguished members of the bar of southern Ohio. All gave him high commendation for this effort, the jury according him the verdict without leaving their seats; and such was the impression upon the mind of the Hon. Thomas L. Ha- mer, who was present, that he said: "Galloway, retire with your laurels : you will never be able, in any future effort, to equal or surpass this." During this year he was chosen, by the State Legislature, Secretary of State, and removing to Columbus, he entered upon the duties of his office, with the added responsibility of Commissioner of Common Schools. From his known zeal in the interests of education, popular and collegiate, he was expected to inaugurate some system that would place them upon a sure basis, and carry out, to some large and productive results, the liberal contributions of its citizens. He had, in his association with the Hon." Horace Mann, and other distinguished teachers of the country, who made up that noble body of talent, zeal, and power, the Western College of Teachers, become fully in- spired with the weighty interests and grand results that hung upon educating the people of the State that had in charge its destinies. Professor Calvin E. Stowe had returned from Europe reporting the best system of education there; and the friends of a popular system hailed the election of the new secretary as one to aid in carrying out their great aims. * In his first report he began arranging the chaotic materials found in the crude, imperfect, and very partial reports of the county auditors and local school boards. In his second re- port great advances were made, and great interest developed in the popular mind, especially in the organization of teach- ers' institutes, and the management of schools under the su- pervision of district or county superintendents. From these labors, accomplished under many difficulties and obstructions in his personal visitations, special correspondence, vigorous pleas, and legislative importunities, can be dated some of the most important results bearing on popular education in Ohio. Institutes were organized at several points, over which Mr. Galloway presided, and at which he delivered stirring ad- dresses. No great question that involved principle or popu- lar rights could be presented that would not enlist a temper- C -- 23
ament so ardent, and a mind so discriminating. Hence, when the greatest of all national questions, slavery, loomed up in 1832 and 1840, he promptly and decidedly ranged himself in the anti-slavery ranks, though he was never iden- tified with what was called the "Liberty party." His attach- ment was with the old rather than the new, here as well as elsewhere; and with patriotic conservatism he did not sun- der the tie that bound him to the old Whig party, to which, in political faith, he had always been devoted. In the con- ventions and councils of this party he was an acknowledged leader. From the very outset of his political career he began to make his mark. In the days when such men as Ewing, Corwin, Stanbery, and others were recognized leaders, though much younger, his gifts of speech and pen were none the less noted and effective. And here it may be said that it was, perhaps, as the living speaker he is most vividly recalled by those who had the privilege of knowing him. In this depart- ment he had few equals; none who had ever heard him can ever forget the power of liis eloquence. No description can convey a just idea of his manner or style. His efforts were unequal, often affected by a depressed nervous system, but at his best, his speeches were a rare union of scathing wit, brilliant sarcasm, intense pathos, and inimitable humor, in- tensified in their delivery by the profoundest feeling of the man. Though full of anecdote and thrilling illustration, yet they were governed by a strictly logical order, and story and fable were linked in a chain of convincing argument. No man could sway more successfully the feelings of a crowd. And when he rose in a popular assembly it was the signal for a tumultuous outburst of applause-the "people heard him gladly," and listened with delighted interest, often under most unfavorable circumstances. He was a member of the Na- tional Convention which nominated Zachary Taylor for the Presidency, and there made a very able speech in favor of the nominee. In 1854-55 he represented his district in Con- gress, when his party was largely in the minority, during an anomalous commingling of parties, and under the ascendency of a narrow, bigoted order, the Know Nothings, with whom he had no real sympathy. In two other Congressional con- tests his personal popularity was demonstrated by a large vote, irrespective of party ties. In the two years of Congres- sional life he added renown to his name as the tenacious advocate of common rights to all conditions of men, and his speech on the Kansas bill was a theme for eulogy in this country, and in foreign periodicals. Blackwood and the North British Review gave it deserved commendation. In the nation's struggle against the encroachments of slavery, though his physical organization wholly unfitted him for the contest on the battle-field, yet he remained to do successful battle with different weapons against other enemies, but all aiding in the last grand consummation. In the new national policy that made up this mighty war party, he took no mean place, and performed no subordinate amount of the labor that had its climax in the nomination of Lincoln to its triumphant leadership. His intimate friendship with Lincoln was not in the bonds of political association only or chiefly, but in deeper ties-of community of nature, genial humor, generous sym- pathies, hearty impulses. These brought them together with no consciousness of station or rank to make a difference. The mutual geniality of the men expressed itself when the cour- tesy of a Columbus delegation was extended to Mr. Lincoln, who, grasping Mr. Galloway's hands with characteristic cor- diality and emphasis, said : "I would rather see you than any
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man in America." Governor Tod, too, found him a con- genial spirit, and loved him. The memory of an evening, when Lincoln, Galloway, and Tod met in the President's room, in the days of care, anxiety, fears and hopes for the country in her great struggle, recalls the characteristics of each, and much that was common to all. The noble war Governor of Ohio did not know fully the joke-loving Presi- dent, and had felt that he was not fully impressed with the solemn drama in which he was acting so leading a part. But that interview, prolonged into the stillness of midnight, dis- pelled all such impressions. The rapid transitions from the highest humor, or most piquant, subtle application of a story or incident to the gravest and most momentous events then transpiring, their most serious statesmanlike consideration, the grave, hearty care impressed upon the then spare face, the prompt return of genial expression of personal interest, all ended in a commingling of a deep sympathy and fullest mutual confidence, that only ended as one after another they have dropped from their places in these great historic scenes. As Judge-Advocate, a commission was given to Mr. Galloway for the examination of military and civil prisoners at Camp Chase, in 1863, and in that service he continued until the close of the war. The demands of military justice and dis- cipline were there supplemented by tender mercy, and while jealous of his country's honor, he cared for many who were victims and sufferers in the casualties of war, and his heart and purse and friendly aid were ready to alleviate their wants, exhibiting the spirit of his illustrious prototype, " Malice towards none, charity for all." Coupled with devotion to the welfare and integrity of his country was that of church. That part of his life and character represented by his relig- ious views and habits is perhaps least understood by the world. In fact, here he could only be known by those who were taken into sympathy with his inner life, for few men wore more distinctly an outer and an inner life. In the rough struggle, the sharp conflict, the Cromwellian fight with the outer world, the combatant, armed with all the power of truth, eloquence, and sarcasm, seemed to reveal the whole man. Hence many, who considered themselves his intimate friends, knew nothing of his inner life, with its struggles, its deep controlling convictions, its sustaining faith and religious hope. These constituted almost an independent existence, of which he was as reticent as William the Silent, except as it was manifested in church administration or religious assem- blies. In ecclesiastical councils he acted with sound judg- ment and prudent conservatism, though he was bold and aggressive in spirit, asking for a positive pronouncement when questions involving great and important matters were at issue. The General Assembly of the Old School Presbyte- rian Church made him one of its commissioners at its meet- ing in Philadelphia to accomplish the union of the two schools, a position of dignity and importance, and which de- manded wise judgment and careful discrimination. It may be added that Mr. Galloway had great personal popularity. His sympathy with the people was well understood and ap- preciated. His manners, so entirely simple and unostenta- tious, made him the best known public man in the State.
NEWBERRY, J. S., physician and geologist, was born in Windsor, Connecticut. The family of old Puritan stock, had resided at Windsor since 1635, when the town was founded by a colony from Dorchester, Massachusetts, and had during the two centuries of residence there furnished sev-
eral representatives to the local and State governments, and to the defense of the settlement, colony, State, and Union. In 1824, his father, Henry Newberry, removed with his fam- ily from Connecticut to northern Ohio, where he had large landed possessions, inherited from the Hon. Roger Newberry, a member of the Connecticut Land Company, and settled in Summit county, where he founded the town of Cuyahoga Falls, and died in 1854. Being quite young when brought to Ohio, our subject was educated in that State. At the proper age he was sent to Western Reserve College, at Hudson, where he graduated in 1846. He chose medicine as his profession, and graduated from the Cleveland Medical Col- lege in 1848. The two following years were spent in study and travel at home and in Europe, his studies being mostly scientific. At the close of 1850 he returned from travel, and in the following spring commenced the practice of medicine in Cleveland, continuing until 1855, and meeting with a suc- cess which, though gratifying in some respects, was a serious obstacle to further pursuit of the scientific studies, in which he had taken deep interest. In May, 1855, therefore, he con- sented to abandon his professional practice and accept an ap- pointment from the War Department as acting assistant sur- geon and geologist to the United States exploring expedition, under command of Lieutenant R. S. Williamson, whose ob- ject was the examination of the country between San Fran- cisco and the Columbia river. The results of this expedition are to be found in the sixth volume of "Pacific Railroad Reports." His own reports on the "Geology, Botany, and Zoology of North California and Oregon," were republished in a separate quarto volume of three hundred pages, with forty- eight plates. In 1857-58, he was again in the West, having accompanied Lieutenant J. C. Ives in the exploration and navigation of the Colorado river, the immediate object of which was the opening of a navigable route of communication with the United States troops in Utah. An iron steamer, built in sections, was taken from Philadelphia to the head of the Gulf of California, and there put together and launched. In this steamer the party navigated the Colorado to a point five hundred miles above its mouth, being stopped at the lower end of the Great Canon, an immense chasm through which the river pursues its way, for hundreds of miles, be- tween nearly vertical banks ranging from three to six thou- sand feet in height. That portion of the Colorado navigated by the expedition was almost unknown to white men, but is now much used for travel. About a year was spent in explor- ing the country bordering the Colorado, the information obtained regarding it being entirely new and of absorbing interest. His portion of the report occupied about half the entire space, and was declared by the commanding officer, in · his introductory remarks to contain "the most interesting ma- terial gathered by the expedition." No sooner was the work on this report completed, in 1859, than he was assigned to another exploring expedition, taking command of a party ordered to report to Captain J. N. Macomb, topographical engineer United States army, for the exploration of the San Juan and Upper Colorado rivers. The work of this expedi- tion took him over a large part of southern Colorado, Utah; northern Arizona, and New Mexico, hitherto almost or en- tirely unknown, and which were found to be rich in natural beauties and mineral wealth. Before closing its work this expedition had determined the point of junction of Grand and Green rivers, the parent streams of the Colorado, and had , explored the valley of the San Juan, the Colorado's largest
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