USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume III > Part 60
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Potter that, upon the reorganization of the firm in May, 1854, after the death of R. H. Lee, Mr. Halstead (with Henry Reed and John Straus) secured a partnership interest, the firm name becoming M. D. Potter & Co. In this reorganization it was Mr. Potter's express object to give the office stability of man- agement in case of his death, which, however, did not occur until April, 1866, when the firm of M. Halstead & Co. was organized. Mr. Halstead attributed his success in journalism to his quick recognition of the importance and value of news, and his skill in the use of the scissors. He possessed and ex- ercised keen discrimination between such matters offered for publication as had life and interest for to-day, and those which could wait for to-morrow. He was, moreover, an indefatigable worker; and was reported to have given as a recipe to make a laborer a capitalist-"Sixteen hours work per day for sixteen years." This was almost a literal translation of his own ex- perience. As a writer, Mr. Halstead was direct, earnest and forcible, with a large quality of buoyant, masculine vigor, partly the result, doubtless, of his robust bodily health gained in youth from contact with the earth and air upon his father's farm. In politics, as an editor, he professed and practiced honest independence of parties, though, having warmly up- held the Union cause in the war of secession, he afterward preferred the Republican traditions, and in 1876 saw patri- otic reasons for warmly supporting Rutherford B. Hayes for the Presidency. January Ist, 1883, the Cincinnati Commer- cial and the Gazette were united, with M. Halstead presi- dent, and Richard Smith vice-president of the company. The Commercial Gazette is a straight Republican newspaper. Mr. Halstead thrice visited Europe-first, in 1870, when he was present in France during the war with Prussia, and witnessed the battle of Gravelotte; again, in 1874, when he also visited Iceland on the occasion of its millennial cele- bration ; and for a brief period, during the French Exposi- tion, in 1878. He married, March 2d, 1857, Miss Mary Banks, daughter of the late Hiram Banks, and had twelve children, nine sons and three daughters, namely: John, (who died in 1861) Jennie, Marshal, Clarence, Robert, Al- bert, Mary, Hiram Banks (died in 1878), Clarissa, Griffin, Frank, and Willit.
COLEMAN, ASA, pioneer physician, Troy, Ohio, was born in Glastenbury, Connecticut, July 2d, 1788, and died in Troy, Ohio, February 25th, 1870. He was a descendant of Thomas Coleman, an English emigrant to the pilgrim colony in 1630, and who was one to whom land was set off, by origi- nal survey of Naubuc, in 1639 and 1640. For six generations the name of Coleman has been identified with local and gen- eral positions in the various relations of church, state, medi- cine, surgery and masonry ; and the same patriotic spirit which led the ancestor to enroll himself under the Continental flag, moved the descendants in later wars to lead the charging column, or alleviate distress in the field or the crowded hospi- tal. The line of descent of our subject from this American ancestor, is Noah Coleman, first, second and third. Noah Coleman, third, was born in Hatfield, Massachusetts, in 1704, married Mary Wright, of Colchester, and had a family of seven children, named respectively Mary, Sibyl, Noah, Ozias, Daniel, Asaph, and Zenos. Asaph Coleman, fourth son, and father of our subject, was born in Massachusetts, in 1747, and married Eunice Hollister, of Glastenbury, Connecticut, by whom he had six children: Julius, Eunice, Asa, Pamelia, Clarissa, and Maria. He was a prominent physician and
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surgeon in the Continental army. After receiving an aca- demic education in his native town, our subject turned his attention to medicine and surgery, pursuing his studies to a great extent, under the instruction of his father, and on May 23d, 1810, he received a diploma from the Connecticut State Medical Society. Having made a prospecting tour to the new State of Ohio in the fall of 1807, he resolved to make that his future home, and accordingly, in May, 1811, left his native State, and during the summer located in Troy, Miami county, Ohio. In November, following, he received a diploma from the Ohio Board of Medical Examiners, and established himself in the practice of medicine and surgery in the town just named, where he pursued his calling for more than half a century with constant success till the close of his career. Like other enterprising pioneers, he took an active and lead- ing part in all the early improvements of this now beautiful county seat. On September 24th, 1808, he had been com- missioned surgeon of the 6th Connecticut militia, and on the same date of 1811, he was made surgeon of the Ohio militia, and in this position he was constantly on the round of duty, visiting the sick and wounded at the block-houses and posts along the northern boundary of Miami, then the frontier set- tlement next to the Indian Territory. Other commissions fol- lowed, as surgeon and major, May 20th, 1816, and lieutenant- colonel July 27th, 1818, from Governor Worthington. In Oc- tober, 1816, he was elected to represent his district in the State legislature, and served as a member of the first session ever held in the city of Columbus, December, 1816. He was reelected in the following year, and served a second term, declining a third, although strongly urged to become a candi- date. Elected to the office of associate judge, he was com- missioned February 4th, 1827, by Governor Allen Trimble, for a period of seven years. Chosen as a director of the Miami county branch of the State Bank of. Ohio at its organ- ization, in 1846, he served as an officer until its close, in 1866. He was instrumental in the organization of the First Na- tional Bank of Troy, was elected the first president, served nearly two years, and then resigned through failing health. He was made a Freemason in 1809, was a charter member of Franklin lodge, Troy, Ohio, in January, 1812, and was first master of the same. At the time of his death, in his eighty-second year, he was the last surviving charter mem- ber. He was also a charter member of Franklin R. A. Chapter, Franklin Council, R. and S. M., and Coleman Com- mandery, K. T. The last mentioned, in honor of his masonic worth, bears his name. For six years he served as director and physician of the county infirmary, and submitted the plan for the present building. He was prominent in estab- lishing the Protestant Episcopal church in Troy, and elected first senior warden of Trinity church in 1830. Afterwards he was annually reelected up to the time of his death, for the uninterrupted period of forty years. Fond of agricultural pursuits, he gave much of his time to operations on his farm, and retired thither during the last few years of his life. He was above medium height, straight and well-proportioned, and as erect in his advanced years as in his youthful man- hood. His bearing was dignified, his step firm, and his hair silver-white as the snow. He lived a long, active, useful and blameless life, and died as one who, wearied with his labors, "wraps the drapery of his couch about him, and lies down to pleasant dreams." He was thrice married. His third wife was Mary Keifer, whom he married October 24th, 1822. She was born in Sharpsburg, Maryland, and came with her
parents to Clark county, Ohio, in 1812. She survived her hus- band but a few months, and died on December 5th, 1870. By the last marriage he reared six children. Horace, Pame- lia Hale, Augustus Henry, Asa, George Edwin, and Julius Adams. All the above-named sons served in the Union ranks in the war of the Rebellion. Of these, the record of Ohio in the war fitly speaks of Colonel A. H. Coleman, who was killed at Antietam, as one of the best and bravest. Edu- cated at West Point, upon the opening of the war, he enlisted as a private, recruited company D, IIth Ohio, was made cap- tain and subsequently advanced through the grades to colonel. He was superior as a drill-master, and brought his regiment up to a high standard of discipline. Especially vigilant in times of danger, faithful in the discharge of duty, however hazardous, and scrupulously attentive to the needs of his men, he was universally respected and beloved. Dr. Horace Cole- man, oldest son of Asa Coleman, was born in Troy, Ohio, December 27th, 1824. He was educated at Gambier, Ohio, studied medicine under his father, and graduated from the Medical College of Ohio, in 1849. After a few months prac- tice in Troy, he located in Logansport, Indiana, in the spring of 1850, where he remained eleven years, three of which he was a partner of Dr. G. N. Fitch. In October, 1861, he en- tered the army as surgeon of the 46th Indiana, and served nearly three years, either as medical director or surgeon- in-chief of his division. In May, 1864, he became surgeon of the 147th Ohio. His services in the army were distin- guished throughout for efficiency, fidelity and signal devotion to the needs of the sick and wounded. At the close of the war he returned to Troy, and engaged in practice. He was subsequently appointed assessor of internal revenue for the fourth district of Ohio, and filled the office during its con- tinuance. In 1868 he was a republican delegate to the Chi- cago Presidential convention that nominated Grant and Col- fax. Among the local positions which he has filled are those of director in the First National bank, member of the city council, and president of the board of education. For a third of a century he has been connected with the Masonic fraternity, and has occupied high positions of honor and trust therein. He is a gentleman of reserved, yet affable manners, fine social qualities, and is highly esteemed by the community for his sterling personal worth. On November 9th, 1847, he married Mary L., daughter of C. Aldrich, an early settler of Troy, Ohio, but a native of Rhode Island. Seven children resulted from this union, five living. The oldest, Horace Coleman, Jr., is a professional druggist, and is connected with a St. Louis firm. Jessie L. graduated at Glendale, and is Mrs. Samuel Davis, of Kansas City, Missouri.
BATES, BETHEL, was born in Guernsey County, Ohio, March 12th, 1809, and is the fifth child of a family of fourteen. At that time the district now known as Noble County was in part included in the County of Guernsey, Noble County not having been organized till 1852. Mr. Bates has continuously resided on the same tract of land on which he was born. His grand-parents on the paternal side were of Welsh and English nativity, and those on the maternal side of the house were native Pennsylvanians. His grandfather Bates was one of the first settlers west of the Allegheny Mountains, and belonged to that hardy class of pioneers which grappled with the stern necessities of pioneer life and did more to develop the material interests of the country than any other generation of men. A stream in
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Western Pennsylvania bears his name. Bethel Bates in- herits all the hardihood and force of character which distin- guished his ancestors, and has been given expression in his enterprise and public spiritedness in all matters relating to the material welfare of his County and State. In politics Mr. Bates acts with the Republican party. He is very pro- nounced in his views, and is very ardent in his support of the principles of his party. He served one term as County Commissioner, and in 1870 was elected to the Fifty-ninth Gen- eral Assembly. While in the Legislature he served his con- stituency with marked success and efficiency. Among the measures introduced by him was the bill making it the duty of the Township Assessors to record the births and deaths occurring in their respective districts, and report the same to the County Auditor. The utility of this measure is at once very apparent. Mr. Bates has always followed farming pur- suits, and is one of the most extensive land-holders in Noble County. He is an excellent business man, and possesses many social qualities. Mr. Bates's parents and grand-par- ents lived to be quite aged, as the following will indicate: Ephraim Bates was born May 24th, 1744, and died January 2d, 1834; Susannah Bates was born December 21st, 1747, and died July 7th, 1834; Timothy Bates was born Novem- ber 25th, 1776, and died June 15th, 1867, aged over ninety years. October 29th, 1831, he was married to Mary Ann Meighen, and has a family of fourteen children living. By his energy and business sagacity he has amassed a consid- erable competency.
MOREY, HENRY LEE, representative in Congress from the Third District, was born in Milford Township, But- ler County, Ohio, on the 8th of April, 1841. He is the son of William and Derexa Morey, neither of whom is now living. The ancestors of William Morey came to America from England, in the early part of the seventeenth century, and are supposed to have settled in the colony of Massachusetts. From thence, in time, their descendants scattered to various parts of the country, the branch to which William Morey traces his origin settling in Connec- ticut. His grandfather served in the Revolutionary War as a commissioned officer. After the close of that struggle, and when the lands of Western New York were offered for sale, he removed to that State and settled in Steuben County. His father, William Morey, in turn, emigrated in 1814 to the new State of Ohio, bringing with him his young family, among them William, a lad of thirteen, and locating in the Seven-mile Valley, near the site of the present village of Collinsville, where he died on the 16th of August, 1815, in the forty-second year of his age, leaving Anda Morey, his widow, and seven children, four sons and three daugh- ters. He was buried in the old cemetery near that town ; but sixty-two years afterward his remains were removed by his grandchildren to Greenwood Cemetery. William Morey, his son, and the father of Henry Lee Morey, was the third child of the family. He was united in marriage with Derexa Whitcomb on the 6th of May, 1824, in Yankeetown, now Somerville, Butler County. Derexa Morey, whose maiden name was Whitcomb, was descended from Puritan stock. Her ancestors came to this country from England about 1630, and are supposed to have come from Dorsetshire, in the ship Mary and John, which sailed from Plymouth, in England, and landed in what is now Boston Harbor, on the 30th of May, 1630, after a voyage of seventy days. One of
their descendants, Colonel Asa Whitcomb, was a revenue officer in colonial times, and others of the family have won distinction in the various walks of life. One branch of this stock removed from Massachusetts to Vermont, from which is descended Anthony Whitcomb, the father of Derexa Whitcomb. A brother of Anthony was the father of James Whitcomb, at one time commissioner of the land office, twice elected Governor of the State of Indiana, and later a United States Senator from that State. Anthony Whitcomb came to Ohio from the State of Vermont about the year 1815, and settled in Hamilton County, near Cincinnati, then a small town, where he soon after died, leaving Lucy Whit- comb, his widow, and six children, two sons and four daugh- ters. Lucy Whitcomb afterwards married again, and moved to Preble County, in this State, taking her family with her, where she died on the 5th of October, 1821, in the forty- eighth year of her age. Derexa here met William Morey, with whom she was united in marriage on the 6th of May, 1824. They were the parents of fourteen children, ten of whom survive, seven sons and three daughters. During the war of the rebellion four of their sons served in the Union army. William Morey died on the 8th of June, 1872, in the seventy-first year of his age. In early life he learned and carried on the business of a hatter, but afterwards embraced mercantile pursuits, and later turned his attention to agriculture, which he followed for the remainder of his life. While en- gaged in the hatting business he visited the city of New Or- leans to purchase a stock of furs, and there first became acquainted with the institution of slavery, and saw its prac- tical workings. His strong sense of right revolted at its enormities, and made him look with abhorrence upon the
system. He returned to his home a radical abolitionist, which he continued openly to be until the day of his death. During the period of fierce agitation of the slavery question he lived upon one of the lines of the under-ground railroad, and was known as a friend of the black man. In early life he united with the Universalist Church, of which he continued a faithful member until his death. He was the strong friend of temperance, his voice being always against the liquor traffic, as also against the use of tobacco. His wife survived him five years, dying on the 3d of July, 1877, in the seventy-sixth year of her age. She was buried in Greenwood Cemetery by the side of her husband and chil- dren. In her early womanhood she united with the Univers- alist Church, in which faith she continued throughout life. She was a woman of bright intellect, thoughtful, patient, and self-denying, always ready to relieve the wants of the needy. On the 12th of July, 1879, Matella Morey Druley, the young- est child of William and Derexa Morey, died in the thirty- first year of her age, being the first death among their chil- dren for more than thirty years. Henry Lee Morey attended the common schools of Butler and Preble Counties until 1856, when he was sent to the Morning Sun Academy to prepare for college. Two years later he entered Miami University. The war breaking out, he enlisted in the University Rifles, at Oxford, on the day after the fall of Fort Sumter. This com- pany was united with the Twentieth Ohio Volunteers, and was active in the campaign of Western Virginia. At the expiration of this service, he enlisted in the Seventy-Fifth Regiment Ohio Volunteers, and helped to recruit and organize that regi- ment at Camp McLean, near Lockland, Hamilton County. On the completion of the organization, he was elected a sec- ond lieutenant, and served with his regiment to the close of
D. h. Morey
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the war, being successively promoted to the positions of first lieutenant and captain, being senior captain of his regiment at the close of its term. His regiment went from Camp Mc- Lean, in January, 1862, into Western Virginia, and in its cam- paigns marched over all the ranges of mountains into East- ern Virginia. He took part in the battles of Monterey, Franklin, Shaw's Ridge, McDowell, Strausburgh, Cross Keys, Cedar Mountain, Freeman's Ford, Sulphur Springs, Waterloo Bridge, second Bull Run, Aldie, and Chancellorsville, in Virginia ; Fort Wagner, Morris Island, Fort Gregg, and in the siege of Fort Sumter (under General Quincy A. Gil- more), in South Carolina; and Camp Baldwin, and Gaines- ville, Florida. He commanded his company in every action after Monterey. He was taken prisoner at the battle of Chancellorsville, and confined in Libby Prison, in Richmond, and was exchanged with the last lot of officers previous to the suspension of the cartel. After the war he studied law, graduating at the Indianapolis Law College, and settled in Hamilton in the spring of 1867, where he has ever since re- mained, having attained a leading place at the bar. He is a Mason, and has advanced through the Council and Chap- ter degrees, and has lately become a Knight Templar. He is an Odd Fellow, a Knight of Pythias, and member of the Royal Arcanum. He has always affiliated with the Univers- alist Church, and has been superintendent of its Sunday- school in Hamilton for a number of years. In his political career Mr. Morey has been remarkably successful. He is a Republican, devoted to his party, proud of its history, and thoroughly believing in its principles, but always courteous to his political opponents. In 1871 he was elected solicitor of the city of Hamilton, to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Judge Vance, and was shortly afterwards re-elected for a full term. In the same year he was elected Prosecuting Attorney of Butler County, largely by his personal popularity, defeat- ing his Democratic campetitor, whose party was over two thousand in the majority. In 1875 he was a candidate for State Senator in the district composed of Butler and Warren Counties, and although running largely ahead of his ticket, was defeated. In 1880 he was nominated for Congress in this district by the Republicans. He received the nomina- tion on July 28th, at the convention in Morrow, upon the three hundred and sixty-seventh ballot, after a protracted and close contest. He was triumphantly elected, receiving one thousand and twenty-eight majority over General Durbin Ward, the Democratic nominee. His career during the first session of that Congress was so highly satisfactory to his con- stituents, that on July 13th, 1882, by his party at its conven- tion in Lebanon, Ohio, he was renominated by acclamation, and was elected a member of the Forty-eighth Congress, by his personal popularity turning back the tidal wave which set against his party thirty years, and which, unresisted, would have given his opponent one thousand majority. In his official acts he keeps in line with the Republicans on party questions, but in his relation with his constituents and in his zealous and devoted care of their interests, he makes no distinction, treating all alike. He is affable and genial, courteous and kind, attentive and industrious, with wonder- ful capacity for details, efficient, of broad views, and patri- otic. In his capacity as a private citizen, he is generous, sym- pathetic, neighborly and obliging, active and enterprising, successful and influential; and has done much for the growth and development of the city of Hamilton and Butler County, and has always been the friend and advocate of all valuable
public improvements looking to the prosperity of the people. On the 25th of April, 1865, he was married to Mary M. Campbell, who died July Ist, 1867. February 26th, 1873, he married Ella R. Campbell, sister of his first wife, and daugh- ter of William H. Campbell, late State Senator. Of sterling integrity, fearless in his professional duties, of correct judg- ment, quick and decisive, keen and discriminating, energetic and persistent, clear and comprehensive, he is true and fair to his client, honest with the court, and candid with the jury. As a counselor, Mr. Morey is frank and safe ; as a pleader, terse and concise; as a jurist, logical and forcible, and as an advocate, eloquent and persuasive.
LEIGHTON, USHER PARSONS, physician, of Ken- ton county, Ohio, was born in the town of Elliot, in the State of Maine, March 16th, 1810, and died at Kenton, August 26th, 1878. The Leightons, of this county, were of English descent. As early as 1650, three brothers of the name came from England to America, two of whom settled on the Pisca- taqua, and the other at Plymouth. From these all of the name have descended. John Leighton, the lineal ancestor of our subject, was an officer in the Revolutionary army. His son, General Samuel Leighton, of militia fame, was sev- eral terms returned a member of the legislature of Massachu- setts. His wife was Frances Usher Parsons, whose ancestors also were English. Among the most distinguished members of her immediate family connection, was the late Dr. Usher Parsons, who died December 19th, 1869, at Providence, Rhode Island. He was with Commodore Perry at the battle of Lake Erie as a surgeon's mate, and in consequence of the disability of the surgeon, he had sole charge of the wounded. Subsequently, under Commodore Perry, who was sent by the United States government to look after its interest in the Bar- bary States, Dr. Parsons held the position of surgeon. His only son, Charles W. Parsons, M. D., is professor of anatomy in Brown University. While a youth our subject attended Litchfield Academy, and subsequently taught school. In 1831 he moved to Mccutchenville, Ohio, where he read med- icine with Dr. Sampson. In 1833-34, he attended the medi- cal lectures of Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine, and in the spring of 1835, graduated from Brown University, Provi- dence, Rhode Island. In the following March he went to Kenton, and began the practice of medicine, and in which he continued until his death. He came to a dense forest where the dwelling-houses were log cabins, and the roads Indian trails and bridle paths. He at once identified him- self with the settlers, and soon gained their confidence and affectionate regards. Of him a pioneer says: "He never sued a man in his life. He doctored more sick people for nothing, and rode more long, hard horse-back rides, and helped more suffering families, and paid more bail debts, and had more true friends than any other living man in the county." Three times he was elected county treasurer, and discharged the duties of that office with credit and honestly. He was one of the originators of the County Medical Society, and present at its organization in 1850. He represented the Hardin county Medical Society in the meeting of the American Medical Association, at Cincinnati; was one of the originators of the Pioneer Association of Hardin county, and read a poem of his own composition at its organization on the 4th July, 1868, that was well received. Probably the quality for which he will be longest and best remembered in Hardin county, and justly so, was his benevolence. In this sense he was " a
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