EMINENT OHIOANS - 775 conveyed to Ohio and interred in Lake View Cemetery, where a sorrowful nation afterward erected an imposing monument at a cost of $155,000, provided by popular subscription. The public utterances of the assassinated President have become a part of the standard literature of the world and his historic impromptu speech pronounced from the balcony of the New York custom house when the murder of President Lincoln stirred the nation to its depths, lifted the pall and comforted a stricken people, as they listened to the faith inspiring words : "God reigns and the government at Washington lives." He was a trustee of Williams College, 1880-81; a trustee of Bethany College, West Virginia, and of Hiram College, Ohio ; and a regent of the Smithsonian Institution. He received the honorary degree, Doctor of Laws, from Williams College in 1872 and from the University of Pennsylvania in 1881. See "Early Life and Public Career of James A. Garfield," by James S. Brisbane ; "Life of James A. Garfield," by Charles Carleton Coffin ; "Life and Public Services of James A. Garfield," by Maj. J. M. Bundy; "Life, Speeches and Public Services f James A. Garfield," by Russell H. Crowell ; "Life and Public Service of James A. Garfield," by Frank H. Mason ; "A Full History of Gen. James A. Garfield's Public Life and Other Political Information," by B. A. Hinsdale, president of Hiram College, in two volumes ; and "Garfield, the Ideal Man," by J. O. Converse. BENJAMIN HARRISON Benjamin Harrison, twenty-third President of the United States, was born at North Bend, Ohio, August 20, 1833, son f John Scott and Elizabeth (Irwin) Harrison ; grandson of William Henry and Anna (Symmes) Harrison ; and great-grandson of Benjamin Harrison, signer f the Declaration of Independence. His father was a representative from Ohio in the Thirty-third and Thirty-fourth Congresses. Benjamin Harrison was reared on the paternal farm of 400 acres on the Ohio River, near the mouth of the Big Miami, where he was accustomed to farm work. He attended school in a log schoolhouse ; in 1848-1849 studied at Farmers College, College Hill, near Cincinnati, Ohio, and was graduated from Miami University, Bachelor f Arts, 1852, and Master of Arts, 1855. He was admitted to the bar in 1854 and practiced law in Indianapolis, 1854-1889. He was reporter of the Supreme Court of Indiana, 1860-1862, and again in 1865-1868. He entered the army July 14, 1862, as second lieutenant of Company A, Seventieth Regiment, Indiana Volunteers ; was promoted to captain, July 22, and colonel, August 7, 1862; was in command of his regiment to August 20, 1863 ; of brigade, Third Division, Reserve Corps, to about September 20, 1863 ; again of his regiment to January 9, 1864 ; f the first brigade, First Division, Eleventh Corps, to April 18, 1864 ; of his regiment to June 29, 1864 ; on special recruiting service in Indiana, and in command of the first brigade, Provisional Division, Army of the Cumberland, to January 16, 1865; and in command of the first brigade, Third Division, Twentieth Corps, to June 8, 1865. He was brevetted brigadier general of volunteers, January 23, 1865, for ability and manifest energy, and gallantry in command of brigade. He commanded the Seventieth Regiment, Indiana Volunteers, in the Battles of Russellville, Kentucky, September 30, 1862 ; Resaca, Georgia, May 13-16, 1864 ; Cassville, Georgia, May 24, 1864 ; New Hope Church and Dallas, Georgia, May 25, 28, 1864 ; and at Kenesaw Mountain, June 29 to July 3, 1864 ; Peach Tree Creek, July 20, 1864; and at the siege of Atlanta, July 21 to September 2, 1864; at the Battle of Nashville, Tennessee, December 15, 16, 1864 ; and at the surrender of General Johnston at Durham Station, North Carolina, April 26, 1865. General Harrison was the unsuccessful republican candidate for governor of Indiana in 1876; was by the appointment of President EMINENT OHIOANS - 777 Hayes a member of the Mississippi River Commission, 1879-1880; was chairman f the state delegation to the Republican National Convention of 1880, and when his name was presented as a candidate for President he insisted that it be withdrawn. He canvassed the state for Garfield and declined a cabinet appointment from the incoming president. In 1881 he was elected United States Senator for a full term as successor to J. E. McDonald, and was chairman of the committee on territories. In 1888 he received the nomination for President of the United States from the Republican National Convention at Chicago, and at the election in November he received 5,440,216 of the popular votes to 5,538,233 for Grover Cleveland, and at the meeting of the electoral college in 1889 he received 233 electoral votes to 168 for Cleveland. He was inaugurated March 4, 1889. President Harrison arranged for an arbitration of the differences between the United States and England in reference to the killing of seal in the Bering Sea ; for the Pan American Congress held in Washington in the winter of 1889-1890 in which South and Central American countries were represented and a system of reciprocity in trade established ; signed the acts for the admission of the Territories of North Dakota, South Dakota, Washington, Montana, Idaho and Wyoming as states ; secured the extinguishment f Indian titles to vast tracts of land formerly claimed by the Indians through commissioners appointed under the direction of the secretary of the interior and which secured the Territory of Oklahoma ; quelled the Indian disturbances in the Northwest, 1890-1891 ; and defined in a message to Congress the rights of aliens to the protection of the United States Government, in connection with the demand of the Italian government for the redress and indemnity for loss caused by the lynching of Italian residents f New Orleans, Louisiana. He was renominated by the Republican National Convention of 1892 at Minneapolis, and in the general election in November, 1892, received 5,176,108 f the popular votes, Ex-President Cleveland receiving 5,556,918 votes. In the electoral college Mr. Cleveland received 277 votes to 145 for Mr. Harrison. On retiring from the presidency March 4, 1893, Benjamin Harrison resumed the practice of law in Indianapolis. In 1898 he was chief counsel for Venezuela in the boundary dispute between that country and Great Britain. In 1899 he was a member of The Hague Arbitration Commission. He was married, October 20, 1853, to Carolina Lavinia, daughter of Prof. John W. Scott of Oxford, Ohio. She died in Washington, D. C., October 25, 1892. He was married in April, 1896, to Mrs. Mary Lord Dimmick. He died in Indianapolis, Indiana, March 13, 1901. Benjamin Harrison was author of "This Country of Ours." Soon after his death, was published "Views of an Ex-President," by Benjamin Harrison. This is a collection of "his addresses and writings on subjects f public interest" after the close of his administration. The work was compiled by his widow. WILLIAM McKINLEY William McKinley, twenty-fifth president f the United States, was born in Niles, Ohio, January 29, 1843, son of William and Nancy Campbell (Allison) McKinley ; grandson of James and Mary McKinley and of Abner and Ann (Campbell) Allison; great-grandson of David and Hannah C. (Rose) McKinley and of Andrew Rose, an iron-master of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, who was sent home from the Revolutionary army to make cannon and bullets; great-great-grandson of John and Margaret McKinley and great-great-great-grandson f David and Esther McKinley, who came from Dervock House, County Antrim, Ireland, to New Castle, Delaware, in 1743. 778 - HISTORY OF OHIO William McKinley attended Union Seminary, Poland, Ohio, until 1860, when he entered the junior class of Allegheny College, Meadville, Pennsylvania, but before closing his class year was obliged to leave on account of a severe illness. He then taught a district school and was clerk in the Poland postoffice. On June 11, 1861, he enlisted as a private in Company F, 23rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Rutherford B. Hayes being lieutenant-colonel of the regiment. He was inspected and mustered in by Gen. John C. Fremont, served in Western Virginia and saw his first battle at Carnifex Ferry, September 10, 1861. On April 15, 1862, he was promoted to commissary sergeant while in camp at Fayetteville, Western Virginia. He served in the battle of Antietam with such conspicuous gallantry as to win promotion to the rank of second lieutenant. On February 7, 1863, he was made first lieutenant and on July 25, 1864, was raised to the rank of captain for gallantry at the battle of Kernstown, July 24, 1864. He served successively on the staffs of Generals Hayes, Crook and Hancock and his engagements after Carnifex Ferry were : Clark's Hollow and Princeton, West Virginia; South Mountain and Antietam, Maryland, and Buffington Island, Ohio, in Morgan's raid, July 19, 1863 ; Cloyd's Mountain, West Virginia; New River Bridge, Buffalo Gap, Lexington, Buchanan, Otter Creek, Buford's Gap, Kernstown, Berryville, Winchester, Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek, all in Virginia. He was brevetted major March 13, 1865, for gallantry at Opequon, Cedar Creek and Fisher's Hill and was serving as acting assistant adjutant-general on the staff of Gen. Samuel S. Carroll, commanding the First Division, First Corps, at Washington, D. C., when he was mustered out with his regiment, July 26, 1865. He returned home and studied law at Youngstown, Ohio, and at Albany Law School in 1866-67 ; was admitted to the Ohio bar at Warren in March, 1867, and settled in practice at Canton, Ohio. He was elected by the republicans of Stark County as prosecuting attorney, serving in 1870-71, but was defeated for reelection. He was elected to the 45th Congress, 1877-79, defeating Leslie L. Lanborn ; in the 46th Congress, 1879-81, defeating Gen. Aquila Wiley ; and in the 47th Congress, 1881-83, def eating Leroy D. Thomas. His party claimed EMINENT OHIOANS - 779 that he was elected to the 48th Congress in 1882 by a majority of eight votes and he was given the certificate of election, but his seat was successfully contested by Jonathan H. Wallace, who was seated. Mr. McKinley was elected in 1884 to the 49th Congress: 1885-87, and was elected to the 50th and 51st Congresses, serving from 1887 to 1891, but was defeated in 1890. Changes in the congressional districts were made by the democrats out of political expediency and Mr. McKinley, while always a resident of Stark County, was obliged to meet the conditions caused by the combinations of contiguous counties in the efforts of the opposition to defeat him. He was appointed by Speaker Randall in 1877 to the Judiciary Committee and succeeded James A. Garfield on the Ways and Means Committee in December, 1880. In the 45th Congress he was appointed on the House Committee of Visitors to the United States Military Academy and in 1881 he was chairman of the committee having in charge the Garfield memorial exercises in the House. In Congress he supported a high protective tariff, making a notable speech on the subject, April 6, 1882 ; and his speech on the Morrison tariff bill, April 30, 1884, was said to be the most effective argument made against it. On April 16, 1890, as chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means and successor to Judge Kelly, he introduced the general tariff measure, afterwards known by his name, and his speech in its support fully established his reputation as a statesman and an orator. Among his notable congressional speeches not already mentioned are : "Arbitration as a Solution of Labor Troubles," April 2, 1886; his reply, May 18, 1888, to Representative Samuel J. Randall's argument in favor of the Mills tariff bill of which millions of copies were circulated by the manufacturing interests of the country ; his speech of December 17, 1889, introducing the customs administration bill to simplify the laws relating to the collection of revenue, and his forceful address. sustaining the civil service laws, April 24, 1890. On the organization of the 51st Congress he was a candidate for speaker, but was defeated in the republican caucus on the third ballot by Thomas B. Reed. In 1880 he was chairman of the republican state convention and was chosen by the Republican National Convention at Chicago in June, 1880, as the Ohio member of the Republican National Committee. In this capacity, during the canvass of Garfield and Arthur, he spoke with General Garfield in the principal northern and western states. He was delegate-at-large from Ohio to the Republican National Convention at Chicago in 1884; was a member of the Committee on Resolutions; read the platform to the convention and supported the candidacy of James G. Blaine. During the canvass that year he spoke with the republican candidate in his celebrated western tour and afterward in West Virginia and New York. In the Republican National Convention at Chicago in 1888, he was again a delegate-at-large from Ohio and as chairman of the Committee on Resolutions again reported the platform to the convention and supported the candidacy of John Sherman, although there was a strong effort to have him consent to the use of his own name as a candidate. In the Republican National Convention at Minneapolis in 1892, he was for the third time a delegate-atlarge from Ohio and was elected permanent chairman of the convention. He advocated the renomination of President Harrison ; received 182 votes for the presidential nomination but refused to consider the action of his friends; left the chair and moved that the nomination of President Harrison be made unanimous and was chairman of the committee to notify the president of his renomination. He took an active part in the presidential campaign traveling over 16,000 miles and averaging seven speeches a day for a period of over eight weeks during which time it was estimated that he addressed 2,000,000 voters. He was governor of Ohio from 1892 to 1896. As governor his sympathies were with the laboring men in their contests with capitalists, and he recommended to the legislature additional protection to employees of railroads. 780 - HISTORY OF OHIO During his second administration he was obliged to call out 3,000 of the national guard to suppress threatened labor riots and he was able to prevent what appeared to be inevitable mob violence attended by lynching. He also personally supervised the distribution of funds and provisions to the starving miners in the Hocking Valley. When the Republican National Convention met at St. Louis, June 16, 1896, his name was again before the convention, and on the first ballot he received 661 1/2 votes to 84 1/2 for Thomas B. Reed of Maine, 60 1/2 for Matthew S. Quay of Pennsylvania, 58 for Levi P. Morton, and 35 1/2 for William B. Allison of Iowa. During the presidential canvass of 1896 he remained in Canton and received thousands of visitors from all parts of the Union, Mr. McKinley speaking on such occasions over three hundred different times. He was elected president in November, 1896, and was formally announced by the Electoral College as the choice of that body for President of the United States by a vote of 271 to 176 for William J. Bryan. He was inaugurated March 4, 1897, Chief Justice Fuller administering the oath of office. President McKinley called an extra session of Congress for March 15, 1897, and the Dingley tariff bill was passed and became a law July 24, 1897. On May 17 he sent to Congress, a special message asking for an appropriation for the aid of suffering American citizens in Cuba and secured $50,000 for that purpose. The treatment of the Cuban patriots aroused the sympathies of the people of the United States and the demands of the United States minister at Madrid for more humane treatment were disregarded. The destruction of the United States cruiser Maine in Havana harbor February 15, 1898, resulting in the death of 264 United States officers and men and the wounding of sixty others, aggravated the condition of affairs, and on March 8-9, 1898, Congress authorized the raising of two new regiments of artillery ; voted $50,000,000 for national defense, placing the amount in the hands of the President for disposal at his discretion, and authorized the contingent increase of the army to 100,000 men. On March 23, 1898, the President sent his ultimatum to Spain respecting the treatment of the Cubans, and on March 28 he officially reported to Congress the destruction of the United States battleship Maine. He advised Congress not to recognize the Cuban government but advocated intervention to put a stop to Spanish cruelty. On April 13, 1898, Congress gave the President full authority to act in the 'Matter of the difficulties with Spain and on April 16 passed a resolution acknowledging Cuban independence. The President signed the joint resolutions of Congress declaring the people of Cuba free and directing the President to use the land and naval forces of the United States to compel Spain to withdraw from the island. On April 23 a call for 125,000 volunteers was issued by the President. On April 24 Spain declared war against the United States and the next day the President recommended a formal declaration of war by Congress and issued a call for 75,000 more volunteers. Under his administration the War with Spain was prosecuted with vigor and speedily brought to a triumphant conclusion. It lasted only 100 days. The major results were the freedom and independence of Cuba, the transfer of Porto Rico and the Philippines to the United States and a better feeling between the North and the South whose sons, under the stars and stripes, achieved a succession of victories in a chivalrous adventure to extend to an oppressed people the boon of republican institutions. The President approved the joint resolution of Congress providing for the annexation of Hawaii July 7, 1898, and in the same year he appointed a delegation to represent the United States at the peace conference called by the czar of Russia in 1898 to meet at The Hague in May, 1899. On March 4, 1900, the President signed the gold standard currency act. EMINENT OHIOANS - 781 His policy for the preservation of the integrity of China in 18971898, the promptness with which he relieved the beleaguered legation at Pekin in the Boxer Rebellion and the immediate withdrawal of the American troops when the object of their advance to the Chinese capital had been attained added to the prestige of the Government abroad and the strength of the President at home. The Republican National Convention at Philadelphia in 1900 gave President McKinley a unanimous vote for renomination for President and Theodore Roosevelt for Vice President, the single vote missing for Roosevelt being his own. In the election of November 6, 1900, President McKinley was re-elected by the largest popular majority that had at that time been given to any presidential candidate, the republican electors receiving 7,206,677 popular votes to 6,374,397 for the Bryan and Stevenson electors, and the electoral vote stood 292 for McKinley and Roosevelt and 155 for Bryan and Stevenson. The successful candidates were inaugurated March 4, 1901, and the President made no changes in his cabinet. He visited California with his wife and members of his cabinet in the spring of 1901, making numerous speeches and receiving enthusiastic welcome from the citizens of the states through which he passed. He was present at the launching of the battleship Ohio in San Francisco Bay and delivered a brief address. He intended to extend the tour to the principal cities of the Northwest, but the serious illness of Mrs. McKinley forced him to Washington after reaching San Francisco. The management of the Pan American exposition at Buffalo, New York, invited the President to visit that city, which he did, accompanied by Mrs. McKinley and his official family. On September „6, while in the midst of a throng assembled in the Temple of Music, he took the hand of one of the men in line in friendly confidence when with the other hand the assassin, one Leon F. Czolgosz, an avowed anarchist, shot the President twice, inflicting a mortal wound. The President was conveyed to the home of John G. Milburn, president of the exposition, whose guests Mr. and Mrs. McKinley were, and lingered till the early morning of September 14, 1901, when at 2 :15 he died. Mourned by the republic, which he had served long and devotedly. Ohio's second martyr president met his cruel fate with Christian fortitude, and took his place in history. WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT Among the brightest names of the present day stands that of William Howard Taft, whose distinction it has been to serve usefully and honorably in public station almost from the day of his attaining his majority, and dignifying by his integrity and modesty of conduct every position to which he was called. He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, September 15, 1857, son of Judge Alphonso and Louise Maria (Torrey) Taft. He would seem to have inherited the peculiarly strong mental qualities of his sire, who was one of the most distinguished men of his day—an accomplished lawyer, eminent jurist, secretary of war and attorney general in the cabinet of President Ulysses S. Grant, and United States minister to Austria and Russia. William Howard Taft began his education in the public schools of Cincinnati, Ohio, and matriculated at Yale University, from which he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1878, the year in which he came of age ; in 1893 his alma mater conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. He prepared for his profession in the Cincinnati (Ohio) Law School, from which he graduated in 1880, and was at once admitted to the bar. In the same year he became connected with the press, as law reporter for the Cincinnati Commercial, and this connection was maintained during the following year. In 1881-1882 he served as Assistant Prosecutor of Hamilton County, Ohio. EMINENT OHIOANS - 783 In 1882 he was appointed by President Chester A. Arthur to the position of Collector of Internal Revenue for the First Ohio District, but from which he soon resigned to devote himself to the practice of his profession. He served as assistant county solicitor from 1885 to 1887, in which year he became judge of the Superior Court of Ohio, holding that position until 1890, when he was appointed solicitor general of the United States by President Benjamin Harrison. He was judge of the United States Court of Appeals, 1892-1900. From 1896. to 1900 he was dean of the law department and professor of law in the University of Cincinnati. In March, 1900, he became chairman of the commission appointed by President William McKinley to provide for the organization of a civil government for the Philippine Islands. The task was well completed, and on June 1, 1901, Mr. Taft became the first civil governor of this newly acquired territory, and served as such with conspicuous success until February 1, 1904. In 1902 he visited Rome. by direction of President Roosevelt, to confer with Pope Leo XIII with reference to the purchase of agricultural lands in the Philippine Islands belonging to religious orders. In 1903 President Roosevelt proffered him appointment as associate justice of the United States Court, to succeed Judge Shiras. This he declined. On February 1, 1904, he entered the cabinet of President Roosevelt as secretary of war, and served in that capacity until June 30, 1908. During this period he performed duties requiring the utmost delicacy of conduct and wise judgment, and of which he acquitted himself most creditably. He represented the President in Cuba in an effort to adjust the insurrection troubles ; and for a short time acted as provisional governor. Later, by direction of the President, he visited Panama, Cuba and Porto Rico, to familiarize himself with conditions and to effect certain reforms ; and later he went on a similar mission to Japan and the Philippine Islands. As republican nominee for the Presidency, lie was elected in 1908, defeating the democratic candidate, William Jennings Bryan. At the expiration of his term he was renominated, and in the election was defeated by Woodrow Wilson, democrat. After the expiration of his presidential term, Mr. Taft was appointed to the faculty of Yale as Kent professor of law. For years he was president of the League to Enforce Peace. As a member of the National War Labor Conference Board from April, 1918, during the World 'war, until the board was dissolved in August, 1919, he rendered a notable service. On June 30, 1921, he was appointed by President Harding and confirmed by the Senate as chief justice of the United States Supreme Court.. William H. Taft has therefore the unique distinction of serving the Republic at the head of both the executive and the judicial departments. Mr. Taft married, June 19, 1886, Helen Herron, daughter of John W. Herron, of Cincinnati, Ohio. WARREN GAMALIEL HARDING 1 Since the founding of our Government six Presidents of the United States have died in office. Three of these were native sons of Ohio, and one, William Henry Harrison, when elected to that high office was and for twenty-six years had been a citizen of this state. Three of the six fell at the hands of assassins, and two of these, Garfield and McKinley, were Ohioans. The passing of all these was attended with widespread and sincere expressions of sorrow. In simple truth it may be said that on no previous similar occasion were the hearts of the nation more generally touched than at the announcement of the death of President Warren G. Harding. His was a kindly nature with sympathies that reached to all classes 1 - By C. B. Galbreath. 784 - HISTORY OF OHIO and conditions of men. With his genial personality he united unwavering devotion to principle, tireless patience, constancy of purpose and executive ability that peculiarly fitted him for the high office to which he was called by an overwhelming majority of his countrymen. One editor pays tribute to his "iron hand that wore ever a velvet glove." Behind the smile that was native to his face could be seen the intimation of a will which, when the rare occasion required, was as unyielding as adamant. Most of the presidents of the United States began life with humble surroundings. Those who now read the early life of Warren G. Harding and his successor, Calvin Coolidge, cannot fail to note the reestablishment of the old order of elevation from rural obscurity to the highest office in the foremost nation of the world. The rapid growth of our great cities has not yet closed that avenue to eminence and enduring fame. Harding knew and appreciated this community of opportunity so characteristic of our American. life. More than once he dwelt eloquently on this theme. He was the last man, however, even in his most secret estimate to have considered himself in any special sense "divinely gifted," except as thousands of other American citizens who grew up through like environment and effort are divinely gifted. The anonymous iconoclast who wrote the Mirrors of Washington, in which the peculiarities, the foibles and in some instances the weaknesses of the great and the near-great at our national capital are made objects of satire and ridicule, found in the unassuming candor of President Harding a defense not easily pierced by his shafts of sarcasm. Greatness is denied by this critic on the authority of Harding himself, who freely admitted that he was "just folks." But even this detractor acknowledges that Harding had "exceptional tact," that his inaugural address "was a great speech, an inaugural to place alongside the inaugurals of Lincoln and Washington." Warren G. Harding possessed those qualities which disarmed hostility, harmonized differences and made his ascendancy to the presidency a healing influence in the world. Warren Gamaliel Harding was born near Blooming Grove, Morrow County, Ohio, November 2, 1865. He was the oldest of a family of eight children. His father was Dr. George T. Harding, a Civil war veteran and for many years a country physician, but afterwards a practitioner in the City of Marion. He was of Scotch descent. His ancestors first settled in Connecticut in colonial times and later moved to Pennsylvania, where some of them were massacred by the Indians, and others fought in the Revolution. His mother's maiden name was Phoebe Dickerson and her descent has been traced from an oldtime Holland Dutch family, the Van Kirks. Her eight children and her husband have borne uniform testimony to her womanly qualities, her maternal affection and her excellent management of the home. The close attachment between her and her eldest son has frequently been told. He sought and followed her counsel. She loved the beautiful in nature and it was ever a pleasure to him to minister to her tastes. For fifteen years she received from him every week a generous remembrance of choice flowers. Usually he took them in person, but when he was away from home he arranged with the local florist to send his regular weekly offering that she might thus be reminded of his never-failing filial devotion. She died May 29, 1910. The father survives and has the respect and sympathy of all who know him. Harding was born on the farm of his grandfather, where both want and affluence were unknown, where each, child was heir to healthful influences, modest educational advantages and the opportunity to win his way by independent effort to competence and honored position in the, community. The early years of his life were uneventful. The oldest child of the family, upon him devolved the duties of other boys 786 - HISTORY OF OHIO similarly situated. He was simply a normal boy with experiences similar to those of other boys in the neighborhood. The family continued to live in the home about half a mile east of Blooming Grove until Harding was seven years old. He attended school in the village a little more than a year. From Blooming Grove Doctor Harding moved to the Village of Caledonia, just across the line in Marion County, Ohio. After the family had lived here about five years Doctor Harding purchased a farm east of Caledonia in Marion County. He later lived on this farm one year. His son Warren as he grew up became familiar with all farm work and developed a constitution naturally strong in aiding to till the fields, gather the harvests and clear away the primeval forests which had not been entirely subdued in this section of Ohio. He early manifested the characteristics o f good temper, industry and thrift. His companions of these early years bear uniform testimony to his good nature. He was not disposed to be quarrelsome. Controversies he instinctively avoided. He cherished ill will toward no one. This fortunate quality of character was his through life. Shortly after Doctor Harding moved to Caledonia the "union schools," as they were called, were organized and opened under the direction of a superintendent. Here young Harding attended until he was fourteen years old, when he entered Ohio Central College at Iberia, Morrow County. From this institution he was graduated at the age of seventeen. Many stories are told of how he helped to earn his way through college. Some of these are more fanciful than true. That he painted barns and other structures that required a more artistic use of the brush is a well established fact. While in college he took an active interest in the literary society and excelled in debate. In company with Frank H. Miller, now of Mount Gilead, Ohio, he projected and edited the college paper, the Iberia Spectator. He composed readily and so much enjoyed his brief experience in the management of this paper that he could not afterwards be satisfied until he found employment in a newspaper office. He was graduated from the little college in 1882. The subject of his commencement address was, "It Can Never Be Rubbed Out." In 1882 Doctor Harding moved with his family to Marion, Ohio. The future President entered the city on a mule which he had brought from the farm. The year after he was graduated from college, when he was only eighteen years old, Harding taught school for a short time. Later he was employed on the Marion Mirror, a democratic weekly published at the county seat. In politics young Harding became an enthusiastic republican. In November, 1884, he bought at sheriff's sale the Marion Star. In partnership with a young friend he issued the first number of that paper November 26, 1884. After a struggle and the successful tiding over of many difficulties incident to the establishment of a daily paper, he at last won a distinct success in the field of journalism and established the Star on a paying financial basis. In 1889 he was nominated for State Senator from a district composed of Logan. Hardin, Union, Marion, Crawford, Seneca and Wyandot counties. The district was almost evenly divided politically, but he was elected by a substantial majority. Two years later he overcame the unwritten law in this district of one term for a State Senator and was renominated without opposition and reelected by a large majority. While in the State Senate he took high rank as an influential member and forceful speaker. He made two addresses that are matters of public record, one nominating J. B. Foraker for the United States Senate and one in honor of the memory of William McKinley. At the close of his term in the State Senate he was elected lieutenant-governor, having made the race with Myron T. Herrick, the candidate EMINENT OHIOANS - 787 for Governor. In 1910 he was nominated for Governor and defeated by Judson Harmon. In 1914 he was nominated for United States Senator over two strong candidates, one of whose fortunes he had championed in other years, Joseph B. Foraker. He won the nomination by a substantial majority and in the election following he carried the state by 102,373. He had previously lost the state by a majority almost equally large to Governor Harmon. In 1916 Harding was chosen to preside over the national convention of the republican party and his keynote speech called forth much favorable comment. Already his name was connected with nomination to the presidency. He was a candidate for that high office in 1920. When the convention assembled the number of delegates pledged to his support was comparatively small. His kindly attitude toward his competitors, his recognized ability and his availability as the candidate from Ohio, a doubtful state which in the two preceding presidential elections had cast its electoral vote for the democratic candidate, made him the natural second choice of many delegates. He gradually developed strength in the convention and was nominated on the tenth ballot. The campaign of 1920 is too fresh in the minds of the public to call for special mention here. He was elected by the largest popular majority- ever accorded to a candidate for that high office. He carried his own 'state over the democratic candidate by a majority of 401,985. The election occurred November 2d, his birthday. He was nominated June 12th, his father's birthday, a rather remarkable coincidence. From his position in the Senate Harding saw the beginning and the end of the. World war so far as it directly affected this country. When the United States took up arms he gave his voice and vote to every measure that promised to hasten the war to a triumphant conclusion. He saw the vast armies forming and embarking for the titanic conflict in foreign lands. He rejoiced in the triumph of American arms in support of the allied cause. In well-timed and patriotic speech he welcomed the victorious armies on their return. His great heart was touched at the sight of the maimed and wounded. Especially poignant were his words of sympathy at the return of the mortal remains of those who fell. On May 23, 1921, the bodies of 5,212 soldiers, sailors, marines and nurses had been brought back from France, and lay on the Hoboken pier, from which so many had embarked—each casket draped with an American flag. Inspired and moved by this scene, with tears coursing down his cheeks President Harding gave utterance to words that for all time will be a part of the literature of the World war : "These dead know nothing of our ceremony today. They sense nothing of the sentiment- or the tenderness which brings their wasted bodies to the homeland for burial close to kin and friends and cherished associations. These poor bodies are but the clay tenements once possessed of souls which flamed in patriotic devotion, lighted new hopes on the battle grounds of civilization, and in their sacrifices' sped on to accuse autocracy before the court of eternal justice. * * * "These heroes were sacrificed in the supreme conflict of all human history. They saw democracy challenged and defended it. They saw civilization threatened' and rescued it. They saw America affronted and resented it. They saw our Nation's rights imperiled and stamped those rights with a new sanctity and renewed security. * * * "No one can measure the vast and varied affections and sorrows centering. on this priceless cargo of bodies—once living, fighting for, and finally dying for the Republic. One's words fail, his understanding is halted, his emotions are stirred beyond control when contemplating these thousands of beloved dead. I find a hundred thousand sorrows touching my heart, and there is ringing in -my ears, like an admonition eternal, and insistent call, 'It must not be again ! It must not be again !' " As a first step in response to that "insistent call," President Harding on July 10, 1921, formally announced that he had invited "the group 788 - HISTORY OF OHIO of powers heretofore known as the principal allied and associate powers," Great Britain, France, Italy and Japan, to meet in conference at Washington to consider the question of the limitation of armaments. Several other interested powers were invited to do likewise. The invitations were accepted. The conference continued for twelve weeks. Not only did it accomplish all that was proposed at the outset, the "scrapping" of warships, the "naval holiday," and the settlement of questions affecting the Far East, but it outlawed poison gas and the use of submarines against merchant and passenger vessels in time of war. The results were applauded throughout the civilized world as an achievement in the interest of an enduring peace unsurpassed in the annals of diplomacy. The Washington conference for the limitation of armaments was the outstanding feature of his administration in international affairs. Probably his greatest contribution to domestic affairs was given, not through administrative acts and measures, but by the attitude of conciliation, harmony and friendliness, which became the keynote of his administration as President. A concise and perhaps the most significant of all tributes paid him is, "He was a spokesman for good will." His oft-expressed desire to return and spend the remainder of his days among the scenes of his youth and in association with old time friends and neighbors was denied. He journeyed in 1923 to far-away Alaska and on his return was stricken with illness in San Francisco. He seemed to be emerging from the attack and on the evening of August 2d was listening to the reading by his good wife of an appreciation of his administration in a well-known periodical. He evidently enjoyed this, for he said : "That's good. Go on. Read some more." These were his last words. The funeral obsequies of President Harding extended from coast to coast and literally numbered mourners through the entire length of the nation. One writer has truthfully said that when San Francisco bade its last sad farewell "to all that was mortal of the greatly beloved President, there began a funeral pilgrimage from sea to sea that has never been equalled in sustained solemnity in this or any other country." THOMAS A. EDISON Thomas Alva Edison was born in Milan, Erie County, Ohio, February 11, 1847, son of Samuel and Nancy (Elliott) Edison. On the paternal side he is descended from Dutch ancestors who came from Amsterdam to the new world in 1737 and settled in New York where John Edison, the great-grandfather of Thomas, was. a banker. His maternal ancestry was Scotch. Thomas A. Edison attended school for only a few months and for his education was principally indebted to his mother, a woman of superior ability and attainments. On one occasion Mr. Edison remarked : "I did not have my mother very long but in that length of time she cast over me an influence which has lasted all my life." He says of himself : "I was always a careless boy, but my mother's sweetness and goodness were potent powers to keep me in the right path." In the short' time he attended school he was nearly always at the foot of his class. On one occasion the teacher remarked to the inspector that the boy was addled, and that there was no use to keep him in school. The youth overheard the remark, repeated it to his mother who promptly took the child back to school and told the teacher he did not know what he was talking about, that the lad had more brains than the teacher. Referring to this critical period of his existence, Mr. Edison says : "Had it not been for my mother's appreciation and faith in me, I should very likely never have become an inventor. She was so true, so sure of me, I felt I had some one to live for, some EMINENT OHIOANS - 789 one I must not disappoint. The memory of her will always be a blessing to me." In 1854 his father removed to Port Huron, Michigan, where at the age of 12 the son engaged in various commercial enterprises in which he employed other boys, working himself as newsboy on a railroad train. He occupied his leisure hours while in Detroit in reading and in studying qualitative analysis, making his experiments in a baggage car of the Grand Trunk Railway, in which 'he also established a miniature printing office where he set up and printed The Weekly Herald, the paper being written and issued by him without assistance. The Herald had been published for forty weeks and had a subscription list of nearly five hundred when the young experimenter upset a bottle of phosphorus and set the car on fire, thus losing the use of his improvised laboratory. He soon after obtained the monopoly of the news business on the Grand Trunk Railway and employed several boys to act as assistants. During this time he took every occasion to watch the operations of the telegraph at the various stations and constructed a line between his father's house in Port Huron and that of a neighbor. He rescued the child of a telegraph operator from the track in front of a moving train, and was rewarded by the father who gave him lessons on the keyboard. Edison gave up the news business to become a telegrapher. He worked in various large cities of the: United States and Canada, meanwhile devoting himself to the study of electrical science, then little understood. At this time he invented, while working in New Orleans, Louisiana, the automatic repeater, and in 1864 he conceived the idea, which he afterward perfected, of the system of duplex and vibratory telegraphy: While in Boston, Massachusetts, operating the New York wire, he continued his experiments, but not until 1872, after he had been in New York City for a year, did he put his duplex telegraph into practical operation. He was made superintendent of the Gold and Stock Telegraph Company through an incident demonstrating his skill. He wandered, a stranger, into the operating room of the company and readily repaired the apparatus with which they sent out stock quotations, thus securing his position. He afterward invented the printing telegraph for stock quotations and sold his patent to the company for 790 - HISTORY OF OHIO $40,000. He manufactured his instruments in Newark, New Jersey, till 1876, meanwhile making about fifty separate inventions and improvements in telegraphic communication. He then removed his works and laboratory to Menlo Park, New Jersey, devoting his whole time to scientific research, especially to the perfection of his incandescent light, motors for street cars, and the construction of the telephone. Experiments with the telephone led to the invention of the phonograph. He exhibited his first phonograph at the Paris Exposition of 1878 and afterward sold his patent for $1,000,000. At Paris in 1881 his electrical display included lighting by incandescent lamps, the disc dynamo-electric machine, the microtasimeter, the oderscope and the electromonograph. He made a similar display at the Crystal Palace, London, and in various exhibitions in America. Having outgrown the laboratory at Menlo Park, he moved in 1885 to Llewellyn Park, New Jersey, where he erected an extensive private laboratory, the largest in the world. He organized manufacturing plants at Harrison, New Jersey ; Schenectady, New York ; Sherbrooke, Connecticut, and lesser ones at other points where he manufactured lamps, motors, dynamos, telephones, etc. In 1889 the Edison General Electric Company was formed with a capital stock of $12,000,000, controlling the Edison patents. In 1889 he expended over $100,000 in preparing his exhibit at the Paris Exposition and at its close he was created a commander of the Legion of Honor. Union College conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 1887. He has received patents for more than one thousand inventions, among which were machines for quadruplex and sextuplex telegraphic transmission ; the electric pen and mimeograph; the carbon telephone transmitter ; the microtasimeter for the detection of small changes in temperature ; the megaphone, to magnify sound ; the phonograph ; the incandescent lamp and light system ; the electric valve, now fundamentally essential in wireless telegraphy ; a system of wireless telegraphy to and from moving railway trains ; motion pictures ; the telescribe alkaline storage battery ; since the commencement of the European war, 1914, designed, built and operated successfully several benzol plants ; also two carbolic acid plants, and other chemical plants for making myrbane, aniline oil, aniline salt, and paraphenylenediamine. He has had to defend his patents in innumerable law suits and injunctions and only succeeded in sustaining his patent for the incandescent light by the favorable decision of the United States Supreme Court, handed down November 11, 1895. In 1896 he publicly declared that he would have been at least $500,000 better off if he had never taken out a patent or defended one, and that all the money he ever made was made by manufacturing his inventions or in their practical use. He is a member of various scientific societies and has received foreign decorations. He married (first) Mary G. Stillwell, 1873; (second) Mina M. Miller, daughter of Lewis Miller, 1886. His children were : Marian, Thomas Alva, William Leslie, Madeline and Charles. CHARLES FRANCIS BRUSH The first successful application of the electric energy to the illumination of streets and the first successful application of electric power to the propulsion of street cars was performed in Cleveland. The inventor and scientist responsible for both these achievements was born in the environs of Cleveland and has made this city his home all his life. The early home of the Brush family was in Euclid Township of Cuyahoga County. There Charles Frances Brush was born March 17, 1849. His parents were Colonel Isaac Elbert and Delia Wisner (Phillips) Brush. Mr. Brush is thoroughly an American. His first American ancestor in the paternal line, Thomas Brush, came from England in EMINENT OHIOANS - 791 1652 and settled near Huntington, Long Island. In the maternal line his lineage goes back to Rev. George Phillips, an Episcopal clergyman, who came with Governor Winthrop and settled near Boston in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630. Col. Isaac E. Brush was a manufacturer of woolen goods in Orange County, New York, but after he came to Ohio in 1846 followed farming near Cleveland. Charles F. Brush was educated in the public schools of Cleveland. While in high school he invented a device for automatically turning off the Cleveland street lights. His aptitude for scientific studies was pronounced from early youth. While a student in the University of Michigan, from which he was graduated in 1869, he pursued special courses in scientific and techncial lines and was graduated with the degree of mining engineer. Because of his subsequent distinguished services Mr. Brush has been the recipient of many honorary degrees. His alma mater conferred upon him the degree Doctor of Philosophy by the Western Reserve University in 1880 and Doctor of Laws in 1900, and he has the honorary degree Doctor of Laws from Kenyon College. After his university degree Mr. Brush located at Cleveland and for three years was an analytical chemist and consulting expert and from 1873 to 1877 was engaged in the iron ore and pig iron industry. He took up the study of electricity from a practical standpoint in 1873. He soon invented a dynamo and from 1877 he devoted his time entirely to the development of electric lighting. The incandescent electric light had already been given to the world, but its practical utility was confined to the illumination of buildings. Mr. Brush sought to improve upon the principle of electric lighting so as to adapt it for street illumination. In 1878 he perfected and gave to the world the Brush electric arc light. The first public demonstration of this new light was given on April 29, 1879, when twelve arc lights, invented and made by Mr. Brush, flashed their dazzling illumination over the public square in Cleveland. It was a wonderful triumph for Mr. Brush, and the arc light's use was rapidly extended, at first in the downtown district of Cleveland and then to New York and soon all over the world. By 1881 the light was introduced into England and on the European Continent. The essential principle of the Brush arc light is still retained through all the numerous 792 - HISTORY OF OHIO minor modifications and improvements. In 1880 the Brush Electric Company was formed and a large plant established for the manufacture of the arc lights and of Mr. Brush's other electrical inventions. The first electric motor street car was put in operation at Cleveland, July 26, 1884. The car itself was only one of the ordinary horse cars of that period with a box bolted beneath containing a dynamo, the invention of Mr. Brush, and a motor from which the power was communicated to the wheels by pulleys. The Brush system of electric propulsion also grew rapidly in favor, though his lasting fame will rest most securely upon his invention of the electric arc light. The storage battery is in the list of his "fundamental inventions," and is considered one of the most important. Recognition of his achievements was not long delayed. In 1881 the French government, in recognition of his discoveries in electricity, decorated him as a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. In 1899 the American Academy of Arts and Sciences awarded him the Rumford medal for the practical development of electric arc lighting. He was awarded the Edison medal in 1913 by the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. Mr. Brush largely withdrew from the active management of the technical side of his business in 1891, but has ever since maintained a laboratory at his home and in it he has spent many of his happiest hours. For many years Mr. Brush has been president of the Cleveland Arcade Company and was organizer and first president of the Linde Air Products Company. He has contributed numerous papers to scientific societies and publications embodying the results of his investigations and he has membership in the American Association- for the Advancement of Science, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and of the British Association of the Royal Society of Arts, the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, the National Electric Light Association, the Archaeological Institute of America, the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia, the American Chemical Society, the American Philosophical Society and the American Physical Society. Mr. Brush is a trustee of the Western Reserve University, the Adelbert College, the University School, Cleveland School of Art, and the Lake View Cemetery. He was one of the incorporators of the Case School of Applied Science. Mr. Brush is thoroughly American and thoroughly Ohioan. His life has been spent in his native state which is proud of his achievements in science and invention. WILBUR AND ORVILLE WRIGHT When in the twentieth century, man at last solved the problem of flight, it was the Wright Brothers of Dayton who were the first to rise from the earth on wings and thrill the world with "the audacity of their design and the miracle of its execution." Ohio has a proper pride in these brothers, not only for the wonderful things they accomplished, but also because they always kept their home in Dayton and through them Dayton became one of the world's first centers in the perfection of the science of aeronautics. The father of the Wright Brothers was Milton Wright, who was born in Rush County, Indiana, November 17, 1828, and in 1856 was ordained to the ministry of the United Brethren Church and served as a bishop of that church from 1877 until 1905. His son, Wilbur, was born in Indiana, April 16, 1867, while Orville Wright was born at Dayton, August 19, 1871. Wilbur Wright died May 30, 1912, after flight in machines heavier than air had passed the experimental stage. Orville Wright is still 'a resident of Dayton and is director of the. Wright Aeronautical Laboratory. Neither of the brothers married. EMINENT OHIOANS - 793 The Wright Brothers have related how they first became interested in aeronautics,' and the stages of their investigations and work that ultimately resulted in the achievement of what had long been declared impossible—the solution of the problem of aviation. One evening in the autumn of 1878, their father brought home, concealed beneath his coat, a toy which he tossed into the air. Instead of falling, it flew across the room and up to the ceiling. After fluttering there for a short time it fell to the floor. Great was the interest and delight of the boys. The experiment was repeated several times before the frail toy went the way of all delicate mechanisms that are given to children. The brothers were then aged, respectively, eleven and seven years, but the impression made by the "bat," as they called it, was lasting. The toy was what is scientifically known as a helicoptere, the motive power of which was supplied by a rubber band in tension. Their first thought was to make other toys like the one presented by their father, but larger. They found, however, that with the increase in size the flying power diminished and soon approached the vanishing point. At this time they had no thought of inventing a flying machine. They simply wished to make larger "bats." They soon found greater pleasure in flying kites, in which. ey became experts. After a time their interest waned, but they did Or forget the toy helicoptere on the possibilities suggested by the flight of kites. The education of the two brothers stopped with high school, though in later years many institutions of higher learning and scientific societies honored them with 'numerous degrees. They had a home printing press and they also conducted a bicycle shop in Dayton. They were first attracted to the serious study of the subject of aerial navigation when they heard of the death of Lilienthal, the German who for some years had conducted experiments in gliding with the aid of artificial wings. It had been demonstrated that man with the aid of wings or planes could soar through the air and theoretically it was evident that, by the application of power, such flight might be made independent of wind currents. But the great problem that remained, and which the early experiments of the Wrights largely solved, was that involved in the balancing and steering of the flying apparatus. The Wright Brothers 794 - HISTORY OF OHIO decided that the best approach to a solution of the problem was to find a situation permitting of unlimited practice. Such a place would be found where on clear days wind currents of an average velocity of twenty miles an hour was not unusual. Such a scene for their initial experiment the Wright Brothers found at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. With their first gliding apparatus, they experimented in the summer of 1900 and in 1901 returned after having designed a new machine. Their early studies and experiments convinced them that the best system of control consisted in a manipulation of the surfaces of the wings or planes rather than the shifting of the operator's body and other devices that had been tried or suggested. During the second summer they succeeded in making glides of from 300 to 400 feet. In 1902 and again in 1903 they continued their experiments at Kitty Hawk, with an increasing record of distance and increasing skill in control. It was on the 17th of December, 1903, that they attempted the first flight with a power machine, the first flight lasted twelve seconds and the second and third a little longer. The fourth flight lasted fifty-nine seconds and the distance covered was 852 feet. This was the first machine ever constructed that lifted its own weight and an operator against the force of gravity, moved forward and alighted safely. Beside the two Wrights only five persons were present to witness these flights. They were John T. Daniels, W. S. Dough, A. D. Etheridge, of the Kill Devil Life Saving Station ; Mr. W. C. Brinkley of Manteo and Mr. John Ward of Naghead. The machine was carried back to camp and set down in what was thought to be a safe place. A strong gust of wind struck it and started it to rolling. Mr. Daniels, "a giant in size and strength," was lifted off his feet in an effort to save the machine and rolled along with it between the two planes, but escaped with only a few bruises. The machine, however, was so badly damaged that experiments were suspended. In the spring of 1904 the experiments were continued on a prairie eight miles east of Dayton. The problem of equilibrium was not yet entirely solved, and in those days their trials were frequently balked by "engine troubles." It was at the end of September, 1905, that the Wright Brothers achieved the distinction of the first successful flight in the history of aeronautics. On September 28, one flight was made covering a distance of over eleven miles, the machine being up over eighteen minutes. On the 6th of October, after which the experiments were discontinued on account of the number of people attracted to the field, a flight was made lasting thirty-six minutes and covering a distance of twenty-four miles. All these experiments and later ones were conducted at their own expense and attempts to secure the aid of rich Americans failed. In the summer of 1908 they went abroad, and were received with special enthusiasm in France. On October 3, 1908, Wilbur Wright made his first flight in Europe and a few weeks later Orville Wright, at Fort Myer, achieved a flight of over an hour's duration ; while at the end of the same year, Wilbur Wright made a flight of two hours and nineteen minutes. It has frequently and persistently been recorded that the Wright Brothers kept their early experiments in aviation a profound secret. Nothing could be farther from the truth. To their first trial at Kitty Hawk in December, 1903, they invited all the people living within a radius of five miles. A very few came and they were not especially excited over the results. Later, when they continued their experiments with a new machine in the field east of Dayton, they invited representatives of the local press to be present when they attempted flights. At first these were failures and the reporters lost interest, although they were duly considerate in their brief descriptions of the results. The fact is that people generally refused to take these experiments EMINENT OHIOANS - 795 seriously. Aviation they considered as impossible as perpetual motion. The experience of Darius Green was in many minds and on not a few tongues. The dirigible balloon had a stronger popular appeal. Had not Knabenshue sailed over the grounds of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis ? Who cared about the diminutive hops of the frail aeroplane ? But when feet covered by flights lengthened to yards and rods and miles the people took notice and came by thousands to witness this epoch-making achievement. But, we are told, great results were achieved almost simultaneously in Europe. Aviation would soon have been an accomplished fact without the Wright Brothers. In reaching such a conclusion an historic fact is overlooked. In 1902, Octave Chanute, on his way to Europe to deliver an address before a body of men seriously interested in aviation, visited the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk. He was quick to see the important advance that they had made in the control of gliders. With their approval he incorporated their achievements to date in his paper and illustrated these with drawings furnished him by the Wrights. At once these were used by the foreign airmen, who have always freely admitted their indebtedness for basic ideas to the Dayton inventors. The development in Europe was therefore simply the evolution of the Wright "Idea" on the other side of the Atlantic. A light weight high power engine was an important agency in the solution of navigation of the air. Some have even ventured the statement that the development of such an engine was really the key to the solution. If this is true, great credit is still due the Wrights. Without such an engine and with no money to have experts make one in accordance with their directions, they went industriously to work to build one themselves. The patience and ingenuity exhibited in this undertaking is second only to the result of their efforts to provide control for their machine while in air. In the meantime their flights had been so successful as to induce the United States Government to enter into a contract with them for the payment of a substantial sum of money after they should meet certain tests. These were difficult and at the time considered beyond the range of possibility. They industriously applied themselves to improve- 796 - HISTORY OF OHIO ments in their machine, and in October, 1908, successfully met the preliminary tests. They went abroad, where learned and titled dignitaries of different nations witnessed their marvelous mastery of the air. As in their early experiments at Kitty Hawk they had cooked their own meals as a matter of economy, so now, in foreign lands, they were prepared to do the same thing. This astonished the French, who insisted on making them their guests. After their record-making flights, statesmen and princes and kings came to congratulate them. The scientific journals of America, which had been very slow to credit their early successes, were now prompt and generous in recognizing their great achievement. The Scientific American of June, 1909, in an extended editorial said in part : "It must indeed have been a proud moment for Orville and Wilbur Wright when they received from President Taft—a native of their own state—the gold medals of the Aero Club of America and the thanks of this great nation for having solved the problem of ages—flight. With the presentation of these medals on June 10th, and with that of the Smithsonian and Congressional medals a week later, has come to them at last the recognition that is seldom accorded to a prophet in his own country, and that was several years late in being given in this instance." The same journal on August 7, 1909, in commenting upon the flight of Orville Wright from Fort Myer, Virginia, to Alexandria and return, stated among other things : "Late in the afternoon of Friday, July 30th, Orville Wright accomplished a flight such as had never before been made by any aviator—a flight which gives without question to him and his brother the title of premier aviators of the world." As it was a proud day for the Wrights when they received the medals at the hands of President Taft, so it was a proud day for the City of Dayton and the State of Ohio when they returned to their home to receive a generous and fitting welcome. The entire City of Dayton and citizens of the state from the surrounding country were out to honor them. The modest manner in which they received congratulations abroad and at home was the subject of frequent and approving comment by the public press. As late as 1910 they were living with their father and sister in the humble frame dwelling in which they had grown up from childhood. The shop in which they made their engine and repaired bicycles was not far distant, a mute testimonial to the frugality and industry with which they had labored through years to their great achievement. Here they had taken up the work of their predecessors, studied it in all its details, determined the causes of failures, and, with a persistence that would not be denied, approached by degrees their final triumph. What they won in their battle with the air, it is pleasing to add, has been sustained in the courts. Their claims have been approved by the highest judicial tribunal of the land. Their material reward and their fame are secure. JOSHUA R. GIDDINGS Joshua R. Giddings, was born October 6, 1795, and died May 27, 1864. In 1812 he was the youngest member of a regiment under Col. Richard Hayes in an expedition to the Sandusky Bay District and participated in a skirmish with the Indians. He taught school, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1820, and from 1838 until March 4, 1859, served twenty consecutive years as a member of Congress. He was an acknowledged leader of the abolition forces in Congress. He opposed the war with the Florida Indians on the ground that the contest was waged solely in the interests of slavery. He opposed the annexation of Texas on similar grounds. Throughout the stormy period of his congressional career, he refused repeatedly affiliation with EMINENT OHIOANS - 797 any party or group that accepted any compromise with the principles of slavery. An interesting and intimate account of his career is found in Harriet Taylor Upton's "History of the Western Reserve." The following is an abstract of Mrs. Upton's account of Joshua R. Giddings. She writes her story from the standpoint of Ashtabula County, where, she says : "The names of Giddings and Wade are so closely linked together in the minds of people today that one is seldom spoken of without the other. They sleep together in the picturesque cemetery in Jefferson. They were the two most noted citizens Ashtabula ever has had. They were partners at law, shared the same political fate, stood for the same moral principles and it seems appropriate that, as they lived together, their bodies should rest together. They differed in temperament and in ability, but each was a great soul, working out the problems of his own life as well as the great problems of the Nation. Joshua R. Giddings belonged to the family from which were descended Nathaniel Hawthorne and Rufus Choate. He was born in Athens, Pennsylvania, but when six weeks old was carried to Canandaigua, New York, where he lived until he was ten. Joshua Giddings, the father, taking his oldest son, pushed on into northern Ohio and took up land in Wayne Township. In 1806 Mr. Giddings brought his entire family to the township where he and his son built a cabin and cleared a bit of land ; and here Joshua R. really began life. In his eastern home he had learned his alphabet and possibly had a little instruction, but of this we are not sure. His son-in-law, George Julian, who married his youngest daughter, Laura, said he only attended school a few weeks in all his life. "He studied late at night by the firelight in his father's cabin or at springtime by the blazing light of the sugar camp." When he was grown he was six feet and two inches tall and when matured weighed 225 pounds. He was a good woodsman ; liked to hunt and fish ; although left handed, engaged in the sports of that time and continued his interest in those which came after. He loved music and bought the first piano which came into Jefferson. He not only did his portion 798 - HISTORY OF OHIO of the work for the family, but that of the community as well. When a mere boy he enlisted in the War of 1812 and was in battle. From the very beginning of his Ohio life he had a great longing for books and learning. Every volume he could get hold of he read and reread. He walked miles through the forests to borrow or see a book which contained something he wanted. Every moment he could snatch from work he applied to study or reading. The winter he was nineteen years old he was teaching. By economical management he was able to attend the school kept by Henry Coe in Vernon, Trumbull County. In 1818 he surprised his friends by declaring his intention of studying law. He was laughed at and discouraged but this did not deter him. Finally two of his brothers offered him the needed money and with three shirts, two pairs of stockings, and $17 in cash he started on a forty mile walk to the home of Hon. Elisha Whittlesey in Canfield. Mr. Whittlesey was one of the great lawyers of his time. To be under his instruction was the same to a youth of that time as to attend the Harvard law school now. Giddings had made no previous arrangement with Mr. Whittlesey but was gladly received. By the best of management he finished his studies and was admitted to the bar. He had no office, no library, no clients ; but about that time Laura Waters, who had been born at Grandbury, Connecticut, and had moved to Gustavus, came into his life, which more than recompensed him for any of the other things he lacked. They were married. She was an unusual woman. At the age of fourteen she began teaching school, supporting herself and at the same time saving enough money to buy a small flock of sheep. One authority says she sold these and with the money Joshua bought his first law books. In Giddings' life we do not have to make the record which is so often made in the lives of other great men. If he had never had any sorrows except those of his family ; if no one had ever abused him and maligned him outside of his family, his, indeed, would have been a sweet life. For at his own fireside love came in the beginning and stayed there. He had eight children and because of his public life, the care of this family devolved largely on his wife. She was capable, resourceful, courageous and generous. It has been, so it is, and possibly so it always will be that men, great and small, forge ahead in life's work because of the contributions which the women make to them. The vigor with which Joshua R. Giddings practiced law was astonishing and the stories of some of his early cases are fascinating. During his separation from his family, its members were ever present in his mind. After a hard fighting day at the capitol we find him in his room printing letters to his youngest children because they could not read writing. At the end of ten years Mr. Giddings was employed in almost every case of importance in his vicinity. In 1831 he formed a partnership with Benjamin F. Wade and this continued for a number of years. In 1826 he was elected to represent his county in the Ohio Legislature and served one term with great distinction. He ran for the state senate in 1828 and was defeated. So successful had he been in practice that in 1836 he considered himself able to retire. About this time he lost heavily in land and never again fully retrieved his fortune. At this date he was in rather delicate health from dyspepsia. In 1838 he was elected to a seat in Congress, made vacant by the resignation of Elisha Whittlesey. He was then forty years old and he served in that body for twenty years, during the stormiest time our country has ever seen. When he entered he was a whig ; when he retired he was a republican. In 1838 he first started by coach to Washington, ending his trip on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. Among the passengers accompanying him was Tom Corwin. When he took his place in the House EMINENT OHIOANS - 799 of Representatives, John Quincy Adams was serving and these two men later stood side by side as opponents of slavery. The close friendship of Adams and Giddings lasted until the end. When the former was stricken with apoplexy in the House, Giddings was near him and remained by him to the end. During those last hours Adams said to him : "I have more hope from you than any other man." Many years later Giddings said substantially the same to Sumner. Giddings had been an ardent admirer of General Harrison and was greatly disappointed when he went to call upon him to find that Harrison was displeased with him for some late speeches he had made and really treated him rudely. Giddings never returned to visit him. As soon as he was well established in Congress he became a power. As he was younger than Adams, all the rage which the southern members and their northern sympathizers felt was visited upon him. He was insulted, threatened, challenged, socially ostracised, and still he swerved not. In the midst of hot debate, congressmen insulted him and he openly defied them. His friends expected him to be killed but he never shared their fears. In the Twenty-third Congress, Adams and Giddings were fighting alone. "The press of his own party did not sustain him and common courtesies usually extended to members of Congress were denied him." He had long served as chairman of the committee on claims. He was later removed and given seventh place on the committee on revolutionary pensions, which had no business and did not meet." In 1842 when the censure upon him was passed by a vote of 125 to 69, he resigned his seat and returned to his district. As soon as he entered the contest to succeed himself, he was approvingly received and almost unanimously reelected. Five weeks from the time he left Congress, he was back at his duties. In 1851 and 1852 an attempt was made to get rid of Mr. Giddings by gerrymandering the state. The scheme reacted. Not only was he elected, but Edward Wade of Cleveland, a brother of Benjamin F., was elected. Mr. Wade and Mr. Giddings held the same views on the question of slavery. Giddings' Congressional career closed with the thirty-fifth Congress. At that time he had the respect of all the leaders in the North. Lincoln appointed him consul general to Canada, Lincoln and Seward signing the commission, and at Toronto he remained till his death in 1864. In 1859 and 1860 he lectured on the general subject of slavery and campaigned for Lincoln. He also bought the first safe in the county, and when the Ashtabula Farmers Bank was organized he loaned it to them until they could purchase one. It has ever since stood in the old Giddings office. BENJAMIN F. WADE By Harriet Taylor Upton "They made his grave near the heart of his life-long home and set at his head a granite shaft, less enduring than the influence of his deeds for truth, justice, freedom, and his country's good." These words came from the heart of one of the thousands who admired and loved the great and rugged Benjamin F. Wade, for eighteen years an honored United States Senator from Ohio, a life-long champion of freedom in every form and one whose last public act was to represent his country on the commission to report on the proposed acquisition of Santo Domingo, the first decisive step taken by the Nation in protecting the rights of weaker people in Southern America and teaching them the nobility of a republican government. His part in Joshua R. Giddings was author of "The Exiles of Florida" and "History of the Rebellion ; Its Authors and Causes." "The Life of Joshua R. Giddings" was written by George W. Julian.