GOVERNORS OF OHIO. ARTHUR ST. CLAIR, one of the most noted characters of our early colonial days, was a native of Scotland, being born at Edinburg in 1735. Becoming a surgeon in the British army, he subsequently crossed the Atlantic with his regiment and thenceforward was identified with the history of this country until the day of his death. Serving as a lieutenant with Wolfe in the memorable campaign against Quebec, St. Clair won. sufficient reputation to obtain appointment as commander of Fort Ligonier, Pa., where a large tract of land was granted to him. During the Revolutionary war he espoused the colonial cause, and before its close had risen to the rank of major-general. In 1875 he was elected a delegate to the Continental congress and afterward became its president. After the passage of the ordinance of 1787, St. Clair was appointed first military governor of the Northwest territory, which then embraced the territory now comprised within the boundaries of the present state of Ohio, with headquarters at Fort Washington, now Cincinnati. In 1791 he undertook an expedition against the northwestern Indians, which resulted in the great disaster known in western history as St Clair's defeat. " On November 4 the Indians surprised and routed his whole force of about 1,400 regulars and militia, in what is now Darke county, Ohio, killing over goo men and capturing his artillery and camp equipage. Gen. St. Clair held the office of territorial governor until 1802, when he was removed by President Jefferson. He returned to Ligonier, Pa., poor, aged and infirm. The state granted him an annuity which enabled him to pass the last years of his life in comfort. He died near Greensburgh, Pa., August 31, 1818, leaving a family of one son and three daughters. CHARLES WILLING BYRD, who was secretary of the Northwest territory, and who succeeded Gov. St. Clair as governor, on the removal of the latter from office, was born in Virginia, received a liberal education and settled in Ohio. While it is not practicable to find fully authentic material for a full biography of Gov. Byrd, it may be of interest to recite briefly the reasons for the removal of Gov. St. Clair, which are of course the reasons for Mr. Byrd becoming governor of the territory. St. Clair's government was very unpopular, and when the people became desirous of forming a state government in 1801, and found themselves unable to secure a majority of the legislature, they sent Thomas Worthington to congress to obtain if possible a law under which a conven- 132 - GOVERNORS OF OHIO. tion could be called to consider the expediency of forming a state, and framing a constitution therefor. This convention met in Chillicothe in November, 1802, voted to form a state government and adopted a constitution, all this notwithstanding the fact that the territory did not then contain the 60,000 inhabitants required at that time. But this was a small difficulty compared with the prohibition in the ordinance of 1787 against slavery in the territory of the northwest. This clause tended to prevent immigration to Ohio from Virginia and other southern states; and the attempt was made to so frame a constitution for the new state that slavery in a somewhat modified form could be established. When this clause was proposed it was discovered by the opponents of slavery that on the morrow there would be a majority of one in its favor, and thus, if it were adopted, the curse of slavery would be fixed upon the state. Judge Ephraim Cutler, of Washington county, a delegate to the convention, and a son of one of the principal framers of the ordinance of 1787, was lying sick in bed, when this situation was revealed, and Gen. Putnam, hastening to his bedside, urged him to reach the convention hall at the earliest practicable moment the next morning. Judge Cutler having next day reached the hall, made an impassioned appeal to the delegates in opposition to the proposed action of the convention, and won over the one delegate necessary to save the state from the blighting curse of slavery. Gov. St. Clair and his friends looked upon the convention as little short of revolutionary, the governor taking strong grounds against the formation of a state government, before the convention began the labors of the day. Their utter disregard of this advice filled him with irritation, and in the bitterness of his heart he declared, in the hearing of unfriendly listeners, that he no longer had confidence in republican institutions, and that in his opinion, without some stronger form of government, anarchy seemed inevitable. These remarks were quickly reported to President Thomas Jefferson, who immediately removed St. Clair from his office, and the secretary of the territory, Charles W. Byrd, became acting governor, serving until the state government was formed under the constitution, which, as framed by the convention, was declared by that convention, without having been submitted to the people for their ratification, to be the fundamental law of the land. After the expiration of his brief term as governor of the Northwest territory, Gov. Byrd was appointed by President Jefferson United States judge for the district of Ohio. EDWARD TIFFIN, first governor of Ohio upon the organization of the state, in 1803, was a native of England, born in the city of Carlisle on the t 9th day of June, 1766. After coming to the United States he studied medicine, located at Charlestown, W. Va., in 1784, and in 1789 received his degree from the university of Pennsylvania. In the year last named he was united in marriage with Mary Worthington, sister of Gov. Thomas Worthington, and in 1790 united with the Methodist church, of which he soon afterward became a local preacher. In 1796 Mr. Tiffin settled at Chillicothe, Ohio, where he preached and practiced medicine, and was instrumental in organizing a number of local congregations in that part of the state. The same year he was elected to the legislature of the Northwest territory, became speaker of that body, and in 1802 was chosen president of the convention that formed the state constitution. He proved to be a potential factor in political affairs, and in 1803 was elected first governor of the state under the constitution. He was re-elected in 1805, and GOVERNORS OF OHIO - 133 proved a most capable chief executive, but resigned in 1807 to become United States senator, having been elected to the latter body as successor to his brother-in-law, Hon. Thomas Worthington. Gov. Tiffin's senatorial career was cut short on account of the death of his wife, by reason of which he resigned in March, 1809, and for a time lived a retired life. Subsequently he married again, and afterward was elected to the lower house of the state legislature, in which he served two terms as speaker. At the expiration of his legislative experience, Gov. Tiffin resumed the practice of medicine at Chillicothe, and in 1812 was appointed by President Madison commissioner of the general land office, having been the first person to fill that position. On assuming his official functions he removed to the national capital and organized the system that has obtained in the land office until the present time; in 1814 he was instrumental in having the papers of his office removed to Virginia, thus saving them from destruction when the public buildings in Washington were burned by the British. Becoming dissatisfied with residing in Washington and wishing to return west, Gov. Tiffin succeeded in exchanging his position for that of surveyor of public lands northwest of the Ohio river, held by Josiah Meigs, the change being sanctioned by the president and senate, and he discharged the duties of the latter position until July, 1829, receiving while on his deathbed an order from President Jackson to deliver the office to a successor. During his long period of public service, Gov. Tiffin maintained most scrupulously his ministerial relations, and preached the gospel whenever occasion would admit. He was on familiar terms with Gen. Washington, who always spoke of him in terms of praise, and he will always be remembered as one of the leading spirits in the formative period of Ohio's history. His death occurred at Chillicothe on the 9th day of August, 1829. THOMAS KIRKER, who succeeded Edward Tiffin as governor of Ohio, is one of the few governors of the state of whom but little can be learned. In 1807 there was a remarkable contest for the governorship of the state. The two opposing candidates were Return Jonathan Meigs and Nathaniel Massie. The former received a majority of the votes, and therefore, so far as the people were concerned, was elected governor of the state. The general assembly, however, declared him to be ineligible to the office, on the ground that he was not a resident of the state, and as Mr. Massie had not received a sufficient number of votes, he had not been elected governor, and the election was therefore entirely void. Hon. Thomas Kirker bing then speaker of the state senate, became acting governor by virtue of his office as speaker, when Gov. Edward Tiffin resigned his office in order to take his seat in the United States senate. Gov. Kirker remained in the office of governor until after the election, in 1808, of Samuel Huntington, who had been elected by the people. At the time of serving as governor he was a resident of Adams county, and he served in the general assembly of the state for twenty-five years. SAMUEL HUNTINGTON, the second governor elected by the people of Ohio, was born at Norwich, Conn., in 1765, and graduated at Yale college in 1785. He adopted the profession of law, in 1795 married a lady of his own name, and attended strictly to the duties of his profession in the town of his birth until the year 1800, when he resolved to visit that western country which was then attracting to it so many residents of the New England states. First stopping at Youngstown, Ohio, he from there went to Marietta, where he spent the 134 - GOVERNORS OF OHIO. summer, and in the fall of that year returned to Norwich. The following spring, taking his wife and children in an Ohio wagon (then so called), they arrived, after weeks of toilsome travel, at Cleveland, then a settlement of doubtful name as a healthy abode, as they found that many who had preceded them had vacated the cabins they had first built and had removed to the higher ground back of the town to escape the sickness so prevalent near the lake. He erected a strongly-built house, as attacks by drunken and riotous Indians were not uncommon. Mr. Huntington soon entered upon public life. Gen. Saint Clair appointed him second in command of a regiment of Trumbull county militia, and he was shortly afterward elevated to the position of presiding judge in the first court in that part of the territory. In 1802 he was a member of the constitutional convention, and by that body appointed state senator from Trumbull county, the name then borne by the territory now known as the northeastern portion of the state and which at present is divided into six counties. For some time he was speaker or president of the state senate, and by the legislature elected to a seat on the supreme bench. 'When Michigan was organized as a territory Judge Huntington was offered the position of judge of the district court of that territory, but this he declined, as well as other important offices which were pressed upon him. The prevailing unhealthiness of Cleveland finally induced him to remove his residence to Newburg, where he erected a grist-milll, then a very important construction and advantageous to the settlers. In 1809 he purchased a mill, located on the eastern shore of Grand river, between Painesville and the lake, and erected a mansion—commodious, and, for those days, rather imposing in its style of architecture. This house remains to attest by its position the good taste of him who built it. A conflict of authority arose between the legislative and judicial departments of the state while Judge Huntington was on the supreme bench. The legislature passed a law conferring certain rights upon justices of the peace which the judges of the supreme court declared to be unconstitutional. Thereupon the whole house filed articles of impeachment against the judges, but in the midst of this confusion the people of Ohio had elected Judge Huntington governor of the state. He, having resigned, was therefore not brought to trial, and it being impossible to obtain two-thirds of the legislative vote against the other two judges, they consequently escaped conviction. Nothing of particular moment occurred the term he held office, but his prominence prevented his retiring to private life. In 1812 he was, during the second war with Great Britain, a member of the Ohio legislature. The destruction of life and property by the Indians during that year was such that Gov. Huntington, having with Gen. Cass visited Washington to represent to the authorities there the condition of affairs in Ohio, was appointed district paymaster, with the rank of colonel, and returned to the camp of Gen. Harrison with a supply of funds in the shape of government drafts. He remained for many months in the army and until peace was declared, when he returned to his home, where he subsequently lived peacefully until 1817, during which year he died a comparatively young man, being but fifty-two years old. His character for strict integrity, great executive ability and accomplished scholarship was second to that of no other governor. RETURN JONATHAN MEIGS, who succeeded Samuel Huntington in the gubernatorial chair, was born in Middletown, Conn., in March, 1765, the son of Return J. Meigs, a distinguished Ameri- GOVERNORS OF OHIO - 135 can soldier, whose name is inseparably connected with the war of American independence. Gov. Meigs was graduated from Yale college in 1785, after which he studied law and began the practice of the same at Marietta, Ohio, at which place his father had previously settled. He entered the army at the breaking out of the Indian war, and was sent on a commission to the British commander at Detroit, by Gen. St. Clair, in 1790, and later took part in a number of battles with the savages. He rose rapidly in his profession and in 1803-4 was chief justice of the Ohio supreme court; later he had charge of the Saint Charles circuit in Louisiana until 1806, with the brevet rank of lieutenant-colonel in the United States army, being also judge of the supreme court of said district during the years of 1805 and 1806. Mr. Meigs was further honored, in 1807, by being appointed judge of the United States district court of Michigan, in which capacity he continued until 1808, when he was elected to the United States senate from Ohio. The honorable distinction acquired by Mr. Meigs as a jurist was not dimmed by his senatorial experience, and his record in the national legislature is replete with duty ably and conscientiously performed. He served in the senate from January, 1809, till May, 1810. In October, 1807, Mr. Meigs was the democratic candidate for governor of Ohio, and after the election, which went in his favor by a decided majority, his competitor, Nathaniel Massie, contested the same on the ground that Meigs had not been a resident of the state for the four years next preceding the election, as provided by the constitution. The general assembly, in joint convention, decided that Meigs was not entitled to the office, but it does not appear that his competitor was allowed to assume the same; Thomas Kirker, acting governor, continued to discharge the duties of the office until December, 1808, when Samuel Huntington was inaugurated as his immediate successor. In 1810 Mr. Meigs was again a candidate for governor, and at the ensuing election was victorious, defeating his competitor by a large majority. He was triumphantly reelected in 1812 and filled the office with distinguished ability during the trying years of the last war with England, his services in behalf of the national government throughout that struggle being far greater than those of any other governor, and of such a patriotic character as to elicit the warmest praise from the president and others high in authority. He assisted in the organization of the state militia, garrisoned the forts on the border, thus securing safety to the exposed settlements, and did much toward strengthening the army under Gen. Harrison. Near the expiration of his gubernatorial term, in 1814, Gov. Meigs resigned to accept the appointment of postmaster-general in the cabinet of President Madison, to fill the place made vacant by the death of Gideon Granger; he continued in office under President Monroe until 1823, in December of which year he retired from active life and spent the remainder of his days at his home in Marietta, dying March 29, 1825. OTHNIEL LOOKER, the fourth governor of Ohio, was born in the state of New York in 1757. He was a private soldier in the Revolutionary war, going into the army from his native state, and serving through the war. He was a man of humble origin and a farmer most of his life. In 1784, having received a land warrant for his services during the war of the Revolution, he crossed the Alleghany mountains, and located his land in what was then the wilderness of the territory northwest of the Ohio river. within the limits of the future state of the same name. Upon this 136 - GOVERNORS OF OHIO. grant he erected his cabin and began the labor of clearing his farm, as did other pioneers of his day. Upon the organization of the state he was elected a member of the lower house of the general assembly, and by increasing his knowledge and acquaintanceship with the people of the new state, he so rose in popular favor and esteem as to be elected to the senate. Of this body he eventually became president, and by virtue of holding this office, when Gov. Return J. Meigs resigned, in 1814, to accept the position of postmaster-general in the cabinet of President Madison, became governor of Ohio. He served eight months, and afterward was a candidate before the people for election to the office of govenor, but was defeated by his opponent, Thomas Worthington. Mr. Looker afterward returned to his farm, where he lived respected by all for his unusual intelligence, his clear logical mind, and his pleasing disposition. But little else is known of Gov. Looker, except that he died unmarried. THOMAS WORTHINGTON, fourth elected governor of Ohio, was born near Charlestown, Va., July i6, 1773. He received a liberal education, but when a young man went to sea and continued before the mast for three years—from 1790 to 1793. In 1797 he became a resident of Ross county, Ohio, served as a member of the territorial legislature in 1799-1801, and was chosen delegate to the state constitutional convention in the year 1802. He was elected to the United States senate as a democrat immediately after the adoption of the state constitution and served in that body from October 17, 1803, till March 7, 1807; was again chosen to fill the unexpired term caused by the resignation of Return J. Meigs, Jr., and served from January 8, 1811, until his resignation in 1814. Mr. Worthington was elected governor of Ohio in 1814 and served till 1818 —having been chosen his own successor in 1816. After the expiration of his second gubernatorial term Gov. Worthington became canal commissioner, which position he held till his death. He was a public-spirited man and to him is the great commonwealth not a little indebted for much of its development and prosperity. To Gov. Worthington belongs the unique distinction of being the only Ohio governor ever arrested and started to jail for debt. In 1815 or 1816, Gov. Worthington contracted with Judge Jarvis Pike to grub and chop the timber off the present state-house square. The governor was a . non-resident of Franklin county, residing at Chillicothe. Some misunderstanding arose as to the payment of Judge Pike for his labors, whereupon he sued a capias from the court of Squire King, and had the governor arrested and marched off to jail. He was not locked up, however, the matter having been amicably adjusted. Gov. Worthington departed this life in the city of New York, June 20, 1827. ETHAN ALLEN BROWN, seventh governor and the fifth elected by the people of Ohio, was born on the shores of Long Island Sound in Fairfield county, Conn., July 4, 1766, and died at Indianapolis, Ind., February 24, 1852. His father, Roger Brown, was an intelligent farmer of wealth, who, to secure the advantages of a liberal education for his children, employed a teacher of good ability to instruct them at home. Under such tuition Ethan's quickness of apprehension and extraordinary memory enabled him to acquire a knowledge of the Latin, Greek and French languages not inferior to that of most college graduates of the present day. Having determined to adopt GOVERNORS OF OHIO - 137 the profession of a lawyer, he then procured the necessary books and began the study of law at home, at the same time assisting in the labors of his father's farm. After thus acquiring some legal knowledge he went to New York city and entered the law office of Alexander Hamilton, who, as a lawyer and statesman, had achieved at that time a national reputation. Here he soon won the esteem and friendship of Mr. Hamilton, while also he was brought into contact with others of the ablest men of the day, and, mingling with the most refined and cultivated society of the city, his mind was developed and stimulated and he acquired the elegance and polish of manners for which he was remarkable in after-life. Diverted from the study of law at this time, he engaged in business, by which he obtained very considerable property, but subsequently he again entered upon his neglected study, and in 1802 he was admitted to practice. Then, urged by love of adventure and a desire to see the principal portion of that state which, in that year, had qualified for admission into the Union, he, with a cousin, Capt. John Brown, started on horseback and followed the Indian trails from east to west through middle and western Pennsylvania until they reached Brownsville on the Monongahela river. Having brought a considerable sum of money with them they here purchased two flat-bottomed boats, loaded them with flour, and placing crews upon them started for New Orleans, which city they reached in safety, but not being able to sell their cargoes to advantage they shipped the flour to Liverpool, England, and took passage themselves in the same vessel. 'Having disposed of their flour at good prices, 'they returned to America, landing at Baltimore the same year. Then his father, wishing to secure a large tract of western land, eventually to make it his home, he empowered his son to select and purchase the same, which he proceeded to do, locating it near the present town of Rising Sun, Ind., that locality having attracted his attention on his flat-boat trip to New Orleans. Hither his father removed from Connecticut, in 1814, when that part of the, Northwest territory which subsequently became Indiana was canvassing delegates to hold a territorial convention. Ten years subsequently, however, and after securing the land mentioned, Ethan Allen Brown began the practice of law in Cincinnati, where he soon took a prominent position in the profession and' secured a large income for his professional services. In 1810 he was chosen by the Ohio legislature a judge of the supreme court of the state, a position he held with distinguished ability during the eight following years, and in 1818 was elected governor of the state. His administration is marked for the prosecution and completion of important internal improvements, among the chief of which may be mentioned that important work, the " Ohio canal, " and which was nicknamed " Brown's Folly." In 1820 he was re-elected, and in 1821 elected to the United States senate and served one term with distinction. In 183o he was appointed minister to Brazil, remaining in that country four years and giving general satisfaction, when he resigned and came home. A few months later, at the urgent request of President Andrew Jackson, he accepted the position of commissioner of public lands, held the office two years, and then retired finally from public life. Gov. Brown never married, and the close of his life was spent among his relatives at Rising Sum After reaching the age of eighty-two years, with not more than a week's sickness during all the years of his long life, he died suddenly while attending a democratic convention at Indianapolis, and was buried at Rising Sun, near the grave of his venerated father, leaving an enduring record of a useful and well-spent life. 138 - GOVERNORS OF OHIO. ALLEN TRIMBLE, who filled out the unexpired term of Ethan Allen Brown as governor of Ohio; and also served as governor by election from 1827 to 1830, was born in Augusta county, Va., March 24, 1783. He was the son of Capt. James Trimble, who removed in 1784 to Lexington, Ky., and who died in that state about the year 1804. Later Allen Trimble came --to Ohio, settling in the county of Highland, where he served in various official- positions,' including those of clerk of the courts and recording secretary, filling the last two offices for a period of- about seven years. He took part in the war of 1812 as commander of a regiment of mounted, troops under Gen. William Henry Harrison, and in 1816 was chosen a member of- the state legislature. Subsequently, from 1817 to 1826, he served as state senator, and was also speaker of the house for several terms. In 1821 he was appointed governor, and, as already stated, was elected to the office in 1826, and discharged the duties of the position in an' eminently satisfactory mariner until 1830. In 1846, Gov. Trimble was chosen president of. the state board 'of agriculture, being the first man honored with that office, and served as such until 1848. While governor he was untiring in promoting the cause of education in Ohio, and the present excellent public school system is indebted to him for much of its efficiency; he also encouraged manufacturing and did much toward improving the penal institutions of the state. Politically Gov. Trimble was a federalist; his death occurred at Hillsborough, Ohio, February 2, 1870. JEREMIAH MORROW, sixth governor elected under the state constitution, was born in Gettysburg, Pa., October 6, 1771. In early manhood he removed to the Northwest territory and in 1802 was chosen delegate to the convention 'that framed the constitution of Ohio. Politically 'he was an ardent democrat; and in 1803 was elected a representative in the congress of the United States, in which body he served for a period of ten years. He did Much toward promoting legislation in behalf of the western section of the United States, and for some time was chairman of the committee on public lands. In 1814 he was commissioner to treat with the Indians west of the Miami river, and from 1813 till 1819 served with distinction in the United States senate. In 1822 Mr: Morrow was elected governor of Ohio and served as such 1826, having been re-elected in 1824: From 1826 to 1828 he was state senator; later became canal commissioner, and for some time served as president of the Little Miami Railroad company. In 1841 he was again elected to represent his district in• the national houSe of representatives, in which capacity he served a single term. Gov. Morrow left the impress of his character on the commonwealth and his is among the many illustrious names which have given Ohio so prominent a position among her sister states; his death occurred in the county of Warren, on the 22nd day of March, 1852. DUNCAN McARTHUR, distinguished as a soldier and statesman, and gov ernor of Ohio from 1831 to 1832, was a native of the state of New York, born in the county of Dutchess, on the 14th day of June, 1772. When he was a mere lad his parents emigrated to the western part of Pennsylvania, and at the age of eighteen he volunteered in Gen. Harmar's expedition against the Miami Indians, in which he distinguished himself by many acts of bravery. Subsequently he acted as scout in the warfare with the Indians in Ohio and Kentucky, and after the cessation of hostilities, in 1794, set- GOVERNORS OF OHIO - 139 tied near Chillicothe, Ohio, Where he became the possessor of large tracts of real estate. For some years after settling in Ohio Gov. McArthur followed the profession of civil engineer, later he became ,interested in political matters and in 1805 was elected to the lower house of the Ohio legislature. In 1808 he was appointed major-general of the territorial tia and at the beginning of the war of 1812, was, commissioned colonel of the First Ohio volunteers. He was second in command at Detroit, when that ill-fated post was surrendered to the British. by Gen. Hull, and it is stated that so great was his chagrin. and anger at the capitulation that he tore off his epaulettes and broke his sword fit of indignation. Gov. McArthur was commissioned brigadier-general in 1813, and upon, the resignation of Gen. William Henry Harrison the year following, he succeeded to the command of the western army. He planned the conquest, of Canada, crossed the .Saint Clair river. in 1814 with a strong force, and after considerable maneuvering returned. to Detroit by way of Saint Thomas., and discharged. his, force at Sandwich the latter part of the aforesaid year. In the meantime, 1813, he had been elected by the democrats to a seat in the congress of the United States, but declined to leave the army, remaining with the command until honorably discharged June 15, 1815. On leaving the army Gov. McArthur was returned to the state legislature, and during the years 1816-17 served as commissioner to negotiate treaties with the Indians, by which their lands in Ohio were ceded to the general government in 1818. From 1817 to 1819 he was again a member of the lower house of the legislature, of which he was made speaker, and in 1822 was elected to congress on the democratic ticket and served as a member of that body from December 1, 1823, till March, 1825. In 1830 he was elected governor of Ohio, which position he filled very.: acceptably, for one term and tin 1832 was again a candidate for congess but last the election by a single ballot, The record of Gov. McArthur both military and civil, is without a blemish, and be will ever be remembered as one of the leading soldiers, and officers of the great commonwealth of Ohio. While governor he suffered severe injuries from an accident, and never entirely recovered from the effects of the same. He died near Chillicothe on the, 28th day of April, 1839. ROBERT LUCAS, the immediate successor of Duncan McArthur, was born in Shepherdstown, Va., April 1,1781, and was a direct descendant of William Penn, the .founder of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. His father bore a distinguished part in the war of the Revolution, serving thoughout that struggle as captain in the American army, and was a trusted friend of Gem Washington. Robert. Lucas spent his youthful. years in his native state, and about the beginning of the present century removed to Ohio, where in due time he became major-general of the state militia. Subsequently he was commissioned captain in the Ninteenth United States infantry, and in February, 1813, became lieutenant-colonel of the same, serving as such until June of the same year, when he resigned. Immediately after leaving the government service Mr. Lucas was made brigadier-general of Ohio militia, and as such served from July, 1813,: till the following September, in defense of the frontier. In 1814 he was elected to the Ohio legislature, in the deliberations of which he took a prominent part, and in 1832 presided over the democratic national convention which nominated Andrew Jackson for a second term. In 1832 General Lucas was elected governor of Ohio, was re-elected in 140 - GOVERNORS OF OHIO 1834, and in 1838 was made first territorial paralysis, from which he suffered extremely governor of Iowa, at which time the now state of that name was erected into a territory, including Minnesota and the Dakotas, and December 28, 1846, as a state. He was a man of marked ability, possessing great energy, and was noted as a man of strong impulses and strict integrity. He died February 7, 1853, in. Iowa City, at the advanced age of nearly seventy-two years. JOSEPH VANCE, governor of Ohio for one term, 1837-38, was a native of Pennsylvania, born March 21, 1781, in the county of Washington, of Scotch-Irish descent. While quite young he was taken by his parents to Kentucky, where he grew to manhood, after which he removed to Ohio, locating at Urbana, where he became a successful merchant and married Miss Mary Lemen, of that city. Subsequently he turned his attention to farming and stock raising, in which he also met with success and financial profit, in the meantime becoming conversant with public affairs. Gov. Vance, becoming quite popular, was elected to and served in the legislature in 1812-16, and in 1822 was elected to the congress of the United States, in which he served by successive re-elections until March, 1835. Originally Gov. Vance was a democrat, and as such was elected to the aforesaid offices, but later he became a whig, which party sent him to congress in 1842. He served through two terms, during one of them as chairman of the committee on claims. In the meantime, 1836, he was elected governor, and as chief executive of the commonwealth his record will compare favorably with those of his illustrious predecessors and successors. He was a delegate to the whig national convention of 1848, and while attending the constitutional convention of 1850 was stricken with until his death, August 24, 1852, near the city of Urbana. WILSON SHANNON, the eleventh governor of Ohio whom the people elected, was born February 24, 1803, in Belmont county, and was the first white child born in Mount Olivet township, that county. He was also the first governor of Ohio who was a native of the state. His parents crossed the Alleghany mountains from Pennsylvania and settled in Belmont county, Ohio, in 1802. In January of the next year the father of the future governor, whose name was George Shannon, and who had settled on a farm, upon his arrival in that county went out hunting. Late in the day, while returning home, he lost his way, became bewildered and wandered round and round, finally sitting down by a large maple tree and freezing to death. His tracks were plainly visible next morning in the deep snow that had fallen during the night. Upon the farm his father had selected young Wilson Shannon was reared. When fifteen years old he attended the Ohio university at Athens, remaining one year, and for two years afterward was a student at the Transylvania university at Lexington, Ky. Returning home, he began the study of law in the office of Charles Hammond and David Jennings, completing his studies with them in Saint Clairsville, which town became the county seat. There he practiced for eight years. In 1832 he was the democratic nominee for congress, but was defeated by a small majority. In 1834 he was elected prosecuting attorney, and was so assiduous in the performance of his duties that his party elected him governor of the state in 1838 by a majority of 3,600. At the close of his first term he was. GOVERNORS OF OHIO - 141 again a candidate, but was defeated by his opponent, Thomas Corwin, the whig candidate, who was opposed to slavery, while Gov. Shannon, together with the entire democratic party, favored it. The most remarkable thing about this election was that the democratic candidate for president carried. the state by about 25,000 majority. Gov. Shannon then returned to Belmont county to the practice of the law. In 1842 he was again elected governor of the state over Gov. Corwin, both of whom during the campaign had thoroughly canvassed the entire state, as they had done in 1840. In the spring of 1843 President Tyler offered Gov. Shannon the appointment of minister to Mexico, which he accepted, resigning his governorship and going to the .city of Mexico, where he remained two years, when he was compelled to return home, because Mexico, on account of difficulties between the two countries over the annexation of Texas to the Union, severed all diplomatic relations with the United States. After being then engaged for several years in the practice of the law, Gov. Shannon was elected to congress by a majority of 1,300. In congress, by the manner in which he performed his duties, he attracted the attention of President Pierce, and was appointed territorial governor of Kansas, the most difficult position he had tried to fill. The contest on the soil of Kansas was more bitter and persistent than anywhere in the country, both pro-slavery and anti-slavery partisans being determined to carry out their own views in that state. It was therefore impossible for any man to preserve peace within her borders, especially as the weight of the administration at Washington was in favor of the pro-slavery party. Shannon, therefore, after fourteen months as governor in Kansas, was superseded by John W. Geary, .who gave but little better satisfaction than had Gov. Shannon. The following year Gov. Shannon removed his family to Lecompton, Kans., the capital, and began the practice of the law in that turbulent state. His reputation soon gained for him a very large and profitable practice, as there was much litigation under the pre-emption laws of the United States. When Kansas was admitted to the Union, Topeka became the capital, Lecompton rapidly declined, and Gov. Shannon removed his office and residence to Lawrence, where he resided until his death, highly regarded by all who knew him as having been a faithful public servant, and as a most conscientious man. His death occurred in September, 1877. THOMAS CORWIN, the twelfth governor of Ohio elected by the people, was born in Bourbon county, Ky., July 29, 1794. In 1798 his father, Matthias Corwin, who subsequently became a judge, removed to what afterward became Lebanon, Warren county, Ohio, and there, in a log school-house, taught by a school teacher named Dunlevy, young Corwin obtained what was then considered a thorough English education. When he was seventeen years old he drove a wagon-load of provisions for the army to the headquarters of Gen. Harrison, and this event had a potential influence upon his subsequent career. In 1817, after having studied law one year, he was admitted to practice, and in March, 1818, was elected prosecuting attorney of his county. In 1822 he was elected to the legislature, having become by this time a well-read lawyer and a fluent speaker. Returning to his law practice he was again elected prosecuting attorney. In 1829 he was again elected to the Ohio legislature, and the following year to congress on the whig ticket. By subsequent re-elections he was kept in congress for ten years. In 1840 he was elected gov- 142 - GOVERNORS OF OHIO ernor of Ohio, serving one term. In 1845 he was elected to the -United States. senate, and discharged his duties there with great ability and faithfulness until 1850. It is on his attitude while in this body that his memory will be perpetuated. to posterity, for he showed the greatest courage 'imaginable, and took the true ground in reference to the war with Mexico, which is now generally recognized as a wholly unnecessary and unwarranted war, begun without proper authority from Congress, and solely for the purpose of conquest, in order that slavery might be extended into free territory. His speech against that war was bold, patriotic and high-toned, and it is probable that had he subsequently been consistent in the attitude he then assumed his party would have made him its candidate for the presidency in 1852, but he became an advocate of the Wilmot proviso, which by many is believed to have sealed his political career, so far as national promotion is concerned. For his action, however, in connection with this proviso, he was appointed, by President Fillmore, secretary of the United States treasury, a position which he held until 1852, when he resigned, and returned to private life among the hills of Warren county. Not long afterward he opened a law office in Cincinnati, and was again elected to congress in 1858 and 1860. By President Lincoln he was appointed minister to Mexico, and on April 1861, he embarked for Vera Cruz, whence he went to the city of Mexico, where he served his country efficiently until the close of the war, returning to the United States in April, 1865, opening a law office in Washington, D. C., but had no more than settled down to practice there than he was stricken with apoplexy, and died after an illness of three days. While he was in congress he never rose to speak unless he had something to say; hence he always commanded the attention of that branch in which he was serving. His greatness in oratory is beyond question, his patriotism no one ever doubted, and in his private life, from boyhood until his death, every one recognized the integrity and purity of his character, which, during his whole public career, took on the form of the highest sense of honor, and through which he always maintained his reputation among his countrymen. November 13, 1822, he married Miss Sarah Ross, a sister of Hon. Thomas R. Ross, who served three terms in congress. By his marriage he had no children, so that he left nothing to his country but his labor therefor and his great and his everlasting fame. THOMAS WELLES BARTLEY, who succeeded Gov. Wilson Shannon as governor of Ohio, upon that gentleman's resignation, as mentioned in his life above inserted, was born February 11, 1812, at the home of his parents, in Jefferson county, Ohio. His ancestry emigrated from Northumberland county, England, in 1724, and settled in Londoun county, Va., but subsequently removed to Fayette county, Pa., where his father, Mordecai Bartley, was born. His mother was Elizabeth Welles, and Gov. Bartley was named Thomas Welles, from her father, Thomas Welles, of Brownsville, Pa. Having received a liberal education under his father's care and guidance, and having graduated with the degree of bachelor of arts from Washington & Jefferson college, a Presbyterian institution of learning located at Washington Pa., and founded in 1802, Mr. Bartley studied law in Washington, D. C., and was licensed to practice at Mansfield, Ohio, in 1834. The following year he had conferred upon him by his alma mater the he norary degree of master of arts. Having taken a high position at the bar he was elected GOVERNORS OF OHIO - 143 attorney-general of Ohio and served as such four years; being afterward appointed United States district attorney, he served in that position also four years. Subsequently he was elected to the lower house of the general assembly of the state, served therein one term, and was then elected to the state senate, in which he served four years. While president of the senate of Ohio, in 1844, he became governor of the state, through the resignation of Gov. Shannon, who had been appointed, by President Tyler, minister to Mexico, and he administered the affairs of the office until he was succeeded therein by his father, Mordecai Bartley, in December of that year. In 1851 he was elected judge of the supreme court of the state, served two terms in this high position, and then resumed the practice of the law, in Cincinnati, continuing there, thus engaged, for several years, when, owing to the ill health of his family, he removed, in 1869, to Washington, D. C., where he followed his profession until his death. Gov. Bartley was a sound attorney, a faithful public official, a wise judge and a most courteous gentleman, and his removal to the capital of the nation placed him in a field where he enjoyed full scope for the exercise of his powers, untrammeled by local politics, for in that city, where the people have no vote, politics does not enter into their business and their profession as it does elsewhere in the United States. Gov. Bartley is well remembered by many of the leading men of the state. MORDECAI BARTLEY, who succeeded his son Thomas W. Bartley as governor, was born in Fayette county, Pa., December 16, 1783. He was reared to manhood on his father's farm, attended school at intervals during his minority, and in 1809 moved to Ohio. He tendered his services to the government in the war of 1812, served as .captain and adjutant under Gen. William Henry Harrison, and on leaving the army settled, in 1814, in Richland county, where he remained until his removal to the city of Mansfield in 1834. For some years Mr. Bartley was engaged in mercantile pursuits in Mansfield, but previous to locating there, had served as a member of the Ohio state senate, to which he was elected in 1817. In 1818 he was chosen, by the legislature, registrar of the land office of Virginia Military school-lands, which position he held until 1823, when he resigned in order to take his seat in the congress of the United States, to which he had been elected in the meantime. He served in congress until March, 1831, and in 1844 was elected, on the whig ticket, governor of the state, the functions of which office he discharged in a very creditable manner until 1846, declining a renomination and retiring to private life. After the nomination by the whigs for governor of Mordecai Bartley, the democrats in their convention, in the same year, came within one or two votes of placing his son Thomas once again in the field as his opponent. Gov. Bartley was very decided in his opposition to the Mexican war, but when the president issued a call for troops, he promptly responded and superintended the organization of the Ohio forces in person. Politically Gov. Bartley affiliated with the whigs until the disruption of that party, after which he espoused the cause of the republican party. He died in the city of Mansfield October 10, 1770. WILLIAM BEBB, lawyer and judge, the fourteenth governor elected by the people of Ohio, was born in Hamilton county, Ohio, in 1804, and died at his home in Rock River county, Ill., 144 - GOVERNORS OF OHIO. October 23, 1873. His father emigrated from Wales, Great Britian, in 1795, and first located in the Keystone state. Traveling across the mountains to the valley of the Miami on foot, he purchased in the neighborhood of North Bend an extensive tract of land, returned to Pennsylvania and married Miss Robert, to whom he had been engaged in Wales, and, with his bride, riding in a suitable conveyance, again crossed the mountains and settled on his land in what was then but a wilderness. He was a man of sound judgment, and, in common with many of his countrymen, of a joyous and ever hopeful disposition. His wife was a lady of culture and refinement, and her home in the valley of the Miami, with few neighbors except the wild, unshorn, and half-naked savages, was a great change from her previous life. There were of course no schools there to send her children to, and this was a matter of grave concern to the parents of our subject, who was in consequence taught to read at home. In those years the Western Spy, then published in Cincinnati, and distributed by a private post-rider, was taken by his father, and William read with avidity its contents, especially the chievements of Napoleon Bonaparte. His education advanced no further until a peripatetic schoolmaster, passing that way, stopped and opened a school in the neighborhood, and under him our subject studied English, Latin and mathematics, working in vacation on his ather's farm When twenty years old he him-self opened a school at North Bend and resided in the home of Gen. Harrison. In this employment he remained a year, during which he married Miss Shuck, the daughter of a wealthy German resident of the village. Soon afterward he began the study of law while continuing his school, and as a teacher was eminently successful, and his school attracted pupils from most distinguished families of Cincinnati In 1831 he rode to Columbus on horseback, where the supreme court judges examined him and placed him in the practice of the state. He then removed to Hamilton, Butler county, and opened a law office, where he continued quietly and in successful practice fourteen years. During this period he took an active interest in political affairs, and advocated during his first (called the " Hard Cider ") campaign, the claims of Gen. Harrison, and no less distinguished himself during that " Tippecanoe and Tyler, too, " campaign, in which the persons indicated were successful, and the Whigs in 1840, for the first time, succeeded in electing their candidates. Six years afterward he was elected governor of the state, and the war with Mexico placed him, as the governor of Ohio, in a very trying position. As a Whig he did not personally favor that war, and this feeling was greatly entertained by the party who made him their leader in the state, but he felt that the question was not one of party but of cordial support of the general government, and his earnest recognition of this fact eventually overcame the danger that had followed President Polk's proclamation of war. His term of office (1846-48) was distinguished by good money, free schools, great activity in the construction of railroads and turnpikes; the arts and industry generally were well revived, and high prosperity characterized the whole state. In 1844 Gov. Bebb purchased 5,000 acres of land in Rock River county, Ill., of which the location was delightful and the soil rich; 500 acres were wooded and constituted a natural park, while the remainder was pasture of the best quality, with a stream of water fed by perpetual springs. No man of moderate ambition could desire the possession of a more magnificent portion of the earth's surface. Three years after making this purchase he removed to it, taking with him fine horses, and a number of the choicest breeds of cattle, and entered upon the cultivation of this fine prop- GOVERNORS OF OHIO - 145 erty. Five years afterward he visited Great Britain and the continent of Europe. In the birth-place of his father he found many desirous to immigrate to America, and encouraging the enterprise a company was formed and a tract of 100,000 acres purchased for them in east Tennessee, where he agreed to preside over their arrangements in the settlement of this land. In 1856 a party of the colonists arrived on the land and Gov. Bebb resided with them until the war of the Rebellion began, when he left the state with his family. The emigrants, discouraged by the strong pro-slavery sentiment, scattered and settled in various parts of the northern states. On the inauguration of President Lincoln Gov. Bebb was appointed examiner in the pension department at Washington, and held this position until 1866, when he returned to his farm in Illinois and the peaceful pursuits of agriculture. His scale of farming was the cultivation of 2,000 acres in a season, while another 1,000 formed his cattle pasture. He took an active part in the election of Gen. Grant, and the first sickness of any consequence he ever experienced was an attack of pneumonia following an exposed ride to his home from Pecatonica, where he had addressed the electors. From this he never recovered, and although he spent the following winter in Washington, occupied mainly as a listener to the debates in the senate, he felt his vital forces declining. Returning home the next summer, and feeling that he was no longer able to superintend his farm operations, he resided at Rockford until his death. SEABURY FORD, the fifteenth governor of Ohio elected by the people, was born in Cheshire, Conn., in 1802. John Ford, his father, was a native of New England, but of Scotch descent, while his mother, Esther Cook, was of English Puritan ancestry. She was a sister of Nabbie Cook, the wife of Peter Hitchcock, the first chief justice of Ohio. In 1805, John Ford explored the Western Reserve in search of lands and a home in the west, purchasing 2,000 acres in what is now the township of Burton, Geauga county, Ohio, and removing to this land in the fall of 1807. Seabury was then but five years old, but even then gave indications of superior intelligence. He prepared for college at the academy in Burton, entering Yale college in 1821, in company with another young Ohioan, named D. Witter, they two being the first young men from Ohio to enter Yale. Graduating from Yale in 1825, he then began the study of the law in the office of Simon W. Phelps, of Painesville, completing his course in the office of his uncle, Judge Peter Hitchcock, in 1827. Being admitted to practice he opened an office in Burton, and grew rapidly in popular favor. He was always interested in military affairs, in agricultural pursuits and in politics, and was in 1835 elected by the whigs to the legislature from Geauga county. Being twice re-elected, he served three terms, during the latter term acting as speaker of the lower house. In 1841 he was elected to the state senate from Cuyahoga and Geauga counties, and remained a member of that body until 1844, when he was again elected to the lower house. In 1846 he was again elected to the senate and was chosen speaker of that body. In 1848 he was elected governor by a small majority, retiring at the close of his term to his home in Burton, much broken in health. On the Sunday after reaching his home he was stricken with paralysis, from which he never recovered. During twenty years of his life he was an honored member of the Congregational church, and was always a highly respected citizen. As a representative of the people he was faithful 146 - GOVERNORS OF OHIO. to their interests, and was possessed of the most rigid integrity. A private letter, published in a Cleveland, Ohio, paper, said of him, in 1839, that he was one of the most useful men in the legislature and that in a few years he had saved the state millions of dollars. September 10, 1828, he married Miss Harriet E. Cook, a daughter of John Cook, of Burton, by whom he had five children, three of whom reached mature age, as follows: Seabury C., George H., and Robert N. Gov. Ford died May 8, 1855. REUBEN WOOD, the successor of Seabury Ford, was born in Rutland county, Vt., in the year 1792. He was reared to manhood in his native state, served with distinction in the war of 1812 as captain of a company of Vermont volunteers, and afterward studied law and began the practice of his profession in Cleveland, Ohio. From 1825 till 1828 Mr. Wood served in the state senate; in 1830 was appointed president-judge of the Third district, and in 1833 was elected associate judge of the state supreme court, which office he held until 1845. In 1848 Mr. Wood was the democratic nominee for the governorship, to which office he was elected by a handsome majority, and with such ability and satisfaction did he discharge his official functions that in 1850 he was chosen his own successor, being the first governor under the new constitution. Gov. Wood was prominently spoken of in 1852 as an available presidential candidate, but the party, while admitting his fitness for the high position, finally united upon Franklin Pierce. In addition to the honorable positions above mentioned, Gov. Wood served eighteen months as United States consul at Valparaiso, Chili, resigning at the end of that time and retiring to private life. The death of this eminent jurist and statesman occurred in Rockport, Cuyahoga county, Ohio, October 2nd, 1864, in his seventy-second year. WILLIAM MEDILL, the seventeenth governor of Ohio elected by the people, was born in New Castle county, Del., in 1801. He graduated from Delaware college in 1825, and studied law with Judge Black, of New Castle city. Removing to Lancaster, Ohio, in 1830, he began there the practice of the law, being regularly admitted to the bar by the supreme court in 1832. In 1835 he was elected to the lower house of the general assembly from Fairfield county, and served several years with great ability. In 1838 he was elected to congress from the counties of Fairfield, Perry, Morgan and Hocking, and was re-elected in 1840, serving to the satisfaction of his constituents. In 1845 he was appointed by President Polk second assistant postmaster-general, performing his duties with marked ability. The same year he was appointed commissioner of Indian affairs, and as such commissioner introduced many needed reforms. Indeed, he was one of the few men holding office under the government of the United States who have treated the unfortunate sons of the forest with any semblance of justice. Both these offices he held during President Polk's administration, at its close returning to Ohio and resuming the practice of the law. In 1849 he was elected a member of the constitutional convention that gave us the present constitution of the state of Ohio, serving with impartial ability as presiding officer of that body. In 1851 he was elected lieutenant-governor, and in 1853 as the second governor under the new constitution. In 1857 he was appointed by President Buchanan first controller of the United States treasury, holding that office until March 4, i861, GOVERNORS OF OHIO - 147 when he retired to private life in Lancaster,. Ohio, holding no office afterward. Gov. Medill was a man of great ability, a ,true patriot, of spotless character, a faithful friend and an incorruptible public servant. He never married, and died at his residence in Lancaster, Ohio, September 2, 1865. SALMON P. CHASE, the eighteenth governor of Ohio elected by the people, was born at Cornish, N. H., January 13, 1808. His father, Ithaman Chase, was descended from English ancestry, while his mother was of Scotch extraction. Ithaman Chase was a farmer, was a brother of the celebrated Bishop Philander Chase, and died when his son, Salmon P., was yet a lad. In 1815 his father removed his family to Keene, Cheshire county, N. H., where young Salmon received a good common-school education. Bishop Chase, having removed to Ohio, invited his young nephew to the state, and in Worthington, Franklin county, he pursued his studies preparatory to entering college, becoming a student at Dartmouth in 1825, and graduating in 1826. He then went to Washington, D. C., where for some time he taught a classical school, which did not prove successful. For this reason he made application to an uncle of his, in the United States senate, to secure for him a position in one of the government offices, but was met with the reply from that uncle that he had already ruined two young men in that way, and did not intend to ruin another. Young Chase then secured the patronage of Henry Clay, Samuel L. Southard and William Wirt, who placed their sons under his tuition, and he in the meantime studied law with William Wirt. In 1830, having been admitted to the bar, he settled down in Cincinnati to the practice of the law, but meeting for some years with indifferent success, he spent his leisure time in revising the statutes of Ohio, and introduced his compilation with a brief historical sketch of the state. This work, known as Chase's Statutes, in three octavo volumes, proved of great service to the profession, and its sale was so great a success that his reputation as a lawyer of ability was at once established. In 1834 he became solicitor of the branch bank of the United States in the city of Cincinnati, and soon afterward of one of the city banks, and in 1837 he distinguished himself by defending a negro woman who had been brought by her master to Ohio, and who had escaped from his possession. This gave him considerable prominence as an abolitionist, and by some it was thought he had ruined his prospects, especially when he enhanced that reputation in the defense of James G. Birney, whose newspaper, the Philanthropist, had been destroyed by the friends of slavery. Mr. Chase had always looked upon things from the moral standpoint, believed ever in freedom, and that if Christ died for any man he died for all men, and hence Mr. Chase was always the friend of man. The position he took in the defense of slaves who had escaped to or were brought to free soil, was that by that act alone, even under the constitution of the United States, they obtained their freedom. In 1846 Mr. Chase, in the supreme court of the United States, defended Van Zandt (who was the original of John Van Trompe, in "Uncle Tom's Cabin "), who was prosecuted for harboring fugitive slaves, taking the ground, as before, that, even though the constitution contained a provision for the return of such fugitives, no legislative power on the subject had been granted to congress, and that therefore the power to devise legislation thereon was left to the states themselves. The bold statements and forcible arguments of Mr. Chase in his management of such cases, 148 - GOVERNORS OF OHIO. alarmed the southern states, and ultimately led to the enactment of the fugitive slave law in 185o, as a portion of the compromise measures of that period. In 1841 Mr. Chase united with others opposed to the further extension of slavery, in a convention for which he was the principal writer of the address to the people on that subject. He also wrote the platform for the liberty party when it nominated James G. Birney as its candidate for the presidency. In 1842 he projected a convention of the same party in Cincinnati, the result of which was the passage of a resolution declaring the urgent necessity for the organization of a party committed to the denationalization of slavery. In 1848 Mr. Chase presided over the Buffalo free soil convention, which nominated Martin Van Buren and Charles Francis Adams for president and vice-president. On the 22d of February, 1849. Mr. Chase was elected to the United States senate by a coalition of democrats and free soilers, who had declared slavery to be an evil, but when the Baltimore convention in 1852 approved of the compromise measures of 185o he withdrew from their ranks, and advocated the formation of an independent democratic party, which should oppose the extension of slavery. In 1855 Mr. Chase was elected governor of Ohio by the newly organized republican party by a majority of 15,651 over Gov. Medill, and in 1857 he was elected governor, the second time, over Henry B. Payne. At the national republican convention in 186o Mr. Chase received on the first ballot forty-nine votes, in a total of 375, and immediately withdrew his name. By President Lincoln he was appointed secretary of the treasury of the United States, holding this position until July, 1864, when he resigned. His management of the nation's finance was marked with consummate ability, and con tributed largely to the success of the government in its efforts to suppress the Rebellion. In November, 1864, he was nominated by President Lincoln as chief justice of the United States, to succeed Chief Justice Taney, who had then recently died, and he filled this great office until his death. In 1868 he permitted his name to go before the democratic national convention as a candidate for the presidency, but received only four votes out of 663, Horatio Seymour of New York securing the nomination. The most valuabe public service rendered the nation by Mr. Chase, as secretary of the treasury, was the origination by him of the bill under which, in 1863, state and private banks became national banks, and under which the government of the United States became responsible for the circulation of national bank notes, the government being secured by a deposit of bonds equal in amount to the proposed circulation, plus ten per cent. While this law was at first opposed by many public men, yet in time it won its way into their judgment long before Mr. Chase's death, and he had the satisfaction of realizing that its advantages were such that the people of the United States were more greatly benefited by this than by any previous monetary measure, as under it the money of the banks was made equally valuble in all parts of the United States. Mr. Chase was married three times, and of six children born to him, two accomplished daughters survived him at his death, which occurred of paralysis, May 7, 1873. WILLIAM DENNISON, JR., nineteenth governor of Ohio, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, November 23, 1815. His father and mother emigrated from New Jersey to Ohio, settled in the GOVERNORS OF OHIO - 149 Miami valley about 1805, gave their son a liberal education, and he graduated from Miami university in 1835 with high honors in political science, belles lettres and history. After his graduation he became a law student in the office of Nathaniel C. Pendleton, father of Hon. George H. Pendleton, and was admitted to the bar in 1840. The same year he married a daughter of William Neil, of Columbus, to which city he removed and applied himself with energy and diligence to the practice of the law. In 1848 he was elected to the Ohio senate as a whig for the district composed of Franklin and Delaware counties. At that time the slavery question was a prominent one in politics, men taking positive positions on one side or the other, and a desperate struggle was made throughout the state for the control of the general assembly. After failing by a small adverse majority to be elected president of the senate he was appointed to a leading position on a committe having in charge the revisal of the statutes, which had become in the opinion of most of the people a disgrace to the state, especially those laws which prohibited black men and mulattoes from gaining a permanent residence within the state, and from testifying in courts against white persons. Mr. Dennison warmly advocated the repeal of these laws, and with complete success. He was equally opposed to the extension of slavery, with its blighting effects, into new territory. From 1850 to 1852 he was engaged in the practice of the law, and in the latter year, as a presidential elector, he cast his vote for Gen. Winfield Scott. From this time on for some years he took great interest in the subject of railroads in the west, and was elected president of the Columbus & Xenia Railroad company, and was very active as a director of all railroads entering Columbus. In 1856 he was a delegate to the republican national convention at Pittsburg, and voted for Gen. John C. Fremont for president. In 1859 he was elected governor of Ohio by the republican party, and in his first message to the general assembly took the, position that The federal Union exists by solemn compact voluntarily entered into by the people of each state and thus they became the United States of America, e pluribus unum, and this being so, no state can claim the right to secede from or violate that compact." When the war was begun he exerted all the authority of his office to aid the general government to suppress the Rebellion, and as the first war governor of Ohio his name will go down to posterity as one of the most patriotic of men. When Gov. Magoffin, of Kentucky, telegraphed to President Lincoln that Kentucky would furnish no troops for such a wicked purpose as the • subduing of the sister southern states, Gov. Dennison telegraphed that if Kentucky would not fill her quota, Ohio would fill it for her, and in less than two weeks, under the influence of her patriotic governor, Ohio raised enough soldiers to fill the quota of three states, and it was not long before the attention of the entire country was directed to Ohio as the leading state in the suppression of the Rebellion, a position which she proudly maintained all through the war. The people of West Virginia owe to Gov. Dennison the fact of their separate existence as a state, the story of which is well known and too long for publication here. At first Gov. Dennison opposed Sec. Chase's national banking system, but as its beneficial effects became apparent he gave it his unqualified support, and it is well known that Ohio took the lead in the establishment of national banks, a system of banking which, among its other features, has done much to cement the union of the states since the war. After his term of office as governor had expired he became a favorite speaker in defense of the Union.