YEARS 1870-71 1871-72 1872-73 1873-74 1874-75 1875-76 1876-77 1877-78

SENIORS 7 10 16 31 26 26 35 34

JUNIORS 14 19 31 37 36 41 38 42

SOPHOMORES 20 20 35 55 42 45 43 34

FRESHMEN. 20 28 57 47 50 54 49 75

PREPARATORY 0 0 35 53 79 I01 121 130

TOTAL. 6, 77 174 223 233 267 286 315

REV. A. A. E. TAYLOR, D. D. + President Taylor was born in Springfield, Clarke county, Ohio, in 1834. His father, Dr. Edward Taylor, of Cleveland, Ohio, was also born in this State. His grandfather and great-grandfather came together from New Jersey to Ohio in the year of Wayne's Treaty with the Indians, and settled in Ross county, naming the town in which they located Bainbridge, in honor of Commodore *Estimated in part. + Selected. 520 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO Bainbridge, a brother-in-law of the latter. His remoter ancestors came from England in 1692, and settled in Garret's Hill, Monmouth county, New Jersey, where many of their descendants still reside. His great-grandfather upon the mother's side was Colonel James Gordon, of Virginia, a part of whose diary is published in Dr. Foote's Sketches of Virginia. Colonel Gordon was a Scotchman, and an elder in the Presbyterian church of which Rev. Samuel Davies was pastor ; and Rev. James Waddell, D. D., the "blind preacher," whose eloquence was celebrated by William Wirt, married Colonel Gordon's daughter, the sister of Dr. Taylor's grandfather. The eldest daughter of Dr. Waddell, who was first cousin to Dr. Taylor's mother, was married to Rev. Archibald Alexander, D. D., the distinguished Princeton Professor for whom Dr. Taylor was named. Drs. J. W. and J. A. Alexander were therefore second cousins to Dr. Taylor. Dr. Taylor was a student from early life, and graduated at Princeton College at the age of nineteen, 1854. He studied theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, and was licensed to preach the Gospel by the Presbytery of Cincinnati in 1857. He was shortly afterward ordained, and settled as pastor over the Presbyterian church of Portland, Kentucky, where he remained two years. Thence he was called to the charge of the First Presbyterian church of Dubuque, Iowa, in which he labored successfully for six years. During this period he became a regular correspondent of the Presbyterian, of Philadelphia, over the signature of "Hawkeye," the familiar sobriquet of the people of Iowa. At the close of the war, in 1865, he was called to the Bridge Street Presbyterian church of Georgetown, D. C. From this field he was called in 1869 to the pastorate of the Mt. Auburn Presbyterian church of Cincinnati, Ohio, a new and promising organization. After a four years' pastorate, during which the membership of the church increased to over 200, Dr. Taylor was unanimously elected, in June, 1873, by the Board of Trustees, as successor to Rev. Willis Lord, D. D., as President of the Synodical University of Wooster. Having been a member of that Board for several years, and greatly interested in the success of this young University, after having contributed freely for the purpose of putting the endowment in a good condition, he accepted this position and entered upon its onerous duties in September, 1873. WOOSTER—SKETCHES - 521 Dr. Taylor has been a member of the Boards of Education and of Church Extension of the General Assembly. He has also been a member of the Boards of Directors of the North western Theoplogical Seminary, at Chicago, Ill., and of the Western Theological Seminary, of Allegheny, Pa. He was a member of the General Assembly at which the reunion of the two branches of the Presbyterian church was consummated in 1869. The 'degree of D. D. was conferred upon him by the Wooster University in 1872. Dr. Taylor is a man of medium size and kindly aspect, of fine talent and impressive address, of unusually genial temperament, and well adapted to win the affections of students, and interest all with whom he meets in the University, to the building up of which he has devoted himself with all his energies. The first year of his incumbency, though the position was new and very difficult to fill, was crowned with great success in securing the entire confidence of all connected with the institution, in the increasing number of students, and in the enjoyment of a powerful work of grace by which a large proportion of the inmates of the College were hopefully converted. Some of these have already turned their faces toward the Gospel ministry. LEANDER FIRESTONE, M. D. The uttered part of a man's life, let us always repeat, bears to the unuttered, unconscious part a small, unknown proportion ; he himself never knows it, much less do others. There are certain proprieties which, in obedience to a code of necessity, are uniform, will prevail and have prevailed for all time. It is proper that we should have astronomers to keep track of the planets and discover new ones ; philosophers to dogmatize upon truth and discuss " the science of realities ; " geologists to rake the ashes of the past, creep into the fissures of rocks, exhume mummies, ransack catacombs and announce the infancy of time ; masters in the realm of ethics ; discoverers in the empire of mechanics and mind, to aid muscular energy, economize time, produce wealth, reconcile fact with principle, earth with sky, creation with Creator, and elevate and ameliorate the moral and physical condition of the world. And since all men can not be discoverers, philosophers, inventors, etc., it is refreshing to know that the world has produced a 522 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO few. The trees of the forest attain not to the same Night, yet the smaller ones and the undergrowth have each their specific use and sphere. Nature was conscious of her eternal policies when she pronounced or decreed her discriminations with mankind. To each was assigned his weight of talent ; to each his sphere of exercise and employment. To this primal arrangement of things she has set her fixed and endless adaptations. Every life, when properly lived out, is supposed to have filled the measure of its possible and prescribed activities, and every trade and profession has its several departments requiring separate and peculiar talents. One man may excel in a given branch of a profession and be wholly inefficient in another. In medicine there are but few men who combine all the traits indispensable to the true physician. This fact seems to be much better understood with Europeans than in America, where the various branches of medicine are divided into separate and distinct professions. A man may practice skillfully in the materia medica and be but an indifferent surgeon, or he may excel in the science of compounding and be ill-suited to preside over the education of others. Moreover every profession has its literature and morale, and he may wield a pen with elegance, power and point who would prove but a blunderer in the dissecting-room. Dr. Firestone has not only vindicated his claim to an exalted rank in surgery, but in every department of the occult mysteries of medicine. He wields a strong and trenchant pen, talks with the freedom of the gushing brook, and presides over the studies of others with eminent success, and to the fame he has achieved with the scalpel he adds the luster of the teacher. He was born in Saltcreek township, Wayne county, Ohio, in the year 1819. After he attained his fourteenth year his time was spent in performing such service, during the summer, as a boy of that age was competent of doing upon the farm, while during the winter he had the occasional opportunity of attending the country school. He now went to Columbiana county, near Salem, where he had some sprightly jostling with the world, and where he obtained some scant instruction in a district school from a Mr. Kingsbury and a Mr. Mills. From there he went to Portage county, Ohio, where for three months he indulged in the health-inspiring, muscle-expanding, chest-enlarging, lung-invigorating occupation of chopping cord-wood, and that for three shillings per cord, and hard beech at that. WOOSTER-SKETCHES - 523 Whether the Doctor was so successful as to acquire distinction as a cord-wood carpenter and champion of the wedge and maul, we are not at liberty to tell, but fancy, however, that with all his preconceived conceits of the dignity of labor that he did not desire to extend his knowledge of his occupation beyond an exact rudiment- ary limit. Adopting the Westonic method of locomotion, he then proceeded to Chester township, Wayne county, making his home with his uncle, John Firestone, two miles north of New Pittsburg, with whom he remained until he was eighteen years of age. On the farm of his uncle he found " ample room and verge enough" for his developing and powerful muscular forces—felling grand old trees, rolling and tumbling logs, plowing among stumps and stubborn roots, an occupation sufficient indeed to test the patience and manly fortitude, not only of the youthful Firestone, but of the sternest Calvinist of the faith of Brown or good old Ebenezer Erskine. In the fields and woods the summer was spent ; in the dingy school-room the winter. He taught his first term in what is now Perry township, Ashland county, then in Wayne county, in what was called the Heiman district, receiving for his services twelve dollars per month, and boarding himself. By appropriating the intervals between labor and sleep to hard study, he obtained his education, and laid the marble on which is built the superstructure of his professional name. If he did not, like Pope, teach himself to write by copying printed books, he managed to acquire the art by other equally novel methods. He wrung the secrets from Kirkham and the Calculator by the blaze of burning brush-heaps. During this time he made weekly recitations to Rev. Thomas Beer. In addition to such studies that directly qualified him for teaching, he devoted himself to botany, philosophy, chemistry and other branches of natural science. He had no collegiate education. The farm was his academia and university ; the teeming fields and valleys, the trees and brooks his tutors. Life was his school, where " the clink of mind against mind" strikes out those brighter intellectual sparks which shine forever, and reflect light in endless irradiations. He studied hard, and had a clear understanding of what he read. Industry and perseverance are stout levers when fulcrumed upon a resolute will. Possunt quia posse videntur is a maxim full of pith as in any time past. There is a marvel in earnest study. He 524 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. adopted the idea of Bacon : "Read to weigh and consider "—not too many books but all good ones well. For "some books," adds he, "are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few are to be chewed and digested." Under difficult and adverse conditions he studied and struggled, "unfolding himself out of nothing into something." Or as Carlyle would say, he drew continually toward himself in continual succession and variation the materials of his structure, nay his very plan of it, from the whole realm of accident, you may say, from the whole realm of free-will building his life together, a guess and a problem as yet not to others only but to himself. On the 26th of August, 1838, he was married to Susan Firestone, and the next year, then but 20 years old, began the study of medicine with Dr. S. F. Day, an eminent practicing physician of the county at that time, and for whose great and consummate skill as a practitioner, to this day, he entertains a profound regard. With him he remained for nearly three years, during which time he took a course of lectures at the Medical College of Philadelphia. On the 28th of March, 1841, he located at Congress village, Congress township, where he began his first floatings on the abysmal sea of professional life. His residence and office were in the first house north of the hotel, then kept by James Huston and known as the Homer Stanley property. Here he continued for 13 years, where he had an extensive and lucrative practice and acquired a signal local reputation during which more than a decade, he graduated from the medical department of the Western Reserve College, then located at Cleveland, Ohio. We have said he had now attained to a local celebrity. More than that. He had not only impressed the community that embraced his circumference of visitation of his superior ability and where he had been saving " Some wrecks of life from aches and ails," But the noise of his skill and the echo of his professional exploits had reached the ear of the broader and more scientific public. The college, from which he had but recently graduated, was in need of an occupant for one of its professional chairs, and in its survey for a suitable man to fill it, the abilities of Dr. Firestone were recognized, and in 1847 he was made Demonstrator of Anatomy in that institution. This position he held until 1853, where his reputation as an anatomist and dissecting-room instruc- WOOSTER—SKETCHES - 525 tor was established, and when it became evident that honorable distinction awaited him. He next was appointed Superintendent of the Northern Ohio Lunatic Asylum, located at Newburg, which position he filled with conspicuous fitness until August 6, 1856, when he removed to Wooster, where he has lived ever since, and engaged in a successful and sweeping practice. In 1858 he was elected President of the State Medical Society, then holding its sessions at Columbus. In the winter of 1864 he was made Professor of Obstetrics and the Diseases of Women in Charity Hospital Medical College at Cleveland, which position he has continuously held ever since, excepting two years, during which he occupied the Chair of Surgery in the same college. In the summer of 1870 this institution was constituted the Medical Department of Wooster University, in which he continues Professor of Obstetrics and the Medical and Surgical Diseases of Women, and Class Lecturer on Anatomy, Physiology and Hygiene to the University students at Wooster. The title of LL.D. was conferred upon Dr. Firestone by the University of Ohio, at Athens, June 24, 1874. This honor was bestowed, not simply in appreciation of his brilliant attainments in the medical profession, but for his distinguished and pre-eminent achievements in the departments of science and literature, and the literature of science. He has had eight children—three girls and five boys—all of whom are dead, save his two sons, W. W. Firestone, M. D., and M. O. Firestone, M. D. Dr. L. Firestone is now at the very zenith of his powers—standing on the mainlands of professional eminence. Being yet in the prime, the noon of his years, and considering his past progressive elevations, we have not the courage to forecast his future. We see what he has, but know not what he might have accomplished. He stands over six feet high, is massively built and solid as a forest oak. He is fleshy, but not corpulent, stout-limbed, broad- chested, and altogether well proportioned. His face is classic, his forehead is symmetrical, oval and dome-like. Causality, comparison, ideality, are as perceptible as the snow-summits of the Sierras. His countenance is expressive of thought, benignity, reflection, repose. Time has made reprisals upon his hair and what has not been plundered is slightly brushed with gray. He is accessible, sociable and communicative, yet he has the secret of secretiveness. He does nothing by proxy, not even his own thinking ; has faith 526 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. in himself, in his ability to decide for himself. All men do not know his thoughts ; he cages them like canaries, and when he lets them out, like carrier pigeons, they perform an errand. He understands himself, and is a skillful tactician. He has perfect control of himself and never does anything in haste. Hurry, rush and run are not in his dictionary. He is cool, imperturbable, self-poised and stands solid on his feet. With him there is time enough for all things. He will amputate your arm in less time than a barber will shave you, and do it with as little concern. He has an exuberance of animal spirits and may well feel discouraged over the prospect of dying of hypochondria. He is as full of mirth as a spring rivulet is of water, and his sense of the ludicrous is as keen as Halliburton's. He can tell a story with the same ease that Tallyrand could turn a coffee mill or a kingdom. He believes with Sterne that " laughter, like true Shandeeism, think what you will against it, opens the heart and lungs." He is fond of music and will never die with all of it in him. "He has a strong hand at one end of his arm and a strong head at the other." He is a mechanic in his profession as he would have been out of it. He would have made a better lawyer than nineteen-twentieths of those already at the bar. In the pulpit he would have a fire-kindler and segregator of sin, preaching from inspiration, and as all ministers should, without manuscript. His voice is susceptible of immense slides and modulations--is smooth enough for the evening party, strong and bellowing enough for anniversary pageant. He has many friends who are warmly attached to him. His enemies we imagine are few and he will get the best of them in the end. As a public lecturer he is popular, His addresses are eloquent and masterly productions, replete with pathos and sentiment, and chaste and sublime in imagery. His descriptive power is terse and brilliant ; his analyzations methodical and thorough ; the feeling, of the higher key and reflective. In this field he excels—shines, for the same reason that the sun gives light. As a professional instructor few aspire even to be his equal. He is indeed a born surgeon, enjoying peculiar adaptation to this branch of his profession. He possesses firmness and dexterity of hand, a calm, cool brain, a quick perceiving eye, a stout nerve, physical endurance and tenacity of will. In his operations he is resolute and decided, and in case of unforeseen complications he is ever guarded against surprises. Like Dr. Mott, his motto is, "Recognize the advance of science with the growth of the world," WOOSTER—SKETCHES - 327 and hence Dr. Firestone welcomes all valuable discoveries in medicine and surgery. We may imagine, with his strong and composite elements of character and hardy vigor of intellect, how he has attained to professional distinction and honor. Every power and faculty of mind and brain were subjected and made tributary to his ambition and will. He willed to succeed, and success crowned him. Laborious toil and indefatigable industry are the Doric and Corinthian pillars of the edifice he has built. Day was a host, a besetting legion, in the splendor of his manhood, but on his pupil of 3o years ago has fallen, not only his mantle, but a wider name and a richer munificence of honors. W. W. FIRESTONE, M. D. W. W. Firestone, M. D., was born in Congress village, Congress township, Wayne county, Ohio, February 25, 1842. A member of the family of Dr. Leander Firestone and wife, it would be superfluous to add that the home-culture and government to which he was subjected would be of the kind and character both to develop and discipline the boy. The education that underlies and is the sub-stratum of human character, upon which its possessor builds in after life, and which is the brightest spot in the long, green fields of memory, is that which is imparted by those two natural and God-commissioned instructors of the youthful mind—the father and mother ! In this respect we are justified in the inference that W. W. Firestone received assiduous and requisite attention. His other opportunities of education were promptly supplied by an open passage to the public schools of the city of Wooster, and to select and graduated teachers, under whose tutelage he completed his desired course of study. He attended the Mt. Union College for three years. In the year 1861 he began reading medicine with his father, Dr. Leander Firestone, when a term of four years was spent in study, in professional assistance of his father, and attendance on lecture courses, at the expiration of which period he had graduated from Charity Hospital Medical College, Cleveland, Ohio, now the Medical department of the University of Wooster. Since 1865 he has devoted himself wholly to the profession of his selection, and soon found himself partner in the office of L. Firestone, M. D. 528 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. He was married, July 6, 1862, to Miss Sarah A. H. Webster, daughter of W. C. Webster, a musical artist and accomplished lady, by which marriage they had five children, three of whom are living, W. L., Alice M. and F. Sylvia Firestone. W. W. Firestone, though one among the younger of the medical practitioners in our midst, has rapidly risen to success and popularity in his profession. Having barely attained the meridian of life, he has a future of great assurance and promise before him. As a physician he has secured the confidence of the people, and if the standard of professional eminence is to be measured by success, he has fought his way to the summit, and is justly entitled to the colors he has won. Constant, watchful, sympathetic, and possessed of good judgment and quick insight and comprehension, he possesses the normal elements of successful practice. Society, jealous and critical though it may be of its members, may worthily include him and his family in its better circles. As a man and citizen he is genial, hospitable and generous, alive to enterprise and ready to perform an honorable part in the promotion of the common good. Honesty and integrity constitute the parallels between which he moves. With him, all the domestic " nerve-centers " are concentrated in home. In this "charmed circle" are to be found his attachments, for surely here all the sweet atmospheres of this world are breathed. MARTIN WELKER. Martin Welker was born in Knox county, Ohio, April 21, 1818. His father, who was of German descent, was an early settler in Ohio, and having but little means to educate a large family, the subject of this sketch was obliged to rely almost exclusively upon his own resources, which did not consist of money, influence or friends. His educational advantages in youth were necessarily limited to a few years winter instruction in the log cabin schoolhouses of the West. This primeval educational structure—this old-time, antiquated and vanished predecessor of the modern university-we will not more faithfully or succinctly undertake to describe than Mr. Welker has himself, in a speech delivered by him at the dedication of the Wooster High School, October, 1870. From this speech we extract the following : WOOSTER—SKETCHES - 529 We may well be proud of our Common School System. Now no youth of scholastic age need be deprived of the benefit of public instruction in the endowments of education at public expense, so that, poor or rich, all are equally provided for within the borders of our State. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The scene before me to-day recalls to me days of other years, far back in the history of common schools of our State. I shall never forget the first school in which I entered and the house in which it was held. On a cold December morning I walked through a heavy snow, three miles, to the school-house, on the banks, of Owl creek, in Knox county. I there found a little log cabin, sixteen feet square, with puncheon floor, clap-board door and roof, greased paper in the windows, the whole end of the house one wide fire-place, with a chimney made of clay and sticks, built on the outside, and a blazing log fire in the ample fire-place. The benches or seats were split logs, with the flat side uppermost, with round sticks for legs, on which we sat, with our feet dangling above the rude floor. The " Master," as the teacher was then called, had the only desk, and that was a flat board, with four legs, standing in one corner. The " writing-tables" consisted of wide split slabs along one side of the room, supported by pins driven in the logs of the house. In this public building—and it is a fair representative of its day—we were provided a school for three months in the year, the winter season only. It was under such circumstances and possessed of such meager facilities of education, that Martin Welker was to receive the mental training that was to prepare him for the discharge of duties that an active public life was to impose. At an early age he developed a powerful inclination for books and the acquisition of knowledge, and such was his assiduity and habit of application that he very soon achieved familiarity with the English branches taught at that time in the schools. At the age of thirteen he abandoned his father's farm, and obtained a situation as clerk in a store in a neighboring village, where he remained five years, in the meantime appropriating much of his leisure time to the investigation of the higher branches of an English education. When a clerk in the store an event occurred which, no doubt, largely influenced, and, to an eminent degree, imparted purpose and determination to his career in life. He was called as a witness before a grand jury at Mt. Vernon. He had heard of Courts and Judges, but this was his first opportunity of witnessing either. The Hon. Ezra Dean was then the Presiding Judge, and a man of commanding appearance and dignified deportment and manner. This single but extraordinary circumstance so wonderfully impressed the then plastic mind of the young witness, for the first time in court, that he then and there resolved to be a lawyer, and if possible to be worthy, and to attain to that higher and nobler 34 530 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. distinction of the Judge—the position so well and admirably being filled by Deane This resolution ripened into a firm and settled purpose. His boyhood associates heard his declaration, and many of them lived to see it verified. He never lost sight of this young ambition, and how earnestly, zealously and indefatigably he has labored to accomplish and vindicate it, his remarkable Judicial record most eloquently explains. At the end of twenty years' hard and unremittent labor, and of many changes of fortune, he was elected Judge of the District over the same Judge Dean, who was his competitor, and actually occupied the same chair in the same old Court House at Mt. Vernon. This was the position he had declared to an associate that he would aspire to attain, and on its attainment his youthful friend, but now an eminent physician, warmly congratulated him upon the fulfillment of his boyish dream, the realization of his early and most laudable ambition. At the age of eighteen, having made considerable progress in a general education he entered a lawyer's office and commenced the study of a profession, in the multitudinous and complex intricacies of which he has acquired a national reputation. While engaged in the study of the law he occupied a portion of the time in probing the roots and exploring the beauties of the Latin tongue. Nor did he omit to carefully peruse the pages of ancient and modern history, and thus lay deep the foundation for the superstructure of his future eminence. In the literary societies with which he was identified he soon acquired reputation as a cogent reasoner, an apt and skillful debater, as well as an accomplished and vigorous writer. In the political campaign of 184o he took a very active part for one so young and inexperienced. The editorial department of the paper published in the county in which he resided received many keen and valuable contributions from his pen. In 1846 he was appointed Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas of Holmes county, for a term of seven years, serving but five, when he resigned and resumed the practice of law. At the age of twenty-one he was admitted to the bar, and rapidly rose in distinction as a jurist and advocate. Since then we might almost say of him, as Phillips said of Bonaparte, his path has been " a plane of continued elevations." After he had been practicing ten years he was nominated and elected District Judge of the Sixth District of Ohio, which then included Wayne county, WOOSTER-SKETCHES - 531 and served the constitutional term of five years. At the close of this period he was unanimously re-nominated, but on account of much political excitement at the time, growing out of the Presidential contest of 1856, and being a Whig in politics, and the district largely Democratic, he lost a re-election, though running largely ahead of his ticket. In the fall of 1857 he was elected Lieutenant Governor of Ohio at the same time that Chief Justice S. P. Chase was made Governor. In this position he served one term, but declined a re-election. At the breaking out of the war of the Rebellion he was appointed a Major on the staff of General J. D. Cox, afterwards Governor of Ohio and Secretary of the Interior, and served out the term for which the first soldiers were enlisted. H e was then appointed Aid-de camp to the Governor, and assigned to the duties of Judge Advocate General of the State, and acted as such until the expiration of the term of office of Governor Dennison. His business qualifications in this position contributed valuable service in calling out and organizing the Ohio troops. In 1862 he was appointed Assistant Adjutant General of the State of Ohio, and was the State Superintendent of the draft for that year. While in discharge of that duty he was nominated for Congress by the Republican party of the Fourteenth Ohio District, but was defeated, as were many others in that disastrous campaign, by a majority of only thirty-six. In 1864 he was again nominated, and was elected to the 39th Congress by a large majority. In 1866 he was re-elected to the 40th Congress, serving on the Joint Comm ittee on Retrenchment and on the Committee for the District of Columbia. In 1868 he was elected again to the 41st Congress, where he served as Chairman of the Committee on Retrenchment of the House, on the Committee of the District of Columbia, and the Committee on Private Land Claims, of which latter he was the acting Chairman during the last session of that Congress. In the summer of 1869 the Congressional Retrenchment Committee crossed the continent to California, with a view of visiting and investigating the Custom House of San Francisco. Mr. Welker was Chairman of the House Committee, and Patterson, of New Jersey, Chairman of the Senate Committee. Whilst on the Pacific coast they were most hospitably received, and were the recipients of much attention and many favors by the citizens. They 532 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. visited the Geysers, Yosemite and the Cliff House ; crossed the beautiful bay, and were saluted by cannon from Alcatraz. In December, 1873, he was appointed by President Grant, vice Charles Sherman, resigned, District Judge of the United States for the Northern District of the State of Ohio, and was immediately confirmed by the Senate. This is a life appointment, and is the key-stone in the handsome and enviable arch which so symmetrically crowns the reputation of Martin Welker. He brings to the performance of its duties the mature products of a life of toil, the solid experiences of professional manhood, an enlightened and discriminating mind in the highest condition of culture, a sound judgment and keen and lucid comprehension of the law. The office honors him no more than he honors it. Judge Martin Welker was married on the 4th of March, on the day of President Harrison's inauguration, to Miss Maria Armor, of Millersburg, Holmes county, Ohio, sister of Professor S. G. Armor, of Brooklyn Medical College. She is a lady of great refinement, sweetness of disposition and excellent culture, and was highly esteemed by her many friends and acquaintances in Washington City. At the close of his term of Judgeship of the Court of Common Pleas, and in the spring of 1859 he removed to Wooster, where he has permanently resided ever since, though his judicial duties demand his presence in Cleveland and Toledo. In recognition of his abilities, the University of Wooster has conferred upon him the title of LL. D. He has been, in the loftiest sense and most comprehensive meaning of the term, a public man, and among a galaxy of distinguished citizens of Ohio, has exerted a great influence in the development of his native State, and in his quiet, unobtrusive, but effective way, has contributed largely in shaping her political destiny. JAMES D. ROBISON, M. D. James D. Robison was born April 23, 182o, on the corner of Buckeye and North streets, Wooster, Wayne county, Ohio. His early years were spent with his father, Thomas Robison, Esq., during which time he attended the village schools, procuring such education as the limited opportunities of that day admitted. At the age of seventeen he hired as a clerk to Robison & McCune, where he remained until he was twenty, at which time, and in accordance with an intention previously resolved upon, he com- WOOSTER-SKETCHES - 533 menced the study of medicine. He entered the office of Dr. Samuel Norton Bissell, in February, 1840, continuing with him until October, 1841, when, during the fall, he proceeded to Philadelphia, that winter availing himself of a course of lectures at the Jefferson Medical College of that city, soon thereafter taking advantage of a course of clinical instruction at the Brooklyn Hospital. The summer of 1842 he spent in Cincinnati, in pursuit of his professional work, in the office of Dr. William Wood, simultaneously attending lectures at the Medical College of Ohio and a clinical course at the Commercial Hospital of Cincinnati. In the fall of 1842 he returned to Philadelphia, where he graduated, and received his diploma in March, 1843. He returned to Wooster and remained there during the summer, the same autumn, however, removing to the Queen City, locating there and actively engaging in the practice of his chosen profession. Here he met with signal success in his profession, and here he continued until the 3d of July, 1846, and until the breaking out of the Mexican war. At the solicitation of S. R. Curtis, Colonel of the 3d 0. V. I., he was made Surgeon of said regiment, leaving Cincinnati that day (July 3) for Mexico. Arriving at New Orleans on the 9th, he spent a day or two in the city, when he proceeded to Brazos de Santiago, at the mouth of the Rio Grande, arriving August 6 at " Camp Curtis," opposite the old city of Matamoros. On the 9th of December he was assigned by General Patterson as Surgeon to the 3d Illinois regiment, commanded by Ferris Foreman, which being ordered by General Zachary Taylor to Victoria, arrived there January 4, 1847. January 15 Patterson's Division, of which his (Robison's) regiment was a part, was ordered to join General Winfield Scott at Tampico, and on March 8 they were ordered to sail for Vera Cruz, whither they arrived on the 15th, the Mexican forces surrendering seventeen days thereafter, the United States soldiers taking possession of the city. On the 10th of April, 1847, on account of sickness, Dr. Robison resigned his commission and returned to Wooster, and in October of the same year formed a partnership with J. P. Coulter, M. D., for the practice of medicine, which continued to the fall of 1853. Here he intermitted his professional labors for about a year, meantime going to New York and visiting the hospitals and medical institutions there with a view to keeping abreast with the progress and discoveries of the profession. He again returned to Wooster 534 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. in the autumn of 1854, opening an office and engaging in the practice until 1861, when the war of the Rebellion was inaugurated. He immediately offered his professional services to the government, which were as promptly accepted, being assigned to the 16th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, with which he was identified throughout the three months' service. He was in the battle of Phillippi, one of the earliest collisions of the Rebellion, and had the honor of amputating the frrst leg of the war, that of a Confederate soldier. He was promoted to the rank of Brigade Surgeon in July, 1861, and assigned to the command of General Rosecranz. After the battle of Carnifex Ferry he was ordered to locate and organize hospitals along the Kanawha, and assume charge of the one situated at Galipolis. He was with General Lander at Paw-paw Tunnel, who died the second day after his arrival. He accompanied the army of General James Shields down the Valley of the Shenandoah and participated in the first battle of Winchester, Virginia, March 23, 1862, which resulted in the discomfiture of the forces of Longstreet and Stonewall Jackson. He next assumed supervision of hospitals, and continued to act in that capacity until General N. P. Banks was driven from the Valley. He was afterwards sent to the Peninsula with the forces under General G. B. McClellan, being attached to the 6th army corps, commanded by General Franklin, as an inspecting surgeon, retaining said position until after the battle of Antietam, September 17, 1862. He was next ordered to Washington City to take charge of the Patent Office Hospital, where he remained until he was compelled to resign on account of the illness of his wife. On his return home he was appointed Surgeon of the Board of Enrollment for this district, which position he held during the war. Since then he has been engaged in practice. Dr. J. D. Robison has been twice married. A retrospect of the life of Dr. Robison shows it to have been an intensely active, zealous and positive one. From the very outset in 1840 it has been a vigorous battle, not a long skirmish line, with here and there a faculty employed, but a compact and concentrated movement against the opposing forces of the world. Diligence and speculative research were characteristic of him in his rudimentary professional years. He was practical and observant from the very outstart of his studies. He is one of the able and popular physicians in the county, and is seen every day with the harness on. He is not an idler, WOOSTER-SKETCHES - 535 and even if he were so inclined, his professional duties would give him no time for recreation. There has always been a fascination in his chosen science. He toils in it because it delights him. Its duties may be depressing and discouraging at times, but then they have their rewards. It may be the ministry of pain; but it is likewise the ministry of blessing and love. At the bed of sickness he is non-excitable, candid and undeceiving, full of encouragement and expectation. He is naturally of a cheery, spring-like and hopeful disposition. He believes, with one of the old poets, that we should hope for everything that is good, because there is nothing which may not be hoped for, and nothing but what the gods are able to give us. Surely it is a cardinal and robust virtue in man. It imparts habitual serenity and good-humor. It is a kind of vital heat in the soul that cheers and gladdens it. It makes pain easy and labor pleasant. As a skillful practitioner he takes high rank, having an experience possessed by few of his rivals—active professional service during two wars. As a patriot all that can be said of Dr. Robison must be expressed in the language of eulogy. In the Mexican campaign he was one of the most popular of the surgeons and won a reputation as an eminent and successful practitioner. In politics he is a Republican, but has made it a life-rule to avoid its tumults and strifes. Had he ventured upon this field he could not well have been kept out of Congress. In this direction he had special qualifications. He prefers to look at the sunlight to the twilight side of human nature. He is a man of marked mental and physical equilibrium—calm and self-possessed. He is genteel, plain and unaffected. In the social circle he is at home and causes all to feel the same way. He is a fluent talker, the gravity of his conversation at times being often enlivened with wit and humor. In fact, he is such a man and his demeanor such as to be equally distant from constraint and negligence, and he will command your respect while he lays seige to your heart. The Doctor, though slightly past his fiftieth year is yet hale and stout, having the prospect of years of usefulness and enjoyment. He still sparkles with his youthful vivacity ; is as full of fun as a spring rivulet is of water. If his hair is snowy, it covers a warm head, for "where the snow-flakes fall thickest there's nothing can freeze." 536 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF WOOSTER. The people of Wooster, intelligent themselves, have always taken an interest and pride in making their children intelligent. In the years 1853 and 1854, each of the four wards of the city built a school-house of its own, and for a few years thereafter each had a school conducted independently of the others. They were finally united under one management, and Mr. John Brinkerhoff was appointed general Superintendent, a position he held until 187o. The school accommodations becoming insufficient, in 1867 the citizens voluntarily taxed themselves to build the best school-house in the State. It was completed in 1870, the building, with grounds, furniture, etc,, having cost $113,000. It is located on West Bowman street. While its great size renders it the most conspicuous building in the city, its architectural beauty fascinates the eye of every beholder. Beauty in architecture is a great educator of popular taste. The Greeks and Romans were better aware of this fact than many of our money-getting generation. On each floor of the High School building there is one large study room, having a seating capacity for two hundred and forty pupils. Four recitation rooms are attached to each of these. The Principal gives her undivided attention to discipline and the supervision of the studying, while the Assistants hear all the recitations. This plan secures a highly advantageous division of labor. All the rooms are tastefully finished and ornamented to some extent with pictures, plants, etc., to give them a pleasant, homelike air. High commendation is due to those who have not overlooked the fact that children have an aesthetic nature that should be gratified and cultivated. It would be a cruel economy that would place refined teachers and impressible children in dingy, unattractive rooms. A keen sense of beauty, harmony and order are as essential to happiness and usefulness in life as a knowledge of arithmetic and grammar. Moreover, pleasant surroundings make dispositions pleasant, and thereby render discipline easy. There is a library of three hundred volumes, a geological cabinet and eight hundred dollars worth of philosophical and chemical apparatus. These aid greatly in the work of instruction. The school is divided into three departments, viz: Primary, Grammar, High School. There are four grades in each department, all the pupils of a grade having the same studies. It requires WOOSTER—PUBLIC SCHOOLS - 537 one year to complete the work of a grade, and promotions are made regularly from one to another every June. In 1874, vocal music was introduced as a regular branch of study in all the grades. The results obtained have exceeded the fondest expectations of its most ardent advocates. In September, 1877, drawing was given a place in the course of study, and a special teacher was appointed for that branch. These are indications of progress in the right direction. Since education is the due and harmonious development of all the powers of man, educate the heart and the hand as well as the head. The Superintendent holds a meeting for all the teachers once a month. After his suggestions and instructions have been given, one or two of the teachers present carefully written papers on subjects relating to their work in the school-room. The thoughts presented are then discussed by the teachers. In the intervals, frequent grade meetings are held for special instruction in the methods of conducting the work of each particular grade. That the present Superintendent and teachers are zealous and progressive is indicated by the fact that they have, at their own expense, furnished a reading-room and supplied it with the best educational and scientific periodicals. The public schools of Wooster now rank among the best in the State. The course of study is thorough and complete ; the best methods of instruction and discipline are in use ; and a competent corps of teachers is employed. A large number of non-resident pupils are now in attendance, which shows that the schools are popular. The School Trustees are performing their duties zealously and intelligently. The following is the present organization of the schools : BOARD OF EDUCATION. John Zimmerman, Jacob Frick and J. W. Baughman. SUPERINTENDENT OF INSTRUCTION. W. S. Eversole, A. M. BOARD OF EXAMINERS. Superintendent, W. S. Eversole ; Professor S. J. Kirkwood and Colonel Ben. Eason. TEACHERS. High School.—Principal, Jennie A. Boyd; Assistants, Mary E. Parsons and Susan Given. A and B Grammar School.—Principal, William L. Brothers ; Assistants, Ada Given, Maria E. Abbott and Carrie V. Kramer. 538 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. C and D Grammar School.—Principal, Flora Miller ; Assistants, Mila Barrett, Ella J. Milligan, Loretta S. McMonigal and Mary E. Gordon. First Ward.—Principal, Ettie E. Jackson ; Assistants, Ella J. Eckenroth and Eunice Clark. Second Ward.—Principal, Kate L. Barnes; Assistants, Frankie J. Clark and Nettie M. Gasche. Third Ward.—Principal, Emma E. Weirich ; Assistants, Emma Flattery and Ella F. Mark. Fourth Ward.—Principal, Amelia Kemmerlein ; Assistant, Ella D. Shively. Teacher of Music, N. L. Glover. Teacher of Drawing, S. G. Steele. JOHN ZIMMERMAN. John Zimmerman immigrated to America in the year 1845, having been born in Richen, Grand Duchy of Baden, now under the Prussian Government, April 11, 1829. His father, Paul Zimmerman, was a farmer, in moderate circumstances, a representative of the middle class, with whom the possession of large farms or estates was a very unusual affair. He had ten children—nine boys and one girl—his son John being the youngest of the family. His mother died when he was seven years old. Having an older brother living near Canal Dover, and having heard of the rare opportunities of money-getting in the United States, he resolved to make them a visit, which he did, reaching New York, June 25, 1845. His steps were immediately directed to Canal Dover, where he found his brother living on a small tract of land about a mile from said village. His name was Frederick Zimmerman, and now lives in Bloomville, Seneca county, Ohio. With Frederick he remained six weeks, when he proceeded to Canton, Ohio, going into the drug store of C. C. A. Wittings as a clerk, with whom he remained two years, employed chiefly in the laboratory and experimenting with chemicals. In 1847 he went to Massillon, was employed two years as clerk in a drug and book concern, returning to Canton in 1849, and entering the drug store of Dr. R. H. McCall. In 1850 the doctor went to California, leaving Mr. Zimmerman in charge of his business, during which year he was married to Miss Barbara Held, of Massillon, Ohio. Dr. McCall returned from California in 1852, Mr. Zimmerman still in possession of the store. Forming a partnership now, on the 5th of July of this year, he came to Wooster and rented a room in the east end of the old Exchange Hotel, where he engaged in the sale of drugs, books, etc. This part- WOOSTER—SKETCHES - 539 nership continued until the fall of 1855, when Mr. Zimmerman purchased the interest of his partner. Continuing business here for three years, he next rented the room now occupied by Messrs. Roller & Wilson, where he conducted trade for ten years. In February, 1867, he bought 42x180 feet of the Exchange Block, removed the old building immediately, and proceeded at once to erect a new one, which was completed about the middle of March, 1868. That spring he assumed possession of it, taking into partnership with him for a term of five years Lewis P. Ohliger, an active and reliable young man who had been in his employ for over ten years. His building is a superb brick, three stories high, fronting on West Liberty street, with a depth of 175 feet. His business occupies the whole length of it, the wholesale department being to the rear. A commodious cellar underlies the whole building. On the second floor are the rooms of the Wayne County Democrat office, besides two of the best public offices in the city. On the third floor is a fine hall, 58x26. Mr. Zimmerman has been frequently promoted to offices of public trust since he came into the county, having been elected County Treasurer in 1857 and re-elected in 1859, besides holding several of the most important municipal offices of Wooster. He is a special champion of education, subscribing liberally to the University, and particularly devoting his energies to the advancement of the public schools of the city, he being at the present time President of the Board of Education. In every respect Mr. Zimmerman has shown himself to be a very valuable citizen, having the welfare of the city and county at heart, as is manifest at all times by his zeal in every department of public enterprise. REV. BENJAMIN POPE. Rev. Benjamin Pope was born near Lancaster, Fairfield county, Ohio, May 6, 1815, and was the youngest of seven children. He was educated at the Seminary of the Joint Synod of Ohio, under the charge of Professor Schmidt, of Columbus, now called Capital University. After entering upon the ministry he located near Steubenville, Jefferson county, Ohio, continuing in the service of the profession until enfeebled and incapacitated by affliction. He died June, 8, 1864. Elizabeth M. Hippee, to whom Rev, Pope was married Sep- 540 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. tember 14, 1843, i a native of Canton, Stark county, Ohio, where she was born September 14, 1823. Having qualified herself for the duties of teaching, at an early age she engaged in the profession, teaching at Delaware, Ohio, for two years, and until her health seemed to be failing. In the spring of 1849 she became the successor of Mrs. McKee—wife of the Seceder minister of the long-gone-by—she transferring to Mrs. Pope her pupils, numbering five or six, whom she instructed about two months. In October she opened the session, assisted by Miss Sarah Hippee, with between thirty and forty pupils upon the roll. This term was taught in the house now owned and occupied by 0. F. Jones, Esq. In the spring of 1853 she took possession of the old Academy building, and continued her labors as Principal of the institution until 1865, establishing for herself and her school a reputation that made the name of " Mrs. Pope's Seminary at Wooster" popular throughout Wayne and neighboring counties. CAPTAIN GEORGE U. HARN. " Whether on the scaffold high, Or in the battle's van, The noblest place for man to die, Is when he dies for man." George Upton Ham was born in the city of Baltimore, July 30, 1820. He was the son of John and Charlotte Harn, and was the oldest of a family of fourteen children. In his journal he says, "I have but little to say about my parentage, for I am unapprized of anything worthy of notice except it be, that my genealogy on both father's and mother's side could not be impeached with anything short of common honesty, so far as I am acquainted." His great-great-grandfather was the first of the name in America, and he came from London, and was of Cymbro or Welsh descent. He spent the first two years of his life in Baltimore with his mother, while his father was in Frederick county working at his trade, which was that of house-joiner. After this the family moved to this county and purchased a plantation. When he was ten years old his father took him to Baltimore to attend school, and placed him in charge of his grandmother. He remained in the city but a few months, when he returned home. After this he was sent to a subscription school in the neighbor WOOSTER—SKETCHES - 541 hood, and it was here and at the debating society where he first acquired a taste for study and his disposition for public speaking first manifested itself. In the year 1838, being then eighteen years of age, he made a profession of religion. In August, 1839, he was immersed, and on the same Sunday announced that on the following Sunday he would preach. His father declared his opposition to this movement, but notwithstanding this, on the appointed day he delivered his first sermon, taking for his text portions of the first chapter of James. He obtained permission of his father to attend a camp-meeting at Big Pipe creek, near Tawnytown, about sixteen miles from his home, which was to commence on the 4th of September, but when the time came his father refused to let him go. Mr. Harn remonstrated and said he had promised to go and that he must go, when he was met with the answer that if he did he should never enter the family mansion again. The next morning was Sunday, and he again asked leave to go, and was once more refused. There being now no chance of getting a horse to ride he started afoot through a storm of rain. He left home at 9 A. M. and arrived at his destination at 3 P. M., making the distance of sixteen miles in this time, traveling bare-footed occasionally to save his shoes that he was fearful might give out before he got there. Arriving at the camp-meeting he found himself in the midst of entire strangers, but soon found plenty of friends, afterwards returning home, notwithstanding the uttered prohibition of his father. In 1841 the Pennsylvania Eldership of the churches assembled at Mt. Joy, Lancaster county, licensed him as a regular minister, and immediately appointed him to a circuit. When he was twenty- four years old he turned his attention to Greek, not, however, being assisted by an instructor. Combined with his good English education, he attained proficiency as a German, Latin, Greek and Hebrew scholar, having made considerable progress in the study of French. In 1846 he published a small work entitled " A Sermon on the Ordinance of Feet Washing," which was issued from the Church Advocate office, the organ of the Church of God in the United States. This book elicited a sarcastic review from a contributor of the Methodist Protestant, published in Baltimore. The article, however, was firmly met with a caustic reply, by Rev. Harn, as might well be expected, for the lion of his nature could howl through his pen. 542 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. In the summer of 1847, becoming restless, he made an exodus for the then far west, going down the Ohio and up the Mississippi, above St. Louis, when he left the river, and traveled on foot preaching along the road wherever he could find suitable places' and in his course visiting Mt. Carroll, Freeport, Dixon, Galena, etc., in Illinois. During the winter of 1847-48 he taught school and preached in Mt. Carroll and neighboring places. In the spring of 1848 he returned east, by the way of Chicago, and by Lake Erie, to Cleveland, and thence by stage to Wooster. Here he was hospitably entertained by Rev. Archibald Megrew, who was then pastor in charge of the Church of God in Wooster, and here, on the 30th of April, 1848, he preached his first sermon in Wooster. His stay in Wooster, this time, was brief, it being only a visit, and on the lath of this month he started eastward. In the latter part of 1848 he began preaching in Philadelphia, and in June, 1850, he followed "the course of Empire" west again, accompanied by Elder John Winebrenner, and arrived in Wooster on the 8th of this month, the same evening preaching in the Baptist church. This trip was continued on to Iowa, when he returned to Pennsylvania, and thence back to Wooster, where he arrived about April 12, 185 I , this time to take charge of the church, where he remained but a year, having been appointed to the pastorate of the church at Lancaster, Pa., in May, 1852, where he remained two years. He next took charge of the church at Shippensburg, in that State, where he remained until April, 1855, when he once more retraced his steps to Wooster, becoming pastor of the church for several years. During 1854-55 he took an active part in the temperance reform movement in Pennsylvania. In 1856 he took an active part in local and national politics, and established the reputation of being a powerful orator and debater. From April 1, 1857, to April 1, 1858, he traveled over 5,000 miles, 3,000 of which by private conveyance, and spoke over 200 times, principally upon temperance, slavery and Hebrew servitude. On the 12th of July, in company with General Spink, Hon. William M. Orr, Hon. Eugene Pardee and Hon. Martin Welker, he attended the State convention, as a delegate from Wayne county. In 1858 he was a candidate for Congress before the nominating convention, where he demonstrated great strength and popularity. In 1860 he was a delegate to the Chicago convention, which nominated A. Lincoln. During all these years he was a constant correspondent WOOSTER-SKETCHES - 543 of the Church Advocate, many of his contributions being masterly and heroic assaults upon slavery. He wrote upon a great variety of topics, such as Baptism by Immersion, Infant Baptism, etc., and in the possession of his family are valuable MSS. upon these and other subjects intended for publication. He was married March 27, 1851, to Mary A. Bricker, of Cumberland county, Pennsylvania. His oldest son, George U. Harn, is at the present time one of the editors and proprietors of the Mansfield, Ohio, Herald. He was an acute, logical and profound thinker, a fluent and powerful debater, fearless of antagonists, and carrying his challenge in his hand. He had the pluck of Murat, the courage of Turenne. Fear to him was a meaningless term. If he resolved to go forward he would do so " though hell should gape and bid him hold his peace." He faced danger with the courage of conscience and intellect. The man who dared to utter such a sentiment—" Not that I seek death, but if such a sacrfice must be offered, let me be one who shall do his duty in the decisive hour," and who, when the decisive hour came, did die like a hero, has made an appeal for earthly immortality. WOODHULL AND CLAFLIN. The higher liberty of the soul ! At " the other end of the avenue," freedom from all restraint! Free love is libertinism, libertinism is tragedy. Vary the key-note ; introduce the charming variations ; make use of the minor, or the major scale, the strain finally modulates into the melancholy finale, tragedy. Helen elopes from her husband to be mistress of Priam's son. Troy in ashes. Mark Antony dallied in amorous liaison with Cleopatra ; upon his own sword, that " quartered the world," he fell, while the poison of a deadly asp froze her blood. Before Lucretia Borgia her admirers bowed in adoration, and promiscuously enjoyed her charms. What fates awaited them ! Notorious in history is the royal libertine of all the Russias ; and who can tell the dark doom that fell upon the favorites of Catherine ? But the quarries of history need not be explored for illustration to make sure our proposition. A pale girl in the corridor of the Treasury building at Washington City, with fiery eyes, presents herself with outstretched 544 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. hand, and in it a loaded pistol ; a puff of smoke is seen, and a bullet tears through a young man's heart ; free love, with its license of libertinism, closes in tragedy. A pocket handkerchief flaunts in the air ; a wild crowd jams the street-the revolver has done its work ; a mangled body bleeds upon the curb-stone, and this is General Sickles' protest against free-loveism, and this is tragedy. The Sheridan of dashing journalists allows the strange fatalism to possess him ; it insinuates with its delightful exterior the social circle, and in its firm and silky folds is caught a brilliant summer fly, ready to abjure most sacred vows ; another pistol shot, a deathbed marriage, a bride of an hour. A briber of Legislatures seeking to make lawlessness law, and judges pronounce injustice just, who sneered at prisons and penalties, at promises and pledges, at honesty and honor, whose immense commercial genius exhausted itself in thefts and frauds and cheats, who rioted and feasted and fattened upon stolen substance, who enjoyed beyond men, the higher liberty of the soul, and pranced wildly in the enchanting pastures of license, whose life was an amour and for whom Fate wove her webs from the eye-beams and voluptuous charms of a lovely woman, suddenly closes a rapid, wonderful life, On the stairway of a fashionable metropolitan hotel, the condemning bullet avenges the libertinism of free love. The end is tragedy. These are but prominent illustrations. How many suicides, the causes of which are mysterious, might be but the discordant strains in this doleful finale, of which the introduction and theme are the voluptuous melodies of free love! If free-lovism prevails will not the tragedy be universal ? " Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small; Though with patience He stands waiting, with exactness grinds he all." A question arising whether these transcendentalists ever lived in Wooster we took the liberty of writing the following letter: WOOSTER, OHIO, February 20, 1874. VICTORIA WOODHULL, New York—Madam: With parties interested in the matter, there is now suspended in the chancery of opinion a question as to the fact of you and your sister Tennie C. Claflin having, at any time, been residents of our city. I will be gratitied to have your statement relative to the subject in dispute. If it be true that you formerly lived in Wooster, when was it, and how long? You will greatly oblige me by answering this letter. Permit me to subscribe myself, very cordially, BEN DOUGLASS. WOOSTER—SKETCHES - 545 The following was received in reply: BEN DOUGLASS, ESQ.—Dear Sir: Both Tennie and I lived in Wooster, Ohio, during my tenth and eleventh years. A Dr. ____ _____, if still living, can tell you something of us. Yours, etc., VICTORIA C. WOODHULL. We entertain no feeling or sentiment of pride in presenting to our readers the fact that these two grossest and subtlest of all the advocates of the monstrous social crime of the age once lived in our county, but it fell under the range of our work and we sought the information. They have a continent-wide fame as the exponents of their peculiar views, by which, if the civil, domestic and religious world were governed, there would be presented a disorganized mass that ultimately would bring on the age of unbridled license and its natural consequence, universal anarchy and uproar. MAJOR ENOCH TOTTEN. Enoch Totten, son of Michael and Susan Totten, of Wooster, was born in Wayne county, March 23, 1836. He was educated at Franklin College, Harrison county, Ohio, and afterwards removing to Wisconsin, began reading law with Judge Joseph Hawkins, of Waukesha. After the conclusion of his elementary studies, he began practice in the city of Milwaukee, in that State, where he continued until the breaking out of the war in 1861. He enlisted in the Fifth Wisconsin Regiment of Infantry, April 23, 1861, and in May was commissioned First Lieutenant. He entered the Peninsular campaign as a Captain, and was in the battles of Williamsburg, Garnet Hill, Malvern Hill, the "Seven Days' Battle " before Richmond, the second Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Rappahannock, Wilderness, Spottsylvania, etc. In the Wilderness, on the 5th of May, 1864, he was wounded in the foot and had his horse shot, and at Spottsylvania, May 10, 1864, he was struck four times, a minie-ball passing through his Tight hand. He was at the head of his regiment, and while waving his sword and leading his men in a charge upon the enemy's third line of earth-works, in the darkness of the night, the unerring bullet struck his sword, wrenched it from his grasp, and tore violently 545 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. through the hand that bravely held it. The wound being a most painful one and totally disqualifying him for further present service, he retired from the field and returned to Wooster, where he remained for a period with his parents, having served from the time of his enlistment three years and seventeen days. Concerning Mr. Totten's courage and skill as an officer, we quote : On Thursday, May 5, 1864, Major Totten was ordered by General Russell, in the middle of the forenoon, to take command of the third company of his regiment, and repel an assault of the enemy on the right of our line. Major Totten fought his men with the utmost gallantry and skill during the greater part of the day, though with himself and horse severely wounded at the opening of the fight, capturing a stand of colors and 266 prisoners. The prisoners outnumbered the effective strength of the whole of the Fifth Wisconsin Regiment. Major Totten refused to leave his post, and distinguished himself in the fighting on each of the subsequent days, until, in an assault upon the enemy's breast-works, he was wounded and forever disabled. He had won a Brigadiership." Major General Upton, of the United States Army, urged his promotion, assuring General Schofield of his cool courage and gallantry, and calling attention to the fact " that Major Totten's services have not as yet been properly rewarded." He is now located in Washington City, D. C., engaged in the practice of his chosen profession. He was married October 4, 1867, to Mary E. Howe, daughter of United States Senator Howe, of the State of Wisconsin. Major Totten is another Wayne county boy that has made his mark. He spent his earlier years upon the farm, acquired a thorough education at Franklin College, gravitated West, entered the legal profession, and soon rose to eminence at the bar. After Sumpter was fired he went into the military service of the Government, and at its close removed to Washington City, D. C., and resumed the legal practice. In the army he served for over three years, and until he was disabled by wounds from any further duty. His record as a soldier is certainly eventful and brilliant. By referring to the battles which we have enumerated, and many equally prominent are not mentioned, it will be noticed that he actively participated in the bloodiest engagements of the war. How he should have escaped annihilation is beyond speculation or conjecture, for he was ever at the head of his regiment, and a better or braver body of fighting men never went into the service of the nation than the 5th Wisconsin. Though not Colonel of the WOOSTER—SKETCHES - 547 regiment he commanded it in all of its dashing and dangerous engagements, and was uniformly conceded to be the most efficient officer in its ranks. Its corps d' esprit is entirely and exclusively attributable to him. He should have been the Colonel of the regiment, and alluding to his tact and bravery in a single instance, Major General Upton declared he had won a Brigadiership. At Gettysburg, where bronzed orators of war, with iron elocution, plead as they had never done before ; amid the deafening thunders of Antietam ; and in the Wilderness, that dripping altar of sacrifice over which the aching clouds took pity and sobbed in showers—in these, and other of the desperate and decisive collisions of the mighty struggle, he bore a heroic and conspicuous part, and vindicated his claim to a patriotic remembrance. Major Totten was a true soldier, and "A braver gentleman More active, valiant, or more valiant-young, More daring, or more bold," Never faced the dangers from which our natures shrink but which the brave man dares. He is permanently located in the Capital city of the nation and deeply absorbed in the duties of his profession, in the range of which is embraced Government business and special practice in the United States Courts. JAMES C. JACOBS. James C. Jacobs was born in Wooster, April 4, 1832, and is the only surviving son of the family. He is a Buckeye, every inch of him, and, if he could have had the choosing of his place of birth, could not have well hit upon a better State. He is a monarch in his business, a pontiff in the hardware trade.* If he aspires to no power to command or compel obedience, it is not a waiver of his privilege ; but it must be known, once and for all, that he is the center and circumference of his own house. It is said of him, by himself, that he is in no sense a classic scholar, carries no university parchment, and is in no possible way master of Latin or skilled in Greek. He did, however, tunnel through the labyrinthine windings and mazes of E. Mor- * 1874 548 - HISTORY OF WAY NE COUNTY, OHIO. gan Parrott's prescribed curriculum, and at the age of fifteen anchored in full honors on the thither side of the academic course. He then entered the hardware establishment of Captain J. H. Kauke, through the extended and varied gradations of which he has circulated, from cellar to attic. Henry Kirk White had immortalized himself in the poetic literature of the world and passed to his reward in a shorter life than the time which Mr. Jacobs has devoted to his business. In his chosen field he made success the central idea, and he has achieved it. As a business man he has few superiors. With him there is no artifice in trade. His price of goods is the sale-mark. His business is the largest in his line in the county, and his rooms are, in their adaptation and appointments, among the best in Ohio. With him all is system, arithmetical precision and order. He is full of physical force, and has enough of intellect to vitalize it. There is a sort of George Lawish energy and masculinity about him which signally characterizes him. A determination with him is more than half of its accomplishment. He possesses a good understanding and has strong personality. The world's idea is to judge an individual by what he has accomplished by his hands or brain, or with both. Every man brings into the world with him a certain amount of pith and force, and to that pith or force his amount of accomplishment is exactly proportioned. The employment and utilization of these agencies have made Mr. Jacob's life a success. Success may come by accident, or overtake a man, but the millionth man is neither lucky nor caught. It is a sleek fox, hard to run down, and will slip through your hands if not held tight. The observation of fixed maxims of business, in his case, worked its own solution. He has ever kept an eye upon his business. He knows more about his stock on hand than all his clerks put together. It is no pleasure for him to be idle, for when he wants amusement he goes to work ; hence, when he is not in the counting-room he is at the counter. Moreover, he believes that " a pot that is stirred by another is ill-stirred and worse boiled." He is master of his business; knows exactly what he wants, and has the money to pay for it. He is an off-handed man, and makes a bargain while some men would be picking their teeth after a meal. He inclines to the cash system; is his own counselor, though not insensible to kindly suggestions from without. He is never victimized by that bipedal visitant, the "runner," nor does he al- WOOSTER—SKETCHES - 549 low such Jaws to peck at him long. He says yes or no, and means to a dot which one he says. After this all talk is superfluous. While he is strictly courteous he is immovably firm. He likes a huge, thundering no, about as well as anything else. He hates a yes, yes, man by the very positiveness of his nature and the steel that is in him. He could not well be a pretender, for there is too much grit in him. He would stand at the head of his profession, if he were selling sand-pellets. If he could have had his way he would have set all Cuba a-burning for the shooting of Captain Fry. He has little reverence for old land-marks, and believes every generation should put up new mile-stones. His mind is a kind of log-book, and he knows how far he goes every day. He is enterprising, but scrupulously cautious. He conducts business alone, and is, therefore, his own keeper, and carries his own keys. What he don't tell his neighbors could not be crowded into a pamphlet. If you think he don't know what is going on, just ask him. If you imagine he don't think, state your hypothesis again, and correct your mistake. He has laughed at " Uncle Toby" as well as the rest of us, and peeped through the " Man Who Laughs." He has got the nerve to read Reenan if he do not like him. He has glanced through the coffee-houses of the English wits, and taken a look at Tom Jones and Humphrey Clinker. He is not a politician. One reason is, it is a race of the rascals ; another, he has not time. He is plain in conversation, generally self-possessed, and occasionally excitable. When aroused he does not run to his dictionary to select the best words or consult a lexicon for elegant phrases by which to express himself; what is uppermost comes first, and like a stone from the fire-wall of a building, falls straight to the spot. There is no circumlocution about him ; the nearest way to a point is the shortest way. If he were a surgeon, he would amputate the arm and then prove that he did the right thing. Were he to write a book, he would have neither preface nor introduction, not even an index, to it. To his friends he is true as his best steel. He will tolerate a folly in a friend, but will make little apology for it. His personal intimacies are few, as all close relations are full of perils, nor does he dull his " Palm with entertainment Of each unhatched, unfledged comrade." His attachments to his kindred are generous and impulsively warm. His principles are as sound as his values, and his integrity as un- 550 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. bending as the crudest iron. He despises humbug, yet he might be induced to go to Barnum's to whet his sense of it. He is goaheadative, progressive, and likes to see the wheel on dry ground. If he can not draw the chariot himself he will do his share of pushing. He believes in all charitable and educational enterprises, contributes his share, and makes no parade of it. Like Bonner and Barnum, he believes in advertising. Singularly enough, he is unmarried, but he arranges a home for the sake and sanctity of it. His assured prosperity entrenches itself in brick, which is at once an expression of his solidity and character. Although but a little over forty years of age, he has filled the work-measure of an ordinary life. He began at the bottom, stood upon the rim, and from the crescent guessed the sphere. The guess he has seen realized, and none better than he is entitled to enjoy it, and none more than his friends are willing that he should. COLONEL JOSEPH H. CARR. Joseph H. Carr was born in East Union township, Wayne county, March 12, 1842, but removed to Wooster when two years of age. During the period from 1847 to 1859 he attended public and select schools almost constantly, and in 1859 commenced studying law. On April 16, 1861, when the first call for volunteers was made, at the age of nineteen he enlisted as a private in the first company (E) organized in Wayne county for the 4th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry. From corporal in Company E, he was promoted to the sergeant-majorship of the regiment, and at the age of twenty was appointed aid-de-camp on the staff of General S. S. Carroll, of General Hancock's famous second corps of the Army of the Potomac. He served on staff duty with that corps during the campaigns and battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg and in the suppression of the New York riots. He received special mention in general orders for distinguished bravery at the battle of Gettysburg. In 1864 he was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel of the 169th Ohio Regiment, and owing to the disability of the Colonel before leaving the State, the command of the regiment devolved upon him during its entire service. Its superior discipline is commended by Whitlaw Reid in his " Ohio in the War." WOOSTER-SKETCHES - 551 From the private ranks as a soldier Colonel Carr rapidly rose to promotion, and attained the reputation of being a splendid drill and field officer. His efficiency upon the staff of Generals Mason and Carroll was freely recognized, and he possessed the confidence of them invariably, and who at all times relied upon his activity, zeal, patriotism and ability to execute any trust, however hazardous, which was devolved upon him. With all the officers he sustained himself well, uniformly developing splendid courage as a soldier and superior qualifications as a gentleman. His comrades-in-arms are ever willing and ready with assurances of his manly and heroic character, and the esteem in which he is held by them since " wild war's deadly blast" is over, is a sure attestation of his popularity when in the military service. After the close of the contest and "gentle peace returning," he laid aside the sword and donned the civilian uniform. The Colonel, though a gallant soldier of the Republic, enduring forced marches, sieges, battles, etc., always escaped capture, but on his arrival home we may not be allowed to speak so approvingly of his valor. A line of circumvolution encompassed him, he found himself encircled in the coils of the deadliest of all enemies; he could no longer resist the siege of a woman's eyes, and acting upon the principle that the truest heroism is oftentimes most flexible, surrendered the hand that amid the smoke of battle had borne aloft the sword. He was united in marriage in January, 1865, to Alice Hard, of the city of Wooster, and has re-enforced the legions of the Republic by two sons, one of whom he names after his old commander, Carroll. in 1864 he was admitted to the bar, in the practice of which profession he is at present engaged. Colonel Carr is a young man of ability, promise, and excellent business qualifications, whose public life is characterized by earnestness, industry and integrity. In his official positions since the close of the war, whether in the employment of the United States Government, or as City Solicitor, or as Auditor of the county, he has fulfilled his various duties with ability and fidelity. He is an affable, genial companion, a courteous gentleman, with strong social and domestic attachments — a good citizen and a good lawyer. CAPT. A. S. MCCLURE. A. S. McClure was born October 1o, 1839, in the city of Woos- 552 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. ter, Wayne county, and has ever since resided there. His earlier years were spent with his father, during which time, and after having attained to sufficient years, he attended the then village schools, availing himself of the facilities which were afforded for educational culture, and manifesting an eager and earnest disposition for books and study. At the early age of fifteen his accomplishments and proficiency in this direction justified a determination to enter upon a higher plane of intellectual labor and a broader basis of development. In, conformity to this resolution, in the autumn of the year above mentioned, he entered Jefferson College, Washington county, Pa., where for five years, or until the fall of 1859, he continued in pursuit of his studies, although he did not graduate. At college he distinguished himself for sharp application to his books ; achieved prominence for his linguistic attainments, especially for his proficiency in the Latin language, and the critical study of his own, which is singularly accurate and discriminating. In the literary societies of the college he took active interest, soon becoming conspicuous as an extemporaneous speaker, a fluent and logical debater, bearing away the honors of oration in the annual contest between the Philo and Franklin Literary Societies in February, 1856. On his relinquishment of college pursuits he soon determined, for temporary employment and as a means of a more varied discipline as well as recreation, to make some experiments in teaching. Insomuch, thought he, as for five years I have been a sort of consignee of the intellectual wares of other men, I will reverse the order, and assume the attitude of consignor of my own goods. In pursuance of this resolve he directed his steps toward the "sunny South," and in the winter of 1859-60 opened a school on the plantation of Alfred J. Rowan, east of Natchez, State of Mississippi. In April, 186o, he returned home filled with the ambition of his youth, and entered at once upon the study of the law.. Selecting as his preceptors Hon. Levi Cox and Hon. Martin Welker, he began to unravel the complex problems of Blackstone and Kent. Here he applied himself with indefatigable energy to the grand principles of the law, in the writings of its profoundest: and deepest expounders. He was admitted to the bar in the spring of 1861, that spring so terrible to the nation, it being the initial year of the great Rebellion. An Executive proclamation for soldiers for its suppression WOOSTER-SKETCHES - 553 being issued, Mr. McClure was among the first from Wayne county to respond to that call. He at once enlisted as a private in Company E, 4th Ohio Infantry, in the latter part of April,. 1861, subsequently, on the 4th of June, re-enlisting for three years, at Camp Dennison, in the same company and regiment. Thereafter he was promoted to a Captaincy, and transferred to the 16th: Ohio Infantry in October, 1861. He was captured at the charge on Chickasaw Bluffs, Vicksburg, Mississippi, December 29, 1862, and held as a prisoner of war until the loth of May, 1863, when he was exchanged at Harrison's Landing, James river, Virginia. He was discharged on account of expiration of term of enlistment, in Louisiana, in August, 1864, when he returned home and commenced the practice of law. He was elected Recorder of Wooster, in April, 1867 ; was appointed Postmaster of Wooster, in May, 1867 ; re-appointed in March, 1871, and re-appointed in March, 1875. He was a member of the National Republican Convention, held at Chicago, in 1868, that nominated General U. S. Grant for the Presidency ; has been a member of the Republican State Committee at different times, and for eight years Chairman of the Republican Central Committee of Wayne county. In August, 1870, he became one of the editors of the Wooster Republican, which position he occu- pies at the present time. He was married on the 26th of September, 1866, to Miss Mary E. Brigham, of Vienna, Michigan, a lady of refined culture, and of most estimable qualities. Though comparatively a young man, it will be discovered by a hasty retrospect of the preceding thread of narrative that the career of Captain McClure has been somewhat active, remarkable and brilliant. His first desire and characteristic tendency was for books and systematic intellectual discipline. He was a scholar at fifteen, when he entered upon his college course. When a boy he was conspicuous at the debating club, and wielded the cudgel of argument with marked ability against older and more experienced antagonists. There was always a fascination to him, from boyhood, in open and public discussion. He believed, from the outset, that both sides of all topics admitted of logical presentation. From this summit of opinion it mattered little to him which side of the question elicited his thought. All disputation to him was development, and grains of truth lay promiscuously about him. There were great cardinal principles, germinant truths that all 554 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. conceded, but then there were theories that needed sifting, dog to be exploded, and vast accumulations of doubts that would recede before the glancing eye of analysis and rational dissection. His comprehensive and receptive mind, with his assimilating and reflective habits of thought, became necessarily crowded with its own creations ; hence it became essential for him to seek and enjoy disputation, and, by a rule of practice, to acquire finish and grace in oratory. At college, he not only sustained himself in the various branches of the curriculum, but was esteemed as one of the popular, eloquent and graceful orators of the institution. His patriotism was of the intense and aggressive order, and as a soldier, his courage was of that kind that made no provision for a retreat. In the illuminations of bursting shells he could see the sweet dawnings of peace. Hundred pound cannon balls proclaimed victory. He had faith in bayonets and the stout arms that pointed them forward. Trenches well filled with dead men showed the conflict to not have been in vain. The simple words, " Charge, boys !" embodied the whole gospel of a nation's deliverance. He shrank from no duty, however perilous—went where he told others to go. Personally brave, calculating and cool, there was inspiration in his valor. In the civilian domain of life, he is active, zealous, imperturbable and free from imperialism. As a lawyer his acquisitions are varied and accurate. In the preparation of cases he is careful, critical, and with witnesses is polite, seeking only the unfolding of fact and truth. To the court he is circumspect and dignified, and in addressing the jury is convincing and argumentative. He has capacity of concentration, and power of amplification. His delivery is calm and attractive, and his style infused with nerve. Terseness and appropriateness of diction, combined with an elastic vigor of illustration, are the consuls and ministers of his thoughts. In politics he is a Republican, of the zealous and pronounced type. He is an American, every inch of him, in all his views and principles—the very atmosphere of his soul is nationality. Of late, he has largely devoted his time to politics, is well versed in the principles of the Constitution and the various functions of its intricate and beautiful mechanism. He has studied the system in the writings of its august founders. As a political manager he has forecast, sagacity and directness. As a political speaker he has popularized himself throughout Ohio, having actively participated WOOSTER—SKETCHES - 555 in the State campaigns since 1864. He is familiar with the political traditions and history of the whole country—understands the machinations of partizan leaders, and is in no wise tender in regard to exposing them. On the stump he displays alertness in comprehending his subject, patience and labor in investigating it, and voluble and ready eloquence in enforcing his deliberate and well-weighed conclusions. He has a voice exceedingly well modulated, of extraordinary volume and flexibility. His action is vigorous and emphatic, his analysis discriminating and acute, his conclusions enforcing his propositions with the certainty and boldness of a demonstration. He has remarkable intimacy with language and immense facility in expressing himself. He is not compelled to accept the first word that offers itself, but out of the multitudinous variety of the whole he chooses those that suit him best. Hence his orations are elegant and beautiful fabrics, constructed out of the smoothest and most compact material. They need no hewing or dressing, veneer or stucco work, for they are adroitly shaped and formed by the symmetrical masonry of the workmen of his brain. In all his public efforts he is exquisite and happy. Moreover, there is earnestness about him that emphasizes all his utterances. He can hold an audience for two hours as easily as an athlete could Tom Thumb or Commodore Nutt, riveting their attention with the triphammer of argument or delighting them with startling rhetoric. His career as editor has been somewhat brief, but in the discharge of his journalistic duties he has hinted at surpassingly greater possibilities than he has already achieved. His recent articles upon the national finances have been widely copied throughout the country, and exhibit historical research and mature reflection. He writes with a practised hand, a graphic eye, and his editorials are vivid pictures of the times. He speaks out bold and bluff, and sticks to what he says. He is independent and progressive in his views, and will not suffer his opinions to be measured by any Procrustean rule or standard. He will go barefoot rather than walk in iron shoes. It may be said of him, as of Diderot, " he writes good pages." Clearness and comprehensibility are emphasized in all his written productions. Vivacity, far-darting brilliancy, keenness of theoretic vision, gaiety, touches of humor, sallies of invective, coupled with depths of practical insight—all are characteristics of his pen. Captain McClure is involved in pursuits suffrciently arduous and 556 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. responsible to employ all his time and faculties. He is now so situated as to realize the eminent advantage of early habits of study, mental labor, and the general knowledge acquired by systematic education. Outside of his legal and other official duties he still finds leisure for historical research and other branches of study, While his temperament is more practical than poetical, more real than romantic, and while he may not have the poet's appreciation of his brother singer, he finds a richer mental pabulum in Macaulay, Hallam, Buckle and the scrutinizing Hume. He is one of the best historical scholars in the county, the shelves of his library bristling with the classic, literary and scientific authors of the present and past ages. As a conversationalist Mr. McClure is fluent, and in this province is always capable of rendering his meaning irresistibly clear. Socially he is of a frank, unrestrained and hopeful character. He is affable in the circle of his friends, and always accessible to strangers. He is not one of those who believe that virtue, honor, and the good that was born into the world have disappeared, or become corrupted, but has implicit faith in the higher and nobler civilization of the race. The American is to be the one civilization, the English the universal language, and pure Saxon blood is destined yet to stimulate and feed the brain of the world. COLONEL E. P. BATES. Edward Payson Bates, a chip cut from the southern side of the Buckeye tree, was born in Trumbull county, Ohio, May 5, 1838. He spent the earlier portion of his minority upon the home premises with his father, who was a model farmer, and who was scrupulous in all matters of taste, and supremely methodical in all his work. No man in his neighborhood surpassed him in the conditions and appointments of the farm. He managed a fine dairy and thorough-bred, blooded cattle constituted no insignificant portion of the tenantry of his fields. " No more golden butter or better bread and pies," says Col. Bates, "ever burdened a table than his good wife could make." But while the father of Colonel Bates bestowed all needful attention upon the farm, he was not forgetful of the more vital and vastly more important demands of the moral and intellectual constitution of his children. Here was a responsibility which he care- WOOSTER-SKETCHES - 557 gully weighed, and from the gravity of which he sought no evasion. selecting one of the best methods of mental improvement, of stimulating inquiry, and of establishing in the sanctuary of home the basis of moral culture and the higher mental conditions, he kept constantly before his family a variety of choice and excellent books, which, when the intellect cloyed with these, could be alternated with a half dozen of the best weekly and monthly periodicals of the country. Thus it will be seen that the earlier intellectual training of the family of Mr. Daniel Bates was not neglected. In 1856 Mr. E. P. Bates, then a lad of eighteen years, entered Kingsville Academy, Ashtabula county, Ohio, remaining there a period of about three years. From this institution he went to Hillsdale College, Michigan, but before consummating a college course Sumpter was fired, the rebellion inaugurated, old cohesions rent asunder, and society north and south was drifting to the atomic and chaotic state. This was too much for the impetuous and patriotic nature of Colonel Bates, so in April, 1861, he enlisted as a private soldier, serving three months in the 19th Ohio Volunteer Infantry in West Virginia, in Rosecranz's brigade. September 20, 1862, he received a Captain's commission, when he at once proceeded to recruit a company for the 125th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, under Colonel Emerson Opdycke. His services were continual in the Army of the Cumberland ; was with General Sherman until the capture of Atlanta, remaining with General David S. Stanley's corps, under General Thomas, which was intended to confront and destroy Hood's army. In consequence of Colonel Opdycke being summoned to command a brigade, and in the absence of other field officers, the command of the regiment devolved upon Colonel Bates, which command he retained from and after the battle of Chickamauga to the spring of 1864, during which time it distinguished itself in the battle of Mission Ridge and in East Tennessee. He commanded the regiment at the battle of Franklin, one of the most desperate and destructive of the war, considering the number of men engaged, and for courageous conduct in that sanguinary conflict was honored with the rank of Colonel of Volunteers by the War Department, upon the recommendation of Major-General Thomas. There being no vacancy in the regiment to be filled by the State, he was subsequently commissioned as Major and Lieutenant-Colonel of the regiment, not, however, mus- 558 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. tering as either, but fqllowing the fortunes of the regiment and the 4th corps (General Stanley's) to Texas, where, November 13, 1865, he was mustered out of service. After a brief respite thereafter he embarked in life insurance in a general way with his brother, ultimately contracting with the North-western Mutual Life of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to superintend the work in Ohio, with the accession, afterward, of West Virginia to their field of management. Determined on making the business a permanent life-work, they concluded to make Wooster their focus of operations, whither they came in October, 1866. It is apparent at a glance that the record made by Colonel Bates during the war is a signal and enviable one, and of the character to arrest attention and compel admiration. He may regard his reputation safe, as a soldier, since he wore the insignia of a Colonel upon the recommendation of the old war-horse, Thomas, the Charles Martel of the war, for heroic and meritorious conduct. It might logically be presumed from the record and executive nature of the man, that Colonel Bates is equally efficient and capable in plying the arts of peace as those of war. As a practical business man we doubt if he has many superiors. Alertness, penetration, rapidity of perception, combined with sound judgment, accuracy of detail and scholarly attainments, render him a successful operator and a formidable competitor. If the war-cloud of the South tossed its lurid shadow between him and a college diploma, we doubt not but he graduated in a school of harder lessons and sterner tutors. He learned the elocution of cannon, the arithmetic of bullets, the geometry of curving, cavorting shells, and the language of the bursting bomb, less fascinating, perhaps, in its interpretation than the Greek or Latin. To say this much, he has entered upon life with a sound body, a stout heart, a strong arm and brain. “The wild deer lives within his blood, The falcon in his eye." He has personality, force of character, names by which we choose to designate original and vigorous manhood ; these nature endowed him with, and they are her best gifts. A man had better have his face on the sole of his boots than to have no individuality. He is a vigorous man, and he makes his blows tell. There is no trouble in getting fire, if you know how to hit the flint. Colonel Bates has pith and force, and place him where you may, they must tell. He is possessed of deep sagacity, a thorough WOOSTER—SKETCHES - 559 and clear comprehension of causes, readily discovering effects. He enjoys life to a remarkable degree, and will adhere to it tenaciously. His temperament is sanguine, and he has no desire to pass from under his barber till he is both bald and gray. He enjoys an anecdote as well as Dick Steele, and will spear an opponent with a jest in a minute. The social element in him is strong. He loves his friends and grows merry in their society, for to him there is no happiness in the world in which love and mutual confidence do not enter. Nor will he soon forget the parental roof or voice. Good humor and congeniality have each a throne in his heart. He has faith in the world, notwithstanding Adam's mischief-confidence in man though the curse be upon him—for overlay human nature as you please, here and there some bit of rock or mound of aboriginal soil will crop out with the wild flowers growing upon it, sweetening the air. One little episode occurred in the life of Colonel Bates about twelve years ago that we neglected to record in its chronological order. The merest allusion to this event will indicate that he has not been entirely impervious to the attractions of the gentler sex. But in this respect he is only human. For there are moments, most assuredly, when the citadel of the heart is not so strongly fortified as others. At any rate, who that has arrived at years of maturity can say he has never been subject to the sway of woman. Is it not curious how Cupid will wedge himself into the recesses of the human heart. As his arrow penetrates that fortress the stern warrior becomes docile as a child and is disarmed of his prowess. Bonaparte seized empires, but Josephine captured hearts. The statesman on whose words hang the destiny of nations becomes the humble suppliant. The orator who holds entranced the multitude, is struck dumb. The poet who luxuriates in the ideal ; the practical man who scorns the theorist, and laughs at the dreams of the poet—all, each in turn, succumb to the summons of the little despot, The lady to whom the heart of the Colonel surrendered was Miss Mary A. Powers, of Youngstown, Ohio, to whom he was joined in marriage, March 7, 1866. Colonel Bates is yet a young man, having barely put on his regalia for the world's parade and life's great show. What he may yet, with his possibilities of business, be able to accomplish before he touches his zenith or the dimming of his star, is not for us to say. His powers and energies are now directed in the great work 560 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. of Life Insurance. This is the focal point of his thought and labor, and to this one object he has converged all the lines of his life. IRA H. BATES, Second son of Daniel Bates, was born in Oneida county, New York, September 18, 1833, being the senior of the Bates Bros., now located at Wooster. He remained with his father, who was a farmer, until he reached twenty-one years, when he concluded he would open up another field for the exercise of his faculties. He was willing that his experience on the farm should now conclude, and so he determined. It may have required more effort on the part of Mr. Bates than we imagine to sever his relations with the farm, as he was greatly attached to the sports and pastimes of rural life. He seems to have had the fondness of the Englishman for his gun and dog, and, we are told, sometimes exhibited this fondness to an extent that would well-nigh indicate a lingering aversion to work that sometimes had a tendency to engender grave and even formidable suspicions in the paternal mind. He probably believed, with the Arabs, that the days spent in the chase are not counted in the length of life, or with Henri Quatre, that manly exercises are the foundations of that elevation of mind which give one nature ascendancy over another. He finally determined upon an education, and soon every energy of body and mind were bent in that direction. The help that he obtained in this project was summoned from his own resources. It was the man inside shouting bravo to the man outside ; the jewel addressing the casket; the letter talking to the envelope. After a protracted course of study, punctuated with intermissions and paragraphed with delays, he graduated with honor at Hillsdale College in 1862, being a member of the first class that took a full course at that institution. The societies of the institution were reduced to organization during his term, and for his devotion to their interests, his labors for their welfare and personal sacrifices, his name is kindly cherished in their annals. Like many other earnest students, after his withdrawal from college he entered upon the profession of teacher, in which occupation there was to him pleasure and delight, and to which he seemed to be wedded. Conscious of his ability to communicate, WOOSTER-SKETCHES - 561 instruct, explain and analyze, he had the power to command attention, the quick ingenuity to hold it, and consequently impressions were transferred from his to the pupil's mind as readily as the color to the canvas from the artist's brush. He first began the vocation of teacher, after graduation, in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where the fine public schools of that city attest his effrciency and worth, and to whom they are to this day indebted. Protracted years of hard study, and two years of confinement and labor as a teacher, debilitated and prostrated him in health so that he well-nigh exchanged his life for his devotion. It was now deemed necessary to abandon the school-room, and acting upon the advice of friends, and especially his brother, E. P. Bates, he wisely resolved to forever relinquish it with its dark airs and its dense, noxious atmosphere. Accordingly, in the spring of 1866, with his brother, E. P. Bates, he entered upon the work of Life Insurance, which has been developed upon an enduring basis, and which to day employs the best genius and commands the strongest talent of the civilized world. Mr. I. H. Bates was married to Carrie M. Allen, of Winnebago county, Wisconsin, March 6, 1866, by which union they have two children-son and daughter. Mr. Bates is in his life's prime, and his powers and capacities for business are barely matured, so that he can look forward hopefully and confidently to many months and years of labor and usefulness. While he was eminently qualified to have entered upon any of the public professions, he mapped out for himself a different path, in which he has few if any equals. He is a masterly scholar, a student of history and a learner, as when at the college or academy, for he is not of that class who believe that all knowledge is acquired in the school-room, and that after that all is perpetual vacation and repose. He is not a politician, but is decidedly well-informed upon the history of American politics and the issues that to-day divide the parties and distract the country. His is emphatically of the reflective order of mind, and he arrives at conclusions only after careful thought. He has enough of secretiveness to hold the world at fair advantage, and with him the remainder of judgment is seldom expressed. 36 562 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. He forms few friendships, but lasting ones. His motto is, "The friends thou bast and their adoption tried, grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel." To his personal friends he is warmly, if not passionately attached, and the link betwixt him and his kindred and family is of solid gold. He is the center of a pleasing group of domestic virtues. His intelligence, courtesy and affability have won him many friends in this community. He is a finished, straight-out, decisive, practical man, having faith in the prevalence of right, the triumph of truth, and is as full of honor as an April brook of water. His motto is, "Fact shall be fact for me, and truth the truth forever." QUINBY OPERA HOUSE. This handsome structure is located on the corner of North Buckeye and Larwill streets. It was finished and formally opened and dedicated to the public, for all purposes, on Thursday night, February 1, 1877, by Miss Effie E. Ellsler, with the full dramatic company from John Ellsler's Euclid Avenue Opera House, Cleveland, in Shakspeare's beautiful comedy, " As you Like it." This building was the enterprise of the "Quinby Opera House Association," composed of the following gentlemen : E. Quinby, Jr., President ; E. P. Bates, Secretary ; J. H. Kauke, D. Q. Liggett, Ira H, Bates and D. C. Curry. They have presented Wooster with a splendid place for public resort, unequaled out of a city of the first-class. The dimensions of the Opera House are 70 by 104 feet ; the auditorium 6o by 70 feet, encircled on three sides by roomy balconies, the whole having a capacity for 1,000 persons. D. C. Curry & Bros. were contractors for the erection of the building, and C. M. Amsden the architect. D. Graham, theatrical architect, of Chicago, designed the stage. Charles Gasche, artist, was the contractor for all the decorative painting, in the work of which he was assisted by Messrs. Busch, Pinney and Diehl. The opera chairs were cast by B. Barrett & Son, and upholstered by John L, Smith; the furnaces, water and plumbing by A. Saybolt ; gas fitting by W. S. Leyburn ; plastering by William Carnes; tinning by Aaron Lehman. It was named in honor of Mr. Quinby by popular demand and against his protest, and over his veto. WOOSTER—SKETCHES - 563 ARCADOME HALL—THE BAUMGARDNERS. The building of Arcadome Hall,* a product of the chainless mind of Joseph H. Baumgardner, formed a period in the history of Wooster. It was the first public hall of any consequence given to the city. The ceremony of its dedication occurred December 18, 1857, of which its proprietors, Messrs. Baumgardner and Samuel Woods, gave due notice. Colonel Benjamin Eason was president of the occasion, and Dr. L. Firestone orator. Numerous toasts were offered, and responses made by Revs. Durbin and McFarland, William M. Orr, Esq., Eugene Pardee, Esq., John Irvine, Esq., Dr. W. S. Battles, and others. The following sentiment was offered to Dr. Firestone : Our Orator—Whether at driving out a fever with jalap, or a fit of blues with a joke ; tuning up a bass fiddle or a broken constitution, he is always equal to the emergency ; and like a true flint, as his Dutch name indicates, strikes fire every time the steel touches him. The title " Arcadome," by which it was popularly known, was coined in the poetic fancy of E. G. Clingan. We here subjoin Mr. Clingan's dedicatory poem : Now behold the march of genius, Here the mighty secret lies, In the building of a nation, In her worth and enterprise; With the arm of resolution Carves she out herself a page, On the roll and grand achievements Of a fast, progressive age. Here the architect and builder Counts his value, sees his worth, In the massive works of grandeur, Rising skyward from the earth ; Beholds his monuments of glory, Lasting monuments sublime, From the ages dark and hoary, Towering from the gulf of time. Onward, still, the march of genius, Crowned in triumph she appears, Looming from the mists of ages, In the wilderness of years ; And now to energy and labor, Honoring, thus, our native home, We this hall do dedicate, Builders of the Arcadome. * It was destroyed by fire, March 23, 1874. 564 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. Lee Baumgardner was born in East Union township, February 1o, 1832. His parents removed to Wooster township about 1835, his father dying soon thereafter. At the age of ten years Lee left home and became a bound boy upon a farm, serving as such until he was sixteen years old, when, until he arrived at maturity, his rural recreations were under the management and discipline of James Findley, the old County Treasurer. Attaining the age of legal emancipation from the restraints of guardian, dictator and overseer, he removed to Wooster and went into business with J. H. and T. P. Baumgardner, under the firm name of J. H. Baumgardner & Co. About 1855 they bought out Phineas Weed, and organized under the style of Lee & Co., Mr. Baumgardner himself in charge. In 1857 they built Arcadome, when the stocks of both concerns were merged and the stores consolidated. In 1865 Mr. Baumgardner sold out his interest to his brother Joseph. In 1862 he built a fine residence on Beall avenue and sold it in 1864. In 1864 he bought a farm at Cuyahoga Falls, selling it in the fall of 1865, and removing to Toledo in the spring of 1866, entering into business, and since residing there. Joseph H. Baumgardner died in Wooster a few years since. He married Miss Eckert, a sister of Thomas T. Eckert, who was appointed postmaster of Wooster in 1849, and in connection therewith was operator of the first telegraph line, introduced into Wooster about that time. The office then was in the building now occupied by J. H. Reid's harness shop, north-east corner of Public Square. Mr. Eckert in time became an expert operator, and developed excellent business management in telegraph enterprise, by which he won his way to high positions. During the war he was Superintendent of Telegraph for the Army of the Potomac, with the rank of Brigadier General, and at the present time is President of the Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph Company, his residence in New York City, where Mrs. Baumgardner and her daughter Alice have also taken up their abode. T. P. Baumgardner still remains in Wooster, and is one of its best citizens, a man of means, taste and standing. He is a dealer in musical instruments, and personally a musician of highest culture, as are all the members of his family. His oldest son, Joseph, is United States Route Agent on the P., Ft. W. & C. Railway, from Pittsburg to Crestline, and is one of the most capable officials and courteous gentlemen on the line. WOOSTER-SKETCHES - 565 JOHN F. BARRETT. John F. Barrett was born March 6, 1836, in Wayne county, Ohio. He volunteered in the Fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Colonel Lorin Andrews, April 16, 1861, in Company E, Captain James McMillen, and was among the first men in the county (Jacob Shultz being the first) to put down his name. He went with the regiment to Camp Dennison, followed it to West Virginia, and along with the boys, smelled the breath of battle at Rich Mountain. The way in which Mr. Barrett was wounded was as follows : The Eighth Ohio Volunteer Infantry had been attacked at New Creek, whereupon they sent to Fort Pendleton for reinforcements. The Fourth proceeded to their relief, marching thirty-five miles to New Creek, assaulting Romney at 1:30 P. M., fighting the enemy that night, and capturing the town next morning. Company E of the regiment having been sent to the east end of the town to protect a gun about to be charged by the enemy, between the hours of i and 2 o'clock P. M., Mr. Barrett was wounded, receiving a desperate bullet shot from a sharp-shooter. For two years he had to walk on crutches. Surgical science has exerted itself in vain to extricate the bullet, and Mr. Barrett is doomed to carry the enemy's lead in his body to his grave. Mr. Barrett was married September 18, 1863, to Laura Nimonons, of Wooster, by Rev. Jesse Durbin, of the Methodist church, of which he has been a member since 1856. We make mention of the wounding of Mr. Barrett, not because he was braver than ' his fellow-soldiers, or more patriotic than his comrades in arms, but because he was the first soldier from Wayne county shot in the war of the Rebellion. He was a gallant boy and it is a record of which he may well feel proud. Mr. Barrett is an honorable business man and a worthy, upright citizen. MATTHEW JOHNSTON, SR. This gentleman was a soldier in the war of 1812, serving in the capacity of a Captain, and settled in Wayne county at a very early date. In passing through this section with the army he was highly pleased with it and determined, when peace was restored, to return and make it his home. He was married to Sarah Smurr, of Alexandria, Va., in 1806, where she was born May 20, 1787. Mrs. Johnston was one among 566 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. the first members of the old Seceder church of Wooster, which was organized in 1816. She was a woman of great amiableness of manner and excellency of Christian character. She died on February 5, 1877, at the residence of her son-in-law, Thomas Power, Esq., of the city of Wooster, her husband's death having occurred many years prior to this. Her brother, Elias Smurr, bore the rank of Captain in the military service of 1812; was wounded in an action in Western New York, and died of his wound within ten days, and is buried at Buffalo, where a monument is erected to his memory. The children of Matthew and Sarah Johnston were : Mr. John S. Johnston, living in Chicago. , The late Matthew Johnston, Jr., United States Marshal of the Northern District of Ohio, who died in Cleveland in 1861. He had been a vestryman in Toledo, and was always actively interested in church affairs. His widow, Mrs. Rebecca Johnston, is now a member of the parish at Marietta. Mr. James Johnston, who, with his wife, Mrs. Maria Johnston, was the founder of St. James Parish, Wooster. He served for many years as a warden and vestryman of this parish. Mrs. Belinda Power, who, with her husband and son, is a member of the same parish; Mr. Perry J. Power, her son, being a vestryman. Mr. Elias S. Johnston, who died in Toledo, and whose family are now members of St. James', Wooster. Mr. W. S. Johnston, living in San Diego, California, And Mr. Perry Johnston, who died at the age of twenty-four, leaving a widow and child, who became Episcopalians, but also died within a few years. Reasin Beall Johnston, who died when a child. Mrs. Johnston had also in her family, as a daughter, an orphaned niece, Miss Nancy Smurr, who continues to live with Mrs. Power. A CATHOLIC BISHOP DIES IN WOOSTER. Bishop Edward Fenwick, then living in Kentucky, visited this section in priestly character as early as 1816. He would travel on horseback to Cincinnati, thence to Somerset, Perry county, thence to Knox county, thence to Canton, thence to some Catholic families in the eastern portion of Wayne county, and to the Gallagher settlement near Wooster, thence to Mansfield, and thence home to Kentucky. He was made Bishop in 1821, of Ohio, Indiana and and the Western Territories, and was the first Bishop who traveled in the West. On his way from Canton to Wooster he took sick, and arriving at the latter place he stopped at Coulter's tavern, where he died suddenly in 1832. Drs. Day and Bissell waited WOOSTER—SKETCHES - 567 upon him, and pronounced his disease cholera. He was buried the same evening, but during the following winter his remains were disinterred and transplanted at Cincinnati. WILLIAM SPEAR. William Spear was born in Cumberland county, Pa., on the 17th of December, 1803. With a man named Myers he emigrated to Ohio and located in Wooster, where Myers and he, in 1830, went into the cabinet business in an old shed on the lot now occupied by S. F. Day's tin store on West Liberty street. Myers remained with him a year and a half, when they dissolved partnership, divided their effects, neither one being able to purchase from the other. Myers removed to Dalton, Mr. Spear continuing the business at the old stand in Wooster for two years, when he in connection with Robert Ewing, who afterwards went to Terre Haute, Indiana, built a shop on the corner where his furniture store now stands. It was a frame building one story and a half high, 18x40 feet, and then considered a mammoth structure. The building yet stands on the same lot, to the west of its old position a few feet, and is now owned and occupied as a residence by Lewis Keller. He then formed a partnership with John Beistle and was associated with him in the manufacture of furniture for about eighteen years, during which time they purchased 18x60 feet of ground on the north-east side of the Public Square, from E. Quinby, Jr., agent of the Bowman estate, for the sum of $675, and erected thereon a three story brick building. This they used, while Mr. Beistle was in the firm, for saleroom and warehouse, and was continued to be used as such by Mr. Spear until the spring of 1871, when he sold the property to the Jackson Brothers. After Mr. Beistle withdrew, Mr. Spear gave his two sons, Wesley W. and Fletcher W., an interest in the business, each having learned a respective branch of the trade, and at maturity were experts in their departments. Since that time " William Spear & Sons " has been the character and style of the firm, conducting one of the largest establishments of the kind in Wayne county. Their fine ware-room is situated on the spot where he first located, on West Liberty street. For work-shops they purchased the old Episcopal church, on South street, and were doing extensive manufacturing there when, on August 13, 1866, it burned 568 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. down, involving a loss of $10,000, upon which there was no insurance. Notwithstanding this severe misfortune, he almost immediately purchased two acres of ground at the terminus of South Walnut street, from J. H. Kauke, for $2,000, and there erected a large new shop, three stories high, forty feet wide and eighty-eight feet in length, filling it with all kinds of the latest styles of machinery, and running it by steam-power. In addition to the main building are dry-houses and store-houses, with lumber-yard, the whole establishment employing twenty to twenty-five hands. JOHN WILHELM. This prominent carriage manufacturer immigrated to Wooster on the 9th of July, 1836, coming from Northampton county, Pennsylvania, where he was born, June 14, 1810. On his arrival in Wooster, with his wife and two children, he immediately embarked in the business of carriage-making. His first shop was located on North Walnut street, where, besides other work, he kept in repair six or seven lines of stage coaches. He built the first carriage ever constructed in Wooster or Wayne county, there being no other maker nearer than George Hine, of Massillon. This carriage was built for Michael Mowry, the father of Michael Mowry, of Chester township, at a cost of $165. Before Mowry left the shop some one remarked that, in advance of the carriage being removed, it would have to be " wet," to which he consented; and calling on the hands in the shop, sixteen in number, with James Jacobs, Michael Bucher, Henry Koller and Mr. Wilhelm, they all went to Koller's tavern and got "a stiff cocktail," for, as Mr. Wilhelm remarked in narrating the circumstance, they "drank nothing stronger than whisky and brandy then." After doing business on the west side for about three years Mr. Wilhelm bought lots on East Liberty street, and built the structure now owned and occupied by Frederick Schuch and Mr. Saal. He remained there for twelve or thirteen years, or until 1852, when he took possession of the new brick shops he had erected across the street, and was prepared to carry on business coextensive with his increased capacities. In 1860 he built a fine residence on the corner of Beall avenue and Bowman street. Mr. Wilhelm has been an industrious man all his life, is identified with our public improvements, and has contributed his share to the general advancement of the town. He contributed freely WOOSTER-SKETCHES - 569 to the University, and was one of the number who signed the $17,000 bond. For 46 years he has been connected with the Reformed church of Wooster. Three of his sons were in the Federal army, one of whom, Owen A,, was afterwards, from 1875 to 1877, Mayor of the city. JAMES CURRY. The subject of this sketch, one of the most energetic business men of Wooster, was born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, October 17, 1816. His father's name was David, whose occupation was that of carpenter and builder, in which pursuit he brought up his son James. When he had completed his trade, at eighteen years, Mr. Curry left home and worked as a jour for two years, then came to Ohio, locating in Washington township, Holmes county. Here he began house and barn building, with headquarters at Nashville, successfully following his trade until removing to Wooster, in the spring of 1853. This was just after the railroad had been opened to Wooster, and when the citizens generally, for a time, were stimulated to enterprise, especially in building up their town. Mr. Curry at once entered vigorously into business, establishing a lumber yard where the Snow Flake Mills now stand, remaining there but one year, however, on account of a freshet submerging his lumber, though not causing any financial damage. He then purchased of E. Quin- by, Jr., the several lots of higher ground now occupied by his stores, shops and lumber yard, on the corner of East Liberty street and Beall avenue. He first put up the old shop, now moved to the rear to give place to the main building he erected in 1857. In 1854 he placed in use the first planing mill brought into Wayne county, and at different times introduced other new labor-saving machines never operated before, and in some instances, not heard of, in Wooster, until his shops were filled with all kinds of machinery required in the skillful manufacture of doors, sash, blinds, mouldings, brackets, etc., for all kinds of buildings. As time went on his shops and yard became an extensive establishment, his custom extending not only throughout Wayne, but into the neighboring counties, until, from doing a business of disposing of 100,000 feet of lumber, as in 1854, trade increased to 2,000,000 or 3,000,000 feet per year in later times. He was the first large dealer in pine lumber in Wooster, where it 570 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. was comparatively little used before he established his shops and imported building material, first from Cleveland, and then wholesale from the pineries of Michigan and walnut woods of Indiana. The average price of pine lumber since Mr. Curry has been in Wooster would be from $25 to $30 per thousand feet, though in the war times the best lumber was as high as $65. When he started his yard, in 1853, lumber rated at from $10 to $25 per thousand. His sons, who grew up in the business, became valuable assistants to him. As they came to manhood's years he gave each an interest, until "The Currys" became noted as the "lumber family." In the fall of 1867 Mr. Curry and his three oldest sons, John, David and Wel., purchased the Stibbs & Co. yard and planing mill, on North street, and very successfully carried on business there under the firm name of James Curry & Sons, but in 1874 this co-partnership was dissolved, the sons retaining the new yard on North street under the style of D. C. Curry & Co., which they still retain, while James Curry resumed sole charge of the old shops on East Liberty street. In the meantime he had erected a fine three story brick block adjoining the shops, and in connection with lumber and house building, established a furniture manufactory, which he still continues to carry on there to a very large extent in all branches, including undertaking. The lumber and building business he has, in great measure, given up and transferred to other management, he having in May, 1877, taken into active partnership his fourth son, James Willard Curry, and Robert Cameron, the firm doing business under name of Curry, Cameron & Co. They do a large trade as builders and manufacturers, putting up buildings of all kinds by contract, from the foundation, besides selling great quantities of material to other contractors and builders. The junior members are enterprising young men. J, M. Curry was born in Holmes county, Ohio, August 27, 1849, and is trained to the lumber business by long experience under his father ; while Mr. Cameron is a fine architect and skilled workman in house-building. He was born March 5, 1842, in Scotland, within two miles of the city of Glasgow, learning his trade there, and in 1867 came direct from Scotland to Wooster, where he has since lived, and won the esteem of the community. WOOSTER-BANKS - 571 OLD GERMAN BANK. The old German Bank of Wooster was organized in 1816, with T. J. Jones as President and W. Larwill as Cashier. Its existence was of brief duration, and for a while it was conducted without a charter. In 1834 the Bank of Wooster was established with J. S. Lake as President and Benjamin Bentley as Cashier, and exploded in March, 1848. WAYNE COUNTY BRANCH OF THE STATE BANK OF OHIO. The Wayne County Branch of the State Bank of Ohio was organized February, 1848. D. Robison, Sr., was President until January, 1858, and Isaac Steese from 1858 to the expiration of its charter in 1865 ; E. Quinby, Jr., being Cashier from the organization to its close, in 1865. THE WAYNE COUNTY NATIONAL BANK. The Wayne County National Bank was organized in January, 1865 ; R. R. Donnelly, President, and E. Quinby, Jr., Cashier. January, 1874, Harrison Armstrong was made President and so continued until his death, in 1876; E, Quinby, Jr., serving as Cashier. The officers at this date (1878) are, E. M. Quinby, President, and E. Quinby, Jr., Cashier. Original capital, $75,000, with the privilege of augmenting it to $250,000. EXCHANGE BANK. In April, 1854, this bank began business under the style of Sturges, Stibbs & Co., as a private banking institution, and in 1863 it was changed to Stibbs, Hanna & Co. At present the style of the bank is J. H. Kauke & C. S. Frost. NATIONAL BANK OF WOOSTER. The private banking company of Bonewitz, Emrich & Co. was organized in the spring of 1865 by S. R. Bonewitz, T. S. Johnson, M. W. Pinkerton, G. P. Emrich, John Bechtel and C. H. Brown, with capital of $25,000. April 15, 1865, it opened up for business. In 1868 it was reorganized as the Commercial Bank 572 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. of Wooster, with a capital of $75,000. Its officers then were President, T. S. Johanson ; Cashier, S. R. Bonewitz ; Teller, C. V. Hard ; Directors, T. S. Johnson, S. R. Bonewitz, G. P. Emrich, D. Robison, Jr., M. W. Pinkerton. Johnson resigned April 10, 1868, and Mr. Emrich was chosen, and continued President until the bank ceased to exist. July 22, 1869, Mr. Bonewitz, Cashier, resigned, and C. V. Hard was appointed Assistant Cashier, retaining that position during the life of the bank. In November, 1871, the shareholders of the Commercial Bank were granted a charter for the National Bank of Wooster, with a capital of 500,000. November 29 the books were opened for subscriptions, and the same day the amount of the capital stock was taken. G. P. Emrich, D. Robison, Jr., M. Welker, J. Zimmerman, G. B. Smith, J. S. Hallowell and W. Barton were chosen Directors, to serve from January 2, 1872, the day the bank began business. The officers were : President, David Robison, Jr. ; Vice-President, G. P. Emrich ; Cashier, C. V. Hard ; Teller, T. E. Peckinpaugh. The present (1878) officers are : President, G. P. Emrich ; Vice-President, J. Zimmerman ; Cashier, C. V. Hard ; Teller, Will Emrich, a position vacated in 1876 by T. E. Peckinpaugh, to become one of the proprietors of the Wayne County Democrat. JOHNSON'S BANK. September 2, 1868, T. S. Johnson "started a bank, too," which the same was of discount and deposit, with a capital of $20,000, and in 1875 it—, when there was a wailing among depositors to the amount of $100,000. SAMUEL ROUTSON. Samuel Routson, the founder of the first and only pottery located at the county-seat, was born in Slankerville (Easton), Chippewa township, and has always lived in Wayne county. On both sides of the house his parents were of good old pioneer stock, his mother belonging to the great Franks family. He organized his present business in Doylestown in 1841, where he engaged in the manufacture of stone-ware until 1846. Then he embarked in mercantile trade there, to which he gave his attention until 1856, when with his family he removed to Wooster, locating on Pittsburg av- WOOSTER-SKETCHES - 573 enue, east of the railroad depot. Here he at once built a residence, and buildings for carrying on the manufacture of pottery. From that time to the present, in connection with his brother, Quincy A. Routson, he has with industry and care successfully conducted the business in all branches, including drain tile, chimney tops, flower pots, vases, etc., his goods finding sale all along the line of railroad from Pittsburg to Chicago. The works are run by hot-air power engine, the only one in Wooster, and very serviceable for the business. He obtains his clay in Franklin township, on farms of Daniel Snyder, Andrew Miller and Jacob and Israel Franks, buying many tons from them in the course of a year. His crockery ware is among the very best in the market, and his drain tile in demand, of which, in one year, he has sold as high as 35,000 feet, or nearly seven miles, mainly to farmers, and used always with success. Mr. Routson is a man of the most upright character ; as a neighbor he is kind, accommodating and sympathizing ; socially, no one can be more pleasant and cordial ; his house is a home to all that come, and he enjoys company always; and in all his relations to the community he is held in esteem as one possessing those qualities that make a good citizen. He is a consistent Christian man, for many years a member of the Baptist church, of which he is now one of the Trustees. D. C. CURRY & CO. The superior processes introduced into modern mechanic industry by the knowledge of machinery have led to the establishment of various branches of manufacture, and made them of the most vital importance. Its application to the immense lumbering districts of the Penobscot river, in Maine, of Michigan and Wisconsin, on the headwaters of the Hudson, the Susquehanna, Delaware and Allegheny rivers and the Cascade and Coast ranges of mountains in Oregon, is one of the triumphs of mechanic and industrial skill, and demonstrates more clearly than ever that the employment of steam-power is not only a mighty factor in civilization, but is one of the agents by which science succeeds in mitigating the oppressiveness of labor, and by which the possibilities of human energy are multiplied beyond all moderate calculation. The planing mill and concomitant dressing apparatus forms an interesting and most useful feature in all our well-appointed 574 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. lumber establishments, and is a source of positive benefit, not only to mechanics and architects, but to the whole community, the city builder and the farmer alike, as well as a means of profit, as it certainly should be, to its conductor and proprietor. The lumbering establishment of D. C. Curry & Co., embracing some of the bolder features of the huge mills of the pineries, has, in a brief struggle of a few years, anchored itself in our midst as one of the successes and permanences of the city of Wooster. It has survived hard times, the panic, and a destructive fire on February 3, 1875, and at present moves along in the line of business and prosperity. The firm was constituted in January, 1868, having purchased the machinery, grounds, areas, etc., from Stibbs, Spink & Co., with James Curry then as a member of it. It was conducted under this arrangement until October, 1874, when he retired from the partnership, although the style of the firm—D. C. Curry & Co.—underwent no change. The following, the sons of James Curry, are the members of the firm in the order of seniority: John Curry, born in Holmes county, February 18, 1839, and married Miss Elizabeth Laubach; D. C. Curry, born September 25, 1841, in Holmes county, Ohio, and married December 24, 1868, to Miss Jennie J. Yergin ; Wellington Curry, born in Holmes county, May 27, 1845, and married January 9, 1866, to Miss May E. Vanhouten—all coming to Wayne county, with their father, in 1853. The initial member of the firm, it will be seen, was twelve years old when he came to Wooster, and received his rudimentary, in fact all of his education, in the schools of the city, serving an apprenticeship of nearly four years as a compositor in the Republican office, under the proprietorship of Enos Foreman, Esq. When Sumpter was fired, in the spring of 1861, he was among the first to respond to President Lincoln's call for 75,000 men, and was enrolled on the 23d of April, of said year, as a member of the Sixteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in the three months service. Upon the re-organization of that regiment, he enlisted for three years, on the 5th of October, 1861, in Company H, commanded by Captain A. S. McClure, and was discharged October 31, 1864, having served his country faithfully for a period of forty-one months and sixteen days. On the 19th of April he was wounded by the fragment of a shell in the left arm and stomach, in the first assault in the rear of the besieged and doomed city that so gracefully capitulated to General Grant on the 3d of July, 1863. He was WOOSTER-SKETCHES - 575 twice elected to the City Council from the Second Ward, but resigned his position before the close of the second term. He is a stockholder in the Quinby Opera House of Wooster ; was the contractor for said structure, employing the mechanics for its construction. The firm is the largest of the kind in the city or county, disposing of, annually, from three to four million feet of lumber and constituting a source of supply to all the surrounding counties. They retain in their employment a first-class architect, and furnish steady work, on a daily average, for twenty-five hands. They make a specialty in the manufacture of church furniture, such as pews, pulpits, etc., for which they find an easy market in other States as well as Ohio. The members of the firm, as will be discovered, are comparatively young men, but a glance at the foregoing indicates very clearly what pluck, energy, activity and perseverance can accomplish. Hard work, getting down to business and sticking to it always did achieve wonders, and the rules of successful business, whether defined by Ricardo or Amos Lawrence, are inflexible and admit of no modifications. JACOB EBERHARDT. The first marble shop opened in Wooster was by D. A. Griffith, of Boston, in the spring of 1848. Jacob Eberhardt accompanied him from Massachusetts, and did the first work performed. The shop was located one door south of the present office of Connelly's Washington House. In July, 1852, Mr. Eberhardto and his father-in-law, Daniel Yarnell, an ex-Sheriff of Wayne county, bought out Griffith, and run the business together for six years, having their shops opposite Banker & Hanna's carriage works, on South street. In 1858 Mr. Yarnell retired, and Eberhardt carried on the business himself for seven years, when he formed a partnership with Sylvester Gray, June 1, 1865. The energy of the establishment, redoubled by the enterprise and activity of Mr. Gray, soon acquired new dimensions. Although Mr. Gray had no money in the business, they undertook, in the spring of 1871, the erection of the splendid structure of brick, stone and iron on the corner of South and Buckeye streets, finishing it during the year, at a cost of $10,000, and it is no doubt one of the finest buildings for marble purposes in Ohio. 576 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. Mr. Eberhardt died a few years later, and Mr. Gray assumed control of the business for a time. Two years ago Samuel Rhoads entered into partnership with him, the firm styled Gray & Rhoads, who are now successfully carrying on the marble works. SECRET SOCIETIES. In a Symbol there is concealment and yet revelation. Bees will not work except in darkness; thought will not work except in silence; neither will virtue work except in secresy. Let not thy right hand know what thy left hand doeth. * * * * * * * * * * * Virtue will not grow unless its root be hidden. Carlyle on Symbols. Masonic. Ebenezer Lodge No. 33, Free and Accepted Masons.—Date of Charter, December 13, 1819, to date from January 4, 1816. Charter Members—Thomas G. Jones, Thomas McMillen, William K. Stewart, - Abner Eddy, William Larwill, Thomas Thorp, Constant Lake, Plumb Sutliff, Joseph H. Larwill. Officers, January, 1878—Eli D. Pocock, M. D., Worshipful Master ; John S. Bissell, Senior Warden ; Jacob A. Kister, Junior Warden; Lewis P. Ohliger, Treasurer; T. Tickner, Secretary ; Philo S. VanHouten, Senior Deacon ; Harvey H. Bissell, Junior Deacon; William W. Hanna, Tyler. Trustees—George Rex, Philo S. VanHouten, Lewis P. Ohliger. Committee on Grievances—Curtis V. Hard, Alexander Laughlin, George Rex. 102 Members January r, 1878. Regular day of meeting, Wednesday on or before full moon. Wooster Chatter No. 27, Royal Arch Masons.—Date of Charter, October 23, 1843. Charter Members—William Larwill, Horace Howard, William Warren, Jacob Van Houten, Kimbal Porter, Philo Welton, Nathaniel High, John P. Coulter, John A. Holland. Officers, January 1878— Leander Firestone, High Priest ; Lewis P. Ohliger, King ; Levi R. Kramer, Scribe; Philo S. Van Houten, Captain of the Host ; Edward P. Bates, Principal Sojourner; George W. Reid, Royal Arch Captain ; Curtis V, Hard, Grand Master Third Vail; Benjamin Eason, Grand Master Second Vail; William C. Moore, Grand Master First Vail; Eugene Chatelain, Treasurer ; John S. Bissell, Secretary; William W. Hanna, Guard. 75 members January I, 1878. Regular communication on Thursday after full moon. Wooster Council No. r3, Royal and Select Masters.—Chartered October 1, 1846. Charter Members—Kimbal Porter, S. Buckius, George D. Hine, Horace Howard, George H. Stewart, N. Haskell, A. Bartol, J. W. Crawford, L. L. Klein, Peter Van West. Officers, January 1, 1878—Edward P. Bates, Thrice Illustrious Master ; Levi R. Kramer, Deputy Illustrious Master; Philo L. Van Houten, Principal Conductor of the Work ; Finley L, Parsons, Captain of the Guard William C. Moore, Cap- WOOSTER—SECRET SOCIETIES - 577 tain of the Council; Benjamin Eason, Treasurer ; Lewis P. Ohliger, Recorder ; T. Tickner, Grand Steward ; William W. Hanna, Sentinel. Stated day of convocation—First Tuesday in each month. Thirty-five mem- bers January I, 1878. I. 0. 0. F. Wooster Lodge No. 4z.—Date of charter, June 21, 1845. Charter Members—R. J. Eberman, William S. Johnson, George Brauneck, J, S. Ward, R. A. Kinney. Officers, January, 1878—Albert Gray, Noble Grand; Henry Ebey, Vice Grand ; Anthony Wright, Financial Secretary ; Charles Simon, Recording Secretary ; Joseph R. Naylor, Warden ; Melvin Warner, Guide ; John Simon, Inside Guardian ; Thomas Hetherington, Outside Guardian. Trustees—Charles S. Frost, Joseph R. Naylor, Joseph C. Plumer. One hundred and fifty-two members January 1, 5878. Killbuck Encampment No. 17.—Date of charter September 5, 1846. Charter Members—William S. Johnson, R. J. Eberman, John Beistle, P. P. Eckfeld, William W. Hanna, Jacob C. Chapman, John M. Naylor, Solomon R. Bonewitz, Samuel Mentzer, Samuel Christine, J. W. Schuckers, Isaac N. Jones. Officers, January 1, 1878—Anthony Wright, High Priest ; Elmer Funk, Chief Patriarch; Albert Gray, Senior Warden ; John Wiler, Junior Warden ; Levi R. Kramer, Scribe; Henry J. Kaufman, Treasurer ; John Simon, Inside Guardian ; Thomas Hetherington, Outside Guardian. Trustees—Joseph C. Plumer, Anthony Wright, Samuel S. Shilling. Eighty members June 1, 1878. Knights of Pythias (English). Rising Star Lodge No. 22, K. of P.—Instituted April 1, 1870. Date of charter, February I, 1871. Charter Members—Joseph H. Carr, Albert Brauneck, Henry J. Kaufman, Samuel Routson, John M. Ely, Michael S. Goodman, Arnold Richenbach, Augustus E. Gasche, Charles S. Frost, John S. Caskey, John K. McBride, Leander - Firestone. Officers, January I, 1878—Henry J. Kaufman, Chancellor Commander; James M. Lusk, Vice Chancellor; Anthony Wright, Venerable Patriarch; George Brauneck, Keeper of Records and Seals ; Levi R. Kramer, Master of Finance; William H. Banker, Banker ; James E. Wescott, Master of Arms ; William Beresford, Inside Sentinel ; Thomas Hetherington, Outside Sentinel. Forty-two members January I, 1878. Knights of Pythias (German). Morning Star Lodge No. 41, K. of P.--Instituted December 29, 1871. Date of charter, February 15, 1872. Charter Members—William Nold, John J. Bringger, Jacob Stark, Frederick Schuch, Gotleib Gasche, Jacob Diehl, Hermann Wutke, Jacob Gross, Eberhardt Bideker, Emil Podlich, Leonard Saal, George Faber, William Gasche, Jacob Schopf, 37 578 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO Emil Faber, William Kanzler, Peter Kanzler, Franz Gerlach, Heinrich Kinkier, Martin F. Limb. Officers, January, 1878—John Diehl, Chancellor Commander ; Joseph Schuch, Vice Chancellor ; William Nold, Venerable Patriarch ; John J. Bringger, Keeper of Records and Seals ; Charles Gasche, Master of Finance; Leonard Saal, Banker Philip Young, Master of Arms ; George Schuch, Inside Sentinel ; Frederick Kostenbader, Outside Sentinel. Trustees—Jacob Stark, Andrew Busch, Frederick Schuch. Seventy-two members, January 1, 1878. Improved Order of Red Men. Uncas Tribe, No. 57.—A beneficiary organization. Instituted May 20, 1871, Charter Members—Albert Brauneck, Thomas S. Johnson, Jesse E. Goodyear, John S. Caskey, George Brauneck, G. W. Doty, James E. Wescott, J. T. Maxwell, T. Tickner, W. H. Baumgardner, Samuel Routson, D. E. Warner, Speers McClarran, Henry J. Kaufman, Lewis P. Ohliger, Charles S. Frost, Perry Miller, David W. Matz, Harry McClarran, John K. McBride, Abraham Saybolt, Jr., David McDonald, Allen Clark, D. W. Immel, Edward P. Bates, Henry J. Huber, Jacob R. Bowman, T. E. Peckinpaugh, C. C. Parsons, Jr. Seventy-eight members in January, 1878. Officers, January, 1878—Prophet, Abraham Saybolt, Jr.; Worthy Sachem, James A. Ogden ; Senior Sagamore, Enos Pierson ; Junior Sagamore, William H. Banker ; Chief of Records, Henry J. Kaufman ; Keeper of Wampum, J. R. Naylor; Guard of Wigwam, Andrew Rieman ; Guard of Forest, George Brauneck ; Trustees, D. W. Immel, E. S. Dowell, William H. Banker. The Royal Arcanum. Wayne Council No. 13.—A secret beneficiary and life insurance order (similar to the Knights of Honor), instituted in Wooster, September 5, 1877, Charter Members—Daniel Funck, Joseph C. Plumer, Lewis P. Ohliger, John Van Nostran, Jehiel Clark, J. S. Bissell, George Plumer, Edward S. Dowell, David W. Matz, T. J. McElheine, T. E. Peckinpaugh, A. Saybolt, Jr., William H. Harry, Dr. James D. Robison, H. H. Bissell, Martin Funck, J. D. McAfee, M. A. Miller, Silas W. Ogden, William F. Woods. Number of members January, 1878, forty-five. Officers, January, 1878—Past Regents, Daniel Funck and Jehiel Clark ; Regent, Thomas E. Peckinpaugh ; Vice Regent, Joseph P. Van Nest ; Orator, David W. Matz ; Chaplain, Joseph C. Plumer ; Secretary, John Van Nostran ; Collector, George Plumer ; Treasurer, Lewis P. Ohliger ; Guide, Henry W. Peters; Warden, Henry P. Shives ; Sentry, Martin Funck. Trustees—T. J. McElhenie, Daniel Funck, William M. Wisner. Temperance Societies. Temple of Honor No. 27 was organized on the 11th of November, 1847, with thirty charter members. The first officers were David Parrett, W. C. T.; D. H. Holiday, W. V. T.; — McKean, W. R. Evergreen Social Temple No. 3 was organized in 1853.