SOME PROFESSIONAL MEN NOT PREVIOUSLY MENTIONED

[Pg. 229]

JOHN D. MARTIN

     John D. Martin was born in Greencastle, Fairfield County, Ohio, January 7, 1819.  When a small boy his parents moved to Baltimore, same county, and he was employed by the contractors on the Ohio Canal to carry water to their workmen on the deep cut near Monticello.  Here he attracted the attention of Nathaniel R. Usher, who, as the canal neared completion, opened a store at the new town of Millersport.
     Leaving Usher’s employ he went with George B. Arnold to Utica, Licking County, Ohio, and clerked in his general store.  A fellow-clerk was W. S. Rosencrans, a boy about his own age, the future commander of the Army of the Cumberland.
     John D. Martin came to Lancaster about the year 1836 and entered the store of Levi Anderson as clerk, going from Anderson to John H. Tennant.  In 1840 M. B. Browning purchased the stock of Tennant, and conducted the business in the name of M. B. Browning and Company, his clerks Martin and Stambaugh being the Company.  Browning came from the East and was backed for a time by his uncles, one in Canton, Ohio, and two in New York, but he was not a successful business man.  In a year or two the new concern failed and Stambaugh and Martin found themselves involved and liable for Browning’s debts. Stambaugh

[Pg. 230]
took the benefit of the bankrupt act and was released.  Martin declined to do that and sent for Mr. Thayer, one of the creditors, a distinguished merchant of Philadelphia.  He came and examined the affairs of the firm and made a settlement, charging Martin with one-fourth of the indebtedness.  This was settled by a long note, which Mr. Martin was several years in paying.  In the meantime he had commenced the study of the law under that eminent lawyer, John T. Brasee.  Mr. Thayer gave him the books of the old concern to settle up, and so well did he perform the duty, that when admitted to the bar, collections came to him from all of the great houses of Philadelphia through the influence of Mr. Thayer.  While studying law for two years he kept the books of Gilbert Devol.  He was also interested to some extent in a tin store.  He was admitted to the bar and practiced his profession for ten or twelve years.  He was a business lawyer of rare ability and a very good advocate, and was employed upon many important cases, with Brasee and Hunter as opposing counsel.
    In 1854 S. C. Stambaugh returned from California with some ready money, and he induced Mr. Martin to join him and P. B. Ewing in a banking venture.  In that year the exchange bank of Martin and Company was organized.  The agreement with Mr. Martin was that he should spend one hour each day in the bank, but Mr. Martin was one who could not trust important matters to others when he could attend to them himself and he found it necessary to spend his entire time in the bank, and gave up his profession.  This bank did a profitable business until the year 1864, when it was merged into the First National Bank of Lancaster, with Mr. Martin as president.  Mr. Martin

[Pg. 231]
was a banker for thirty-two years, and handled millions of money without the loss of a dollar to any man.  The year 1886 he sold his interest in the bank to S. J. Wright and retired permanently from business.  In connection with his banking business, Mr. Martin was for many years a partner in a dry goods store.  He had two or three ventures of this kind.  He was also largely engaged in the milling business, in coal land speculations, and in mining and shipping coal on a large scale.  His connection with the business interests of Lancaster covers a period of sixty years, years of toil and anxiety, prosperity and adversity.  He was for many years a member of the school board and always took a lively interest in our schools.  He was a Republican politician, one of the leaders in this county.  He is a good speaker, and his voice was heard in the dark days of the rebellion in support of the government and our army in the field.  His career is an inspiring one from a penniless boy to honorable old age.  Mr. Martin was an able adviser, and his advice was sought by many business men.  Senator Ewing had a high opinion of his ability, and frequently sought, his advice, a compliment that was appreciated.  In the quiet of his home with his family and books, he spends the declining years of his life, taking a summer trip to Middle Bass, Lake Erie, where he finds congenial spirits.

P. B. EWING

     P. B. Ewing, eldest son of Thos. Ewing, was born in Lancaster, Ohio., November 3, 1820.  He completed his education at Miami University, Oxford, O., and studied law in his father’s office.  He married the daughter of John P. Gillespie, grandson of Neil Gillespie, Sr., of Brownsville, Pa.  He opened a law of-

[Pg. 232]
fice in Lancaster and practiced his profession until the year 1860. 
     In 1841 he was employed to negotiate a loan for the United States Treasury Department.
     In 1854 he became a member of the banking firm of Martin and Company, and continued to be associated with Mr. Martin in the banking business until the close of his career as a banker.
     He was appointed by the governor of Ohio Judge of the Common Pleas Court, to fill a vacancy, and served with distinction for one year. Z
     He was engaged with Mr. J. D. Martin in coal operations and speculation for several years.
     Mr. Ewing reared a large family, and for the last fifteen years of his life owned and resided in the Stanbery house on High Street, Lancaster.
     The office work of an attorney was not congenial to Mr. Ewing, and while he possessed a good legal mind and was' a well-read lawyer he did not rise to distinction as an advocate. He died in the year 1896.

M. A. DAUGHERTY

     Mr. Daugherty was born in Maryland and came to Lancaster in the thirties. He first taught school. One location was the old Presbyterian church lot. He studied law while teaching and was admitted to the bar.  He was for some years one of the school examiners for Fairfield County.  In 1849 or 50 he was elected cashier of the Hocking Valley Bank.  He served as such about five years.  Some years previous to his election as cashier, he was married to Miss Phoebe Wood, daughter of John Wood, who was a merchant here in 1830, and moved to Indianapolis.  Mr. Daugherty’s home was always

[Pg. 233]
the abode of refinement and hospitality. Both himself and wife were leaders of the fashionable society of Lancaster.  In 1843 he was a partner of Wm. Irvin.
     Leaving the bank, Mr. Daugherty became a partner of H. H. Hunter.  This gave him prominence and opportunity, which he improved.  He was a member of the Ohio Senate for the years 1870 and 1872.
     After the death of Mr. Hunter, he removed to Columbus, Ohio, and was elected president of the Home Insurance Company, which position he held several years.  He also served with Judge Brasee upon the codifying commission of the state of Ohio, appointed by the governor.
     He became a prominent citizen of Columbus, and both he and his wife, being well-known there, took their accustomed places as leaders in the best society of the city. He is dead, but his wife survives, a refined and accomplished woman.

HON. H. C. WHITMAN

     His was the most striking personality known to Lancaster.  He came here a young lawyer from Washington City, in 1843, and entered into partnership with Wm. Medill.  He was a native of New England and was educated there.  He was a good talker and soon took an aggressive position at the bar of Fairfield County, and pushed himself to the front.  He had many of the elements of a successful man, talent, energy, self-reliance, and self-esteem, and he did succeed.  In 1849 he was a member of the Ohio Senate.  A year or two later he was elected Common Pleas Judge and served for two or three terms.  He then removed

[Pg. 234]
to Cincinnati, where he established himself as a successful lawyer.
     He was appointed on the codifying commission, but declined the position.
     Judge Whitman was an eccentric man.  While professing great friendship for the common schools and making speeches in public meetings upon school improvements, he never sent his own children to these schools.
     For many years he did not cut his hair, but permitted it to fall upon his shoulders and grow longer each year.  This, with a peculiar countenance and large prominent eyes, gave him a most striking and singular appearance.  He was a clever, sociable man, and generally well liked.
     Judge Whitman was a State Senator in 1849 and voted for the repeal of the black laws, and for Salmon P. Chase for U. S. Senator.  This was in accordance with an agreement made by the Democrats with Morse and Townsend, who held the balance of power.  Mr. Ewing, the Whig candidate was defeated, and the Democrats secured the election of their candidate for Supreme Judge.

CHARLES BORLAND

     Charles Borland came to Ohio from Rockingham County, Virginia, and soon thereafter opened a law office.  He came to Lancaster in the thirties and was soon connected with a newspaper.  This connection did not last more than a year.  In 1839 he was elected Clerk of the Ohio House of Representatives.  He took an active part in the campaign of 1840 and made Whig speeches.
     In 1849 he was appointed by Mr. Ewing, then Secretary of the Interior, Inspector of Land Offices.  He

[Pg. 235]
gave much time to the organization of the C. M. & Z. R. R. Co., and in the year 1857 he was president of the company.  He was interested in other railroad projects, but they did not succeed.  He abandoned his- profession years before his death.  He died in Lancaster at an advanced age.  John Borland came directly from Mansfield, Ohio, where he had edited a Whig paper, to Lancaster in 1835.  In 1841 he was deputy sheriff under Thos. Edingfield.  In later years he was the agent in Lancaster of the Hocking Valley line of stages and continued as such until after the war.

VIRGIL E. SHAW

     Virgil E. Shaw was born in Lancaster. Here he was educated and studied law.  He was a diligent student and a reader of books, but not a brilliant man.  His legal practice was mainly office work and business before the probate court.  He was elected Probate Judge by the Know nothing party and proved to be a good official.  In 1856 he supported General Fremont for president and was for a time chairman of the Republican committee.  Later he drifted back to his old love, the Democratic party.  He was neither a good politician nor a popular one, but better than all, he was an honest man and conscientious in his work.

ALFRED McVEIGH

     Alfred McVeigh was brought up in Fairfield County, Ohio.  He was a justice of the peace in Royalton several years.  He lived twenty years in Lancaster.  He served one or two terms as county auditor and for several years as justice of the peace in Lancaster.  He

[Pg. 236]
was an attorney, but never made a success of the law.  He was a local politician of some note and influence and a member of the famous Red Lodge.  During the War of the Rebellion he was an active war Democrat and supported both Todd and Brough for governor.  In 1862 he was delegate to a great union state convention, held in Columbus, the other delegates being ex.-Senator Thomas Ewing, M. A. Daugherty, Charles Borland, and C. M. L. Wiseman.  During the war he served one term as state senator.  He was a striking figure, six feet or more in height, straight as an Indian.  He wore a long, black, magnificent beard.  He was killed near Winchester, Ohio, by the upsetting of a coach on which he was returning from Columbus.   His young son met death by the same accident.

JOHN C. CASSEL

     Mr. Cassel came to Lancaster when a young man, and married a sister of H. H. Hunter, who still survives.  He was a dry goods clerk, but soon turned his attention to politics.  He was county auditor for two terms and the postmaster in 1845, being appointed by James K. Polk.  He too was one of the Red Lodge habitué and an active Democratic politician.  After leaving the postoffice he clerked for Reber & Kutz.  His name appears among the business men of Lancaster in 1837.  He has been dead for more than twenty years.

JAMES W. STINCHCOMB

     Captain James W. Stinchcomb was born in Perry County, Ohio.  In 1857 he was a citizen of Lancaster.  He had some years previous studied law with Stanbery and Van Trump, and in 1857 he formed a partnership

[Pg. 237]
with R. M. Clarke.  He married the daughter of Salmon Shaw.  He was prosecuting attorney of this county for one or two terms.  He made able speeches when troops were called for in 1861, and raised the second Lancaster company to enlist.  He served during the war, and was a brave and gallant soldier.  He died a few years since, in Nebraska.  His partner, R. M. Clarke, went to Nevada in 1862, where he became attorney-general and made a lasting reputation as a lawyer.  They were both of generous impulses.  R. M. Clarke was admitted to the bar in 1847, in the same class with James M. Bope and John B. McNeill.  Clarke served for one year as deputy revenue collector for this county, under Abraham Lincoln.

SILAS H. WRIGHT

     Mr. Wright was born on a farm in Hocking County, Ohio, June 21, 1830  He attended the common schools as a boy and later the famous academy of Dr. Williams in Greenfield, Fairfield County.  From this school he went to Delaware, and in time was one of the graduates of the Wesleyan University.  He studied law with Colonel P. Van Trump, of Lancaster.  After his admission to the bar he went to Iowa and resided one year in Muscatine.  Returning to Ohio (he made the trip both ways on horseback); he settled in Logan and began the practice of the law.  He was twice elected the prosecuting attorney of Hocking County.  In the year 1858 he married Miss Kate Moore,

[Pg. 238]
daughter of John Moore of the famous Mary Ann furnace of Licking County, Ohio.
     In the year 1866 he was elected judge of the common pleas court for the counties of Perry, Hocking, and Fairfield.  He served upon the bench continuously for twenty-one years.  He owned a fine library, was a good scholar, and all his life a student.  He had fine literary taste, wrote good speeches, and was the author of several good poems.  One of his finest efforts was his oration upon the life and death of his old friend and teacher.  Dr. Williams.  He came to Lancaster in the year 1874.  He died at the age of fifty-six, in the year 1887.

JOHN M. CONNELL

     Colonel Connell, son of Benjamin Connell, was born in Lancaster, November 7, 1828, studied law and moved to the state of Indiana, where he practiced with success.  In 1855 he came back to Ohio and spent a few months in Wooster, but soon left there for Lancaster.  In 1857 he was chief clerk to Wm. Medill, the comptroller of the Treasury under Buchanan.  In May, 1861, he was elected Colonel of the Seventeenth Ohio Regiment.  In 1863 he resigned to take his seat in the Ohio Senate, to which he had been but recently elected.  From 1866 to 1869 he was U. S. Revenue assessor.  In 1853 he married Jennie, daughter of the Rev. Wm. Cox. He died April 17, 1882.

JOHN D. NOURSE

     Dr. Nourse was born in Sharpsburg, Maryland, and came when a boy in 1841 with his father to Ohio.  As a youth he clerked in a store and taught school for six years, teaching before he was quite sixteen year of age.  He spent 1847 and ’48 in Alabama as a teacher.

[Pg. 239]
He studied medicine with Dr. Fisher, of Baltimore, Ohio, and in 1851 graduated at the Cleveland Medical College.  He practiced medicine in Baltimore, Rushville, and in Reynoldsburg.  He came to Lancaster from the latter place.  Here he practiced medicine up to the date of his death in 1897.  Dr. Nourse was a good scholar and successful in his profession.  He was a fine example of a self-made- man.

DR. JAMES WHITE

     Dr. James White was born in Montgomery County, Pa., June 10, 1799.  His father was a Baptist preacher in Philadelphia for twenty-five years, and later the pastor of the First Baptist Church in Lancaster, Ohio.
     It is highly probable that young James White was educated in Philadelphia.  It is certain that he studied medicine there and graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in the year 1821.  He was a diligent student and graduated with honor.  Leaving college he turned his face westward and became a resident of Lancaster the same year.
     He immediately commenced the practice of medicine and was successful from the start.  So well did he succeed that he was encouraged in his desire to take to himself a partner for life.  This he did in the person of Maria Elizabeth Beecher, an educated and amiable young woman, niece of General Philemon Beecher, whom the young doctor first met while on a visit to friends in Lancaster.  The doctor was one of a long list of eminent men who were an honor to Lancaster, and to humanity.  He was a good physician, careful, considerate, and humane; and his character as a man was unstained.  He died September 26, 1869, aged sixty-nine years.

[Pg. 240]
     One of the sisters of Dr. White was the second wife of John Creed.  The sister of Robert and Dr. Smith was Creed’s first wife and the mother of his seven children.  Another sister of Dr. White was the wife of James Smith, a merchant, as late as 1835.  James Smith dying, his widow married Joseph Grubb.  The third sister was the wife of Tunis Cox, an old-time Lancaster merchant.  Tunis Cox came to Lancaster from the East previous to 1827.  For several years he was a merchant of Lancaster.  He, in connection with his son-in-law, Eckert, built and owned the house now owned and occupied by Wm. L. Martin.  He failed in business here and moved to Baltimore, Fairfield County, where he sold goods.  He left Baltimore in 1850, moving to Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he kept hotel, the old Spencer House.  His youngest daughter married Mr. Kinney, who became a Portsmouth banker.  They were the parents of the secretary of state Charles Kinney.

DR. GEORGE W. BOERSTLER

     Dr. Boerstler came to Lancaster in the year 1835 from Hagerstown, Md.  He was born at Funkstown, Md., in the year 1792.  He received a good education, his parents being anxious that he should enter the ministry of the Lutheran Church.  His tastes were different however, and he prevailed upon his father to permit him to study medicine; that being the profession of his father, he was not long in obtaining his consent.  He therefore entered upon the study of medicine in his father’s office.  He was a diligent student and in the year 1820 graduated a Bachelor of Medicine at the University of Maryland, Baltimore.  He

[Pg. 241]
married Elizabeth Sinks and settled at Boonsborough, Md., and practiced his profession.  Later he moved to Hagerrstown, Md. In the year 1835 with his daughter and son-in-law, Dr. Tom O. Edwards, he moved to Lancaster, Ohio.  It was an opportune time, for Dr. Robt. McNeill, the most eminent physician of Lancaster, had just died, leaving a large practice.  He formed a partnership with Dr. Edwards which continued for many years.  The practice of Dr. McNeill rapidly fell into their hands and they made it their own.  Their business increased rapidly and it was not long until the firm of Boerstler and Edwards was the most widely known of Lancaster. 
     In the year 1838 his wife died, and in due time he married again. Miss Elizabeth Schur becoming his second wife. Dr. Boerstler was throughout his life a medical student, always watching the progress of his profession; and his professional brethren considered him an expert in the diagnosis of diseases.  His reputation was that of a learned and experienced physician and he was always in demand when a consultation was necessary.  Dr. Loving, a distinguished physician of Columbus, in a paper written after his death, spoke of him as an able and learned physician and wise in counsel.  As a citizen he was respected by all classes, and no one stood higher in the estimation of the public as an honorable, upright man than Dr. George W. Boerstler.  He took great interest in political affairs and was a Whig as long as there was a Whig party.  His office was the headquarters of the leaders of the Whig party in 1840, and they called it the “Coon Box.”  Dr. Boerstler was a pro-slavery man and did not endorse anti-slavery tendencies of the Republican party,

[Pg. 242]
and in 1857 made Democratic speeches. In 1845 he made a patriotic address to the Fairfield County Militia, anticipating the Mexican War.  In 1845 he was chief marshal of the day set apart for the funeral obsequies of General Andrew Jackson.  He made an address in German on the occasion of the reception to Kossuth in Cincinnati in 1852.  Dr. Boerstler was a member of the Fairfield County Medical Society, of the Ohio State Medical Society, and in 1850 became a member of the American Medical Association.  He died at his home in Lancaster, October 10, 1871.

DR. TOM O. EDWARDS

     Dr. Edwards was born in the State of Maryland and came with his father-in-law.  Dr. Boerstler, to Lancaster in the year 1835.  He became a partner of Dr. Boerstler and entered upon a large and lucrative practice.  He was a student of politics and as early as 1840 was a stump speaker for the Whig party.  He was a very popular man, social, polite, and entertaining, and few men, if any, were better known in Lancaster than Tom Edwards.  He served two years in congress from this district in 1848 and 1849.  He was active and influential, more than usually so for a new member.  After the close of his term in congress he was induced by a Boston firm to take charge of a drug store to be established in Cincinnati.  He accordingly removed his family to Cincinnati.  He became quite prominent in local affairs, was elected to the city council and by the council made its president.  He was also a professor in the Ohio Medical College.  The writer, by invitation, heard on one occasion one of his lectures.

[Pg. 243]
     He did not remain in Cincinnati more than four or five years.  He moved from there to Madison, Wisconsin, and from there to Dubuque, Iowa.  In a few years he returned to Lancaster and entered again upon the practice of medicine.  But old age began to tell upon him and he finally abandoned the practice and followed his son Thomas to Wheeling, W. Va., where he died a few years since. 
     Dr. Edwards was a genial man and made many friends, but he was not a successful business man and died poor.  He made an effort to better his fortune by going to Pike’s Peak during the gold excitement, but it was barren of results. 
     His old office on Main Street, which was in 1840 the resort of his Whig cronies and other friends, was called the Coon Box and was as famous as was the office of Dr. Wagenhals in 1860, which was also called the Coon Box.
     Dr. Tom. O. Edwards served in congress with ex-President John Quincy Adams and Abraham Lincoln in 1848.  He was present in the House when the ex-President was stricken with paralysis and he was the physician who attended him until he died.  Both he and Lincoln were members of the committee that escorted the body to Quincy, Massachusetts.  Dr. Edwards occupied a very respectable position in congress.  He introduced a bill in the interest of pure drugs and this bill and his speech in support of it gave him some reputation.  At this period Dr. Edwards was a very popular Whig politician of Lancaster.  He made good speeches, was wide-awake and alert.  He was a good conversationalist, well-informed and floated upon the wave of popular favor.  But politics brought him no money and ruined his professional prospects.

[Pg. 244]

DR. PAUL CARPENTER

     Dr. Carpenter was born in Lancaster, Pa., in the year 1810.  He came to Lancaster, O., in 1828.  He taught school for three years and in the meantime studied medicine with Dr. Robert McNeill.  He graduated at the Ohio Medical College at Cincinnati. Receiving authority to practice medicine he opened an office in Lancaster.  Dr. Carpenter was a man of decided and positive convictions, spoke his mind frankly and honestly upon all subjects.  But the confidence of the public in his honesty and sincerity was such that he seldom gave offense.  He was a good physician and a good citizen.  He was a prominent member of the Masonic order and for the best years of his life a leading member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.  A more honorable man, or a man with a finer sense of what honor was, never lived in Lancaster.  Paul Carpenter’s word was as good as his bond.  He was a plain, unostentatious man and universally respected.  George Kauffman by will made Dr. Carpenter his executor, but before his death he and Carpenter became estranged and did not speak to each other; but so great was Kauffman’s faith in his integrity that he did not change his will and the doctor was his executor.  He died October, 1880.

CASPER THIEL

     Dr. Thiel was born in Berks County, Pa.  He came first to Amanda, Ohio, where he took part in politics and was a contributor to the newspapers.  In 1841 he came to Lancaster as editor of the Ohio Eagle.  He was a good and forcible writer and a scholar.  While Centennial History of Lancaster

[Pg. 245]
editor of the Eagle he was the owner of a small drug store in Lancaster. Leaving the newspaper, he moved to Belleville, 111., where the author met him in 1852. He was proprietor of a small shop and the correspondent of some newspapers.

WM. SLADE

     Mr. Slade came from Vermont to Lancaster.  He was a son of ex-Governor Slade of that State.  He was a young lawyer of merit, and in 1840 was a partner of Wm. Medill.  He was a devoted church member, Sunday school teacher, and superintendent, and a Presbyterian of the strictest sect. In 1848 he was cashier of the Hocking Valley Bank.  He was an anti-slavery man and his principles were not popular in Lancaster.  In 1850 he left the bank and moved to Cleveland.  He rose to some prominence there and at one time was occupying some foreign appointment under the United States Government.  In Cleveland he lost his entire family of children by scarlet fever and this so preyed upon his mind that he lost his religion and became an unbeliever.  The author saw Slade and wife in Cleveland after their great bereavement; their heads were white and they had the appearance of people older than their years. 10

DR. MICHAEL EFFINGER

     Dr. Effinger was born in Lancaster, O., December 11th, 1819.  He was a son of Samuel and Mary Noble Effinger.  His grandfather, Samuel Noble, came from Maryland in 1811 and settled on a farm adjoining Tarlton, O.  His mother was a sister of Colonel John Noble.  He attended the schools and the academy of Lancaster, and at the proper age entered Miami University,

[Pg. 246]
where he finished the course of study and graduated with honor.  He studied medicine in the office of Drs. Boerstler and Edwards, then leading physicians of Lancaster.  He attended lectures and graduated at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Returning to Lancaster he opened an office and commenced the practice of medicine.  Here he continued to live and practice his chosen profession for nearly fifty years.  He was a successful practitioner and an honorable and much respected citizen.  In 1846 he was married to Miss Elmira Catlin, niece of Darius Tallmadge.  Lieutenant W. T. Sherman was a guest at the wedding.  The doctor and his family moved in the best society of Lancaster and he took an active part in matters pertaining to the welfare of the town.  The last years of his life were years of affliction, he being incapacitated for business, but he bore it all patiently until the end came on the 5th of January, 1890.  He was then in his seventy-first year.  He and General Sherman were friends and correspondents in their youth and their friendship continued through life.

DR. O. E. DAVIS

     Dr. Davis came to Lancaster a young married man from Belmont County, O.  His wife’s family were intimate friends of the late Charles Hammond, the eminent lawyer and editor of Cincinnati.  Dr. Davis was a popular citizen and a good physician, being at one time in partnership with Dr. P. M. Wagenhals.  Some twenty years since he moved to Cincinnati, where he practiced his profession successfully until failing health compelled him to retire.  He closed his career as a Centennial History of Lancaster

[Pg. 247]
physician and spent a few years at a lovely home in Morrow, O., where he was tenderly cared for by wife and daughter until death came a few years since.

DR. JOHN M. BIGELOW

     Dr. Bigelow was for many years a physician and citizen of Lancaster. He was a scholar and made a specialty of botany.  He was the botanist of the United States commission that fixed the Mexican boundary.  He married a sister of Mrs. Wm. Phelan and raised quite a family.  Late in life he moved to Detroit, Michigan, where he died. 

H. H. WAIT

     Dr. Wait was a practicing physician in Lancaster for a number of years.  He came here from Virginia, but in what year is not known.  He was here as early as 1831 and as late as 1840.  In the forties he left Lancaster for some town in the Scioto Valley, where he died. 
     He had a practice as large as either Dr. White or Dr. McNeill, as the returns of his income for taxation show.  He was a large man, of fine presence.  He had a step-son, Henry St. George Offut, who left Lancaster for Washington City, where he was employed in the Postoffice Department.  When the Rebellion came on he went to Virginia and took some position in the rebel government.  
     Dr. Ezra Clarke succeeded Dr. Wilson about 1823 and occupied his old house.  But little is known of him.  He was a member of the County Medical Society and was in good standing. 
     He died in 1830 and was buried in the Zane grave-

[Pg. 248]
yard on the hill.  He lived last in the Fischel house near that of Dr. Carpenter on Chestnut Street.
     Dr. Clarke practiced medicine thirty years before he came to Lancaster, first in Middletown, Vermont, and for three years in Royalton, O.
     Dr. G. K. Miller practiced medicine in Lancaster for many years.  He married a daughter of Daniel Arnold and lived in the house built by his father-in-law, where Dr. Harmon now resides.  Dr. Miller was an honorable and much respected citizen.
     Dr. J. W. Lewis practiced medicine in Lancaster for more than thirty years.  He was a well-educated physician and a successful practitioner.  In the early years of his career he lived in Keokuk, Iowa, and was a professor in the medical college of that city.  Returning to Ohio, he married the accomplished daughter of Dr. Simon Hyde, of Rushville, and soon thereafter located in New Salem, from which place he came to Lancaster.  He was rated as one of the best of Lancaster physicians.  He died very suddenly aged about seventy years.
     Dr. Saxe was a well-known German citizen and a well-educated physician. He lived during the career of Captain A. F. Witte.  He married a sister of G. A. Mithoff.  He was one of the influential members of the German element of Lancaster society and a worthy gentleman.  He lived for a time in the Scofield house, now the postoffice.  He moved from Lancaster to Columbus, where he died.

VICTOR MOREAU GRISWOLD

     Victor Moreau Griswold was born at Worthington, Ohio, April 14, 1819, of Connecticut parents.  When about fifteen years of age he came to Lancaster and

[Pg. 249]
was employed for a few years as a clerk in the old mercantile house of Ainsworth & Willock.  In 1838 he be- came associated with his brother, S. A. Griswold, in the publication of the Tiffin, Ohio, Gazette.  Subsequently he entered the office of Hon. T. W. Powell, of Delaware, as a law student, but after a few months relinquished this for an artistic career, which he had always had a strong predilection for.  In the early forties he studied portrait painting with William Walcutt, a prominent artist of Columbus, and afterward for several years practiced that art in many Ohio cities and towns.  In 1840 he married Miss Caroline, daughter of Colonel Purdy McElvain, Indian agent at the Wyandot reservation.  Upper Sandusky.  He afterward went largely into the photographic business, establishing a gallery in Tiffin in 1851.  In 1853 he purchased a gallery in Lancaster, and moved here with his family.  In 1856 he invented and patented the celebrated ferrotype plate and carried on a factory which for several years yielded him a very large income.  In the fall of 1861 he established a similar factory in Peekskill, N. Y., and removed to that city with his family.  Through agents he continued to operate the Lancaster factory until the year 1865. About this time the introduction of the card photograph had begun to injuriously affect the ferrotype picture business, and in consequence Mr. Griswold’s financial fortunes waned rapidly.  Before his death he was reduced to comparatively moderate circumstances.  His life career was that of a genius, with its usual vicissitudes of success and failure.  His sanguine and generous temperament was an obstacle to success in a business point of view.  He was gifted in both art and literature, and his contributions thereto were many and

[Pg. 250]
meritorious.  His death occurred at Peekskill, N. Y., on the 18th of June, 1872.  The above sketch is from the pen of Samuel A. Griswold.

P. M. WAGENHALS

     Dr. Wagenhals was born in Carroll County, Ohio.  He was a son of the Rev. John Wagenhals, long the 'honored pastor of St. Peter’s Lutheran Church of Lancaster.  His mother was a Poorman from near Somerset, O.   Dr. Wagenhals received the rudiments of his education in Lancaster and had the well-known experience of hundreds of others in the common schools of the period.  He studied medicine with Drs. Boerstler and Edwards, and graduated at the University of Maryland, Baltimore.  Returning to Lancaster, he married Susan, the daughter of Frederick A. Shaefler, then one of the substantial citizens of Lancaster.  He settled in Somerset, Ohio, and practiced his profession until the year 1854.  He then moved his family to Lancaster, where for many years he was one of the leading physicians of the city.  He was also a leading Republican and took great interest in politics.   He was a most companionable man, bright and entertaining, and never lacked for company or friends.  Dr. Wagenhals was once a boy and had the usual experience, escorting the elephant to town and attending the shows, then “forbidden fruit.” 
     In political campaigns and during the war, his office was the resort of congenial companions and political leaders.  In the seventies he moved to Columbus, O., where he practiced his profession until his death.   He was for one term of five years a trustee of the Central Lunatic Asylum, and during that time the splendid structure, now the pride of the State of Ohio, was built.

[Pg. 251]
We doubt if any doctor ever left behind more sincere friends and admirers than Dr. Wagenhals; or who at his death was more sincerely mourned. He was a fine humorist and was the author of the papers known as the “Old Line Whig Caucus” of 1856 and 1857 Lancaster Gazette.

F. L. FLOWERS

     Dr. Flowers was born on a farm in Harrison County, W. Va., March 17, 1811.  In early life his father moved to Maysville, Ky.  His early education was very limited, as he attended school but six months.  He was a student at home, however, and improved his leisure hours.  About the year 1830 he came to Ohio, went to New Lisbon, Columbiana County, and studied medicine with Dr. McCook, the father of the large family of fighting McCooks of the Union Army.  Dr. Flowers attended medical lectures in 1836 and 1837 at the Ohio Medical College in Cincinnati.  His first appearance in Fairfield County was at New Salem in the year 1836 as a practicing physician.  His first wife was a Miss Johnson of New Salem.  From New Salem he moved to Brownsville and from there to Rehobeth, going from there to New Lexington.
     While living at New Lexington he was elected a member of the Ohio Legislature and served from the years 1851 to 1858.  While there he supported the Monroe Bill for the establishment of the Reform School, and was its friend to the end of his life.  In 1864 he attended the Homoeopathic Medical College of Cleveland, Ohio, and graduated.  He came to Lancaster in the spring of 1874 and practiced his profession here until the date of his death, November 21, 1895.
     In politics he was a Democrat. For a few years in

[Pg. 252]
early life he was a preacher of the Methodist Protestant Church.  He was not thoroughly educated, but he was a brainy, thoughtful man.  He had many friends, the result of his skill, kindness, and attention in sickness’.

HERVEY SCOTT

     Dr. Hervey Scott, the subject of this sketch, was born near Old Town, Greene County, Ohio, January 30th, 1809.  He remained on his father’s farm until his seventeenth birthday, when he took up his residence with the family of William Milton in South Charleston, Clarke County, Ohio.  At this place he attended school and learned the trade of manufacturing spinning wheels.  When he was twenty-four years of age, he gave his entire attention to the study of medicine, attending the Ohio Medical College in Cincinnati.  In 1836, he entered the practice of his chosen profession and continued for about three years, when he turned his attention to dentistry, which calling he followed in Lancaster for more than forty years.  During most of his life, especially the latter part.  Dr. Scott manifested a decided liking for journalistic work, and his many historical and pioneer sketches have attracted attention.  In 1859, he bought the Lancaster Gazette and American Democrat, consolidating the two papers, placing the office under the supervision of his son, Hervey.  The History of Fairfield County was a very meritorious production of Dr. Scott’s and made its advent in 1876.  It was highly appreciated by our people, especially the older ones.  He possessed a most wonderful memory with regard to incidents and events of years long gone by, and his general knowledge and recollections of early pioneer life, were decidedly accurate.

[Pg. 253]
At the time of his death, which occurred at Toledo, in September, 1895, Dr. Scott was in his eighty-seventh year.  He possessed a wonderfully strong physical organization, coming from a hardy race of people.
     His many acts of kindness and charity extended to those in need, his deferential bearing toward his seniors and constant attention to the sick, will be recalled by many of our citizens.

GENERAL THOMAS EWING

     General Thomas Ewing was born in Lancaster, received a liberal education and studied law.  He was secretary to President Taylor to sign land warrants.  Married a daughter of Rev. Wm. Cox, and removed to Leavenworth, Kansas.  He delivered a Republican speech in the old Court House when quite a young man.  His father was an attentive listener.  He was made Chief Justice of Kansas after it became a State; entered the army and served during the war. Returning to Lancaster, he was elected a member of Congress.  From Lancaster he removed to New York, where he recently met a sudden death.  He was a man of ability and of commanding presence. (From the Memorial Address of Rev. A. W. Pitzer)  “General Thomas Ewing was not only a prominent and striking historic character, but he belonged to one of the most illustrious historic families of the Republic.  For nearly a hundred years in the annals of our country, the name of Ewing will be found, and always with honorable mention.  According to the law of heredity, we would expect much of a son born to Thomas Ewing, Sr., and his wife, Maria Boyle.  Nor, as we look back over the sixty-five years of the life of his child, will we be disappointed.

[Pg. 254]
     “His public life began in 1856. When a young man of twenty-seven, he located in Leavenworth, Kansas, and organized the law firm of Ewing, Sherman & McCook. 
     “The first fires of the War for the Union were kindled in Kansas, along the banks of the Kaw, the Wakarusa, and the Missouri.  From 1856 to 1861, the principles of civil and constitutional liberty were taxed to their utmost tension.  Young Ewing, with characteristic courage and honesty, declared for free Kansas, but freedom in company with law and order and constitutional requirements; and his influence in these directions was so potent, that, by almost unanimous consent, he was made the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Kansas.  Before he had opportunity to show his power as a lawyer and his ability as a judge, the Confederate fire at Sumter had fired the Northern heart, and from Maine to Mexico, all ranks, classes, and conditions, forsook peaceful pursuits to follow the war trumpets that were calling millions to arms and to deadly strife. 
     “The Chief Justice of the State laid aside his robes of office to organize the Eleventh Kansas Infantry, and to be its first Colonel.  For conspicuous ability and bravery he rose to the rank of Major General, and his heroic conduct at Pilot Knob, which it was his duty to defend and not to surrender, saved the great State of Missouri to the Union cause, and had potent influence in the final termination of the great issues between the States."
     Thomas Ewing was a worthy son of a distinguished man, one of the few referred to by the poet:

[Pg. 255]

—“ Few sons attain the praise
Of their great sires, and most their sires disgrace.”
           Pope's Homer.

     He alighted from a street car in New York and was struck by a car coming in an opposite direction.  He was not killed outright but died in a day or two.  Thus closed his career upon earth.
     “And his soul winged its destined flight.”

JOHN WAGENHALS

     Rev. John Wagenhals was born in Wurtemberg, Germany, April 16th, 1799.  He was educated partly in his native city but later entered a Latin school at Stuttgart.  In 1817, when but eighteen years of age, he came to the United States.  He located at Somerset, Ohio, and studied for the ministry under the Rev. Andrew Henkel.  In 1820 he was ordained a minister by the Lutheran Synod of Ohio.  He was immediately called to the laborious work of three counties, Carroll, Tuscarawas and Columbiana.  In this work he remained nine years, and it was here in Carroll County that his first wife, a Miss Poorman, of Somerset, and mother of Dr. P. M. Wagenhals, died and was buried.  In 1829 he came to Lancaster and became pastor of St. Peter’s congregation and some churches in the country.  Here he labored for fifteen years with success, and made many friends, among them Hon. Thomas Ewing, whose friendship lasted to the end.  In 1844 he moved to Lithopolis, where he was the pastor of the Lutheran Church for four years.  In 1848 he returned to Lancaster and again became pastor of St. Peter’s and of Trinity in the country.  In 1860 he was called to Circleville, where he was pastor of the Lutheran Church for nine years.  Advancing age,

[Pg. 256]
and failing health compelled him to retire from the ministry, a work that he had faithfully and ardently followed for fifty years.  In 1870 he returned with his wife to Lancaster, where they spent the years of a happy old age.  He died September 12, 1884, aged eighty-five years.  He was a plain, unpretentious man, a good and effective preacher, and a model and beloved pastor.  He was a prominent member of the Synods of the Church, frequently serving as chairman.  He was alive to the interests of his church and devoted to his work and to the people he served.  He was a liberal, broad-minded man and popular with Christians of other denominations.  He was one of a long list of pioneers who preached the Gospel in the newly settled Western country and one of the men whose influence for good cannot be estimated or fully appreciated.  One of his daughters was the wife of George G. Beck, a prominent business man of Lancaster.  His son Samuel is a Lutheran minister of Ft. Wayne, Ind. Captain Albert Getz married his stepdaughter.

THOMAS WETZLER

     Thomas Wetzler was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, on the 19th day of February, 1829.  When but seven years of age his parents moved to Ohio, traveling all the distance in a wagon and reached Fairfield County in 1836 after many weeks of hardships incident to the crude method of travel in those times.  He acquired an education in the common schools and when yet quite young he entered the Gazette office, where he first received instructions in the “are preservative.”  In 1849, he went to Cincinnati and worked on the old Gazette until the summer of the following year, when he moved with his wife to Columbus and

[Pg. 257]
there was employed at the various printing establishments of the Capital City.  During the sixties he was superintendent of the big printing establishment operated by Richard Nevins, who was then doing the printing for the state and a general line of work for other large concerns.  In 1870, Mr. Wetzler returned to the town in which he had spent his boyhood days, purchasing an interest in the Ohio Eagle, of which he is still the owner and senior editor.  He is also one of the editors of the Lancaster Daily Eagle, a publication that was launched on the journalistic sea in the spring of 1890.  He is now nearing the sixty-eighth mile-stone of life, and is rapidly recovering from a sickness which has detained him from his desk for about six months.  His entire life since a boy has been one of activity, and in his declining years he is blessed with a good and profitable business.

H. L. CRIDER

     Dr. Crider was a native of Fairfield County, and came to Lancaster a young man.  He studied dentistry and practiced his profession here for more than forty years.  His wife was the daughter of Rev. Geo. Wise, a pioneer preacher.  Dr. Crider was a good dentist, a clever gentleman, and a much respected citizen.  He died very recently, leaving to his family a good name.

CHARLES SCHNEIDER

     Charles Schneider was born in Saxony, March 19, 1814.  He came to the United States in the year 1840, and settled in Lancaster.  In Germany he was Deputy Clerk of the Court.  Immediately upon his arrival in

[Pg. 258]
Lancaster he commenced giving lessons in music.  The daughters of Dr. Kreider were his first pupils.  In the year 1844, he married Miss Anna Maria Hoffman, daughter of John Hoffman, a farmer, then living three miles from town.  His whole life has been devoted to teaching music and the French language.  Two years of his life were spent in Granville, teaching music, and one year in Columbus.  This was in the year 1849.  Since that year he has resided in Lancaster.  His oldest daughter, Caroline, was quite a famous musician and an adept upon the piano.  She gave music lessons in Lancaster, Columbus, and Chicago.  She died in Chicago in the year 1889, at the age of forty-four.  His children all possessed musical talent, and his son Charles is quite an artist.  He is now an invalid and tenderly cared for by his family.

CAPTAIN AUGUSTUS RUFFNER KELLER

     Captain Keller was born July 1, 1838.  He was the son of Hon. Daniel Keller, one of the good common sense farmers of Fairfield County, whose judgments as a justice of the peace for fifteen years were never reversed.  He was a member of the Legislature and of the Board of Trustees for the State University.  He voted for the repeal of the black laws and for S. P. Chase for Senator.  At the age of twenty-four years Augustus enlisted in the Ninetieth Ohio Regiment.  He was made captain of Company I, and later quartermaster on the staff of General Stedman.  He served honorably during the war.  On his return to civil life he became a farmer and also took an active part in politics, being chairman of the County Republican Central Committee one or two terms.  Governor Hayes appointed him a

[Pg. 259]
member of the Board of Trustees for the Ohio Penitentiary from 1878 to 1883.  He was the agent of the Crow Indians in Montana Territory, being appointed by President Hayes.  He was a member of the Ohio Commandery of the Loyal Legion, and of Ezra Ricketts Post, G. A. R., of Carroll, Ohio.  For four years he edited and published Public Opinion at Westerville, O.  For five years he was the political editor of the Fairfield County Republican.  Captain Keller was a bright man and a ready and fluent speaker.  He died in Lancaster, O., May 11, 1896, aged fifty-eight years.

SAMUEL A. GRISWOLD

     February 4, 1896, Samuel A. Griswold retired from the editorial charge of the Lancaster Gazette after a service of thirty years.  He was a writer of ability and a citizen of unblemished character.  On the evening of February 4, 1896, a few of his old friends met him at the home of a neighbor, and that pleasant evening will always be remembered by those present.  It was an event in the history of Lancaster worth recording and we copy from the Lancaster Gazette.  This occasion was in honor of the retiring editor and his successor, F. S. Pursell.
     Hon. J. D. Martin, as toastmaster, arose and made the opening remarks of a symposium which for interest, brilliancy and heartfelt earnest words has probably never had a precedent in Lancaster.  In referring to his long acquaintance with Mr. Griswold he paid that gentleman a eulogy which conveyed not words of empty compliment, but the utterances of a heart filled with respect and honor for a citizen who had lived for more than a third of a century in this community and had during all that time maintained a character without

[Pg. 260]
spot or blemish. In his words of welcome to Mr. Pursell, as a citizen and business man of Lancaster, he echoed the sentiment of all present. 
     Mr. C. M. L. Wiseman, the host, was first called on and responded with a prepared address which we take delight in reproducing as follows:

“Come, dear old comrade, you and I
Will steal an hour from days gone by —
The shining days when life was new. 
And all was bright with morning dew,
The lusty days of long ago.
When you were Bill and I was Joe.”

     Samuel A. Griswold was born February 18, 1815, in Columbus, Ohio, and was the reputed first male child born within the then corporate limits. He has witnessed the growth of Columbus from a small village to a beautiful city of more than one hundred thousand people.  He spent the early years of his life in Worthington and Delaware, Ohio.  At Worthington he was the classmate of the late George M. Parsons of Columbus.  At Delaware, he and President Hayes were boys together.  He spent three years at Kenyon College, at Gambler, Ohio, and while there was the classmate of Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, Lincoln’s Secretary of War.
     He acquired the printer’s trade in his father’s office and could set type at the early age of six years.  While yet a young man he published a newspaper in Tiffin, Ohio.  This was in the year 1838.  Clark Waggoner, of Toledo, was an editorial cotemporary at Lower Sandusky and a warm friend.  From Tiffin he re- moved to Marion, Ohio, where he published the Buckeye Eagle, with T. P. Wallace, who still resides there, as a partner.  He was justice of the peace for

[Pg. 261]
three terms and postmaster under President Taylor.  In the year 1854 he was elected auditor of Marion County.  From Marion he removed to Lancaster in November, 1861.  He served as quartermaster’s clerk in General Sherman’s army in 1865.  In the year 1866 he became editor and part owner of the Lancaster Gazette and has continuously edited it since. 
     For thirty-four years he has been an industrious, respected and honored citizen of our city. 
     But few men live to the great age of four score years; and it is a rare thing to find a man of that age who has spent all the years of his life in active, laborious business.  His life has been a long, honorable and useful one, and he now retires from its active duties with a reputation unsullied and the good will of all who know him.  He is now

                            “In life’s late afternoon,
Where cool and long the shadows grow,
[He walks] to meet the night that soon
Shall shape and shadow overflow.”

     “May the evening of his days be as tranquil and happy as their dawn and meridian have been honorable and useful.” 
     Regrets were received from Jacob Beck, H. C. Wiseman, of Springfield; Malcolm Jennings, of Columbus; A. R. Keller, H. B. Peters, E. B. Cartmell and others.  Those present aside from Mr. Griswold and Mr. Pursell were Hon. J. D. Martin, Gen. John G. Reeves, A. I. Vorys, Philip Rising, Rev. W. L. Slutz, Rev. W. H. Lewis, Rev. G. W. Halderman, Samuel Whiley, Dr. J. H. Goss, F. C. Whiley, Thos. Wetzler, Wm H. Kooken, Capt. J. M. Sutphen, H. G. Trout, Dr. Geo. W. Boerstler, H. W. Griswold, C. D. Hilles,

[Pg. 262]
T. W. Varian, Geo. E. Kelley, H. C. Drinkle, J. M. Wright, James T. Pickering, Charles B. Whiley, F. C. Neeb, Charles P. Wiseman and Will Wiseman.

E. B. ANDREWS

     Ebenezer Baldwin Andrews, son of Rev. William and Sarah (Parkhill) Andrews, was born at Danbury, Conn., April 29, 1821.  He was the youngest of six sons, five of them ministers of the Gospel.  He entered Williams College in 1838 and came to Marietta in the fall of 1839, and was graduated in 1842.  After teaching for a short time, he studied theology at Princeton, and April 29, 1846, was settled as pastor at Housatonic, Mass.  In June, 1850, he became pastor of the First Congregational church of New Britain, Conn., and in December of that year, he was married to Miss Catharine F. Laflin, of Housatonic, Mass.  In 1851 he was elected to the chair of Natural Sciences in Marietta College, and remained from 1852 till 1870.  He early became interested in geological investigations, and soon made the study of geology very prominent at Marietta.  His enthusiasm in this science was stimulating, and his methods of teaching it, suggestive. 
     At the breaking out of the Rebellion, Prof. Andrews was exerting himself as a patriotic citizen, in efforts to raise troops, when, without his knowledge, he was appointed by Governor Dennison, Major of the Thirty-sixth Ohio Regiment. 
     Responding to this call, he left the peace and quiet of college life to enter the service of his country.  Feeling, with others, the importance of having a man of military education at the head of the regiment, he was largely instrumental in securing, by his influence in Washington, the appointment of Colonel George Cook,

[Pg. 263]
whose discipline did so much to make the brilliant record of that regiment.  Major Andrews served with his regiment in its campaigns in West Virginia, participating in its first battle at Lewisburg.  After his brigade was transferred to the Potomac, he was in the battles of South Mountain and Antietam, when by the promotion of Colonel Crook and the death of Colonel Clark, the command of the regiment devolved upon him.  In 1863, Colonel Andrews resigned, and returned to his college work in Marietta, where he remained until 1869, when he received an appointment on the Ohio Geological Survey, and conducted the survey in Southeastern Ohio.  After finishing his labors in the service of the state.  Prof. Andrews embodied some of the results in a work on Geology, intended for use as a text-book in schools and colleges. 
     In social intercourse.  Rev. Andrews was a man of remarkable graces.  His conversational powers were of a very high order; there was in his conversation a keenness of point, a frequent flash of brilliancy, accompanied by unusual dexterity of argument.  
     Prof. Andrews received the degree of LL. D. from his Alma Mater in 1870.  After leaving Marietta, he resided some years in Columbus, removing to Lancaster in 1872, where he died, after a brief illness, August 14, 1880. 
     (Copied from an address given at an alumni reunion at Marietta College).

JOHN R. MUMAUGH

     Mr. Mumaugh was born in Hocking Township, Fairfield County, Ohio.  During the winter months of 1839 and 1840 he taught school.  Coming to Lan-

[Pg. 264]
caster, he undertook the collection of accounts and the settlement of the business of the firm of Ring & Rice.  Then followed the settlement of the accounts of Smith and Arney and John H. Tennant. 
     So successful was he in his collections that business came to him rapidly, and to this business he added that of settling the estates of deceased persons. 
     He made these two lines of work his life business, and during the time closed up twenty-five large estates to the satisfaction of all concerned. 
     He was required to give heavy bonds and none of his friends ever had cause to regret that they were on his bond.  Late in life he engaged in farming and milling.  He gave much assistance to the two railroads of Lancaster and was for many years the leading director of the Hocking Valley Bank.  He married in the year 1841.  He died a few years since, leaving his family a handsome estate.

HENRY V. WEAKLEY

     Mr. Weakley was born in Lancaster.  He first clerked in Baltimore, Md.  His health failing, he made two trips to Brazil, South America, in 1847 and 1848. 
     The winters of 1848 and 1849 he spent in the South.  Returning to Lancaster in 1850, he became teller of the Hocking Valley Bank, and served four years.  He was then made cashier of the Wabash Bank, Indiana, returning in 1855, when he became freight agent of the C. M. & Z, Railroad.  In 1859 he was elected cashier of the Hocking Valley National Bank, but failing health compelled him to resign about 1865.

[Pg. 265]

JOEL RADEBAUGH

     Joel Radebaugh was born in Pleasant Township, Fairfield County, Ohio, and spent his youth upon the farm of his father.  While yet a young man he met with an accident, which necessitated the amputation of a limb.  This compelled him to seek other employment.  Dr. M. Z. Kreider, Clerk of the Court, gave him a position in his office and he soon became his chief deputy.  Upon the retirement of Dr. Kreider, he was appointed Clerk of the Court, and held the office until the adoption of the new State Constitution; when he was elected the first probate judge of Fairfield County. 
     He was thoroughly competent and organized this new office.  Upon the organization of the Cincinnati, Wilmington and Zanesville Railroad Company, he was elected its secretary, which position he filled with signal ability for several years.
     Late in life he accepted a position in the Treasury Department in Washington, D. C.  Becoming too old for the labor of a clerk, he went west to live with his son, Randolph Foster Radebaugh, of Tacoma, Washington. 
     His son was one of the pioneers of that region and accumulated a handsome fortune.  Mr. Radebaugh died in Tacoma a year or two since.  He was during his life a leading member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

COLONEL C. F. STEELE

     Mr. Steele was born in West Virginia, April 11, 1828.  He did not have the advantages of good schools, hence received a poor education. 
     He was a soldier from Belmont County, Ohio, in

[Pg. 266]
the war with Mexico, and was brave and true.  Returning from the war, he joined a party in 1849, with Governor Shannon, and went to California.  Not succeeding there, and being of an adventurous turn of mind, he went to South America, where he spent several years, returning to Ohio in 1860.  In 1861 he was one of the first to volunteer for the war, and was elected, on the three month’s call, Major of the Seventeenth Ohio Regiment. 
     On the disbandment of this three months’ regiment, he recruited or assisted in doing so, the Sixty-second Ohio Regiment, which encamped at Lancaster. 
     He was wounded so severely in the charge upon Fort Wagner that he was compelled to resign.  In 1863 he married Maria E. Ewing, daughter of Senator Ewing. 
     He next engaged in running the old Ewing Salt Works at Chauncey, Ohio, where he made money, and in a few years returned to Lancaster and led a retired life. 
     Colonel Steele was a brave man and his life was full of adventure.  He died a year or two since and was buried in Elmwood cemetery.

JOHN BOWMAN McNEILL

     Mr. McNeill was a son of Dr. Robert McNeill.  He was educated in the Lancaster schools, studied law and was admitted to the bar, and became a partner of Charles D. Martin.  The firm of Martin & McNeill occupied a high position at the Lancaster bar.  John McNeill was a very popular man in Lancaster and Fairfield County, both as a citizen and Republican politician.  By blood and marriage he was connected with many prominent families.  His mother, an Arnold,

[Pg. 267]
lived to be ninety-three years of age, outliving her husband sixty years.  Mr. McNeill had passed his sixtieth year at time of his death.  His eldest daughter is the wife of a prominent Lancaster attorney, A. I. Vorys, Esq.