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BIOGRAPHIES
Source:
1789 - 1881
History of Cincinnati, Ohio
with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches
Compiled by Henry A. Ford, A. M., and Mrs. Kate B. Ford
L. A. Williams & Co., Publishers
1881
(Transcribed by Sharon Wick)
SAMUEL
BAILEY, JR., sheriff of Hamilton county, is of North of
Ireland stock on both sides. His great-grandfather on the
father's side was a Scotchman. His father, a native of County
Tyrone, was Samuel Bailey, sr., and his mother, whose
maiden name was Mary Crossen, a native of County
Derry, came over on the same ship, while yet unmarried, and
their families not being with them. The young people, thus
boldly facing the world alone, came to Cincinnati in 1832, and
were married here the same year. Mr. Bailey
had received a superior education at home, in the schools and
by his private efforts, and he soon found employment as a
teacher in the schools of the county. His special talent for
figuring served him an excellent purpose no great while
afterwards, when undertaking large contracts in his regular
business. He was a practical stone-mason and bridge-builder,
and, in association with Mr. Samuel Smiley, he became
contractor for large amounts of stone-work and excavation in
the city. Mr. Bailey, before he came to
Cincinnati, sank one of the piers used at Erie, Pennsylvania,
He lived the rest of his life in this city, a prosperous and
successful citizen, and died here in 1865, in his sixtieth
year. His wife had preceded him to the grave in 1853, while
her family, for the most part, was still young. All of her
numerous family, indeed, numbering twelve children, died in
infancy, except the four who still survive—Daniel and
Samuel, jr., both of Cincinnati, Kennedy
B., of Cleveland, and Mary, now Mrs. John C.
Skinner, also of Cleveland.
Samuel was born in Cincinnati August 20, 1838,
on New street, east of Broadway, only about four squares from
his present office in the court-house. That whole part of the
city might then have been well called "New," and there were
many "magnificent distances" in which the young Baileys
and their companions might play. He was educated in the public
schools of that day, and is a graduate of the Woodward high
school, from which he passed in June, 1858. He then took a
position, in February, 1859, as check clerk on the
Little Miami railroad at four hundred dollars per year. Here
he remained until 1861, when he was employed by the railroad
company and the Cincinnati Transfer company, jointly, as
shipping clerk on the levee. Ho had in this duty to see to the
handling of vast quantities of valuable property, especially
cotton, which was then being moved from the south in great
amounts, and at one time commanded a price of five hundred
dollars per bale. He never, it is said, lost a bale of cotton
for the railroad. His labors at this time were exceedingly
onerous. On one day he loaded three steamers with full
cargoes, of war material, principally. For a week together, at
times, he did not take off his clothes. In 1863 he acquired
his first interest in the Transfer company, buying a small
block of stock, and was shortly made assistant superintendent
of the company at a salary of fifteen hundred dollars a year.
On the first of August, 1865, he was advanced to the
superintendency of the company at two thousand dollars per
annum—a position which he has since continuously held, most of
the time at an advanced salary. He is now one of the principal
owners of the Transfer company, carrying nearly one-half of
its entire stock of one hundred thousand dollars. February 1,
1875, he was chosen superintendent of the Cincinnati Omnibus
company, in which he is also a stockholder, but resigned this
position on the first of January, 1881, upon assuming the
duties of sheriff.
Mr. Bailey entered politics through a
channel somewhat unwonted for those who have achieved success
in partizanship. He felt that he owed much to the public
schools of the city, and was not altogether sorry when, in
1878, he was nominated for member of the board of education
and elected, although a Republican in a strong Democratic
ward, and against a Democrat who was already on the board and
had a party majority of nearly five hundred upon which to
rely. At the expiration of his two-years' term, he was
elected, under the new law providing for twelve members at
large, a member for the longest term provided for—three
years—receiving the highest number of votes of any man on the
ticket of twelve. This post upon the board he is still
holding, with nearly two years yet to serve. During the second
year of his first term he was chosen a delegate to the union
board of high schools, and was made a trustee of his alma
mater, the Woodward school. He served in this capacity two
years, and then declined a re-election, from the pressure of
other duties. He is also chairman of the board of local
trustees of the second district school, on Sycamore street,
which he attended in his boyhood. The same year of his second
election to the school board (1880), he was a delegate, chosen
from the county, to the Republican State convention, which
nominated General Garfield to the Presidency. He
was an alternate in that great assembly, but on the final day
of nomination, after eleven days of stormy struggle, his
principal happened to be ill, and Mr. Bailey had
the supreme satisfaction of casting his only ballot in the
convention for the nomination of the Mentor hero. In the
course of the canvass the choice of the Republican party of
Hamilton county, in convention assembled, fell upon Mr.
Bailey as its candidate for sheriff. He had a strong
and popular German as an opponent, but after an exceedingly
arduous and active canvass, in which he bore full part, he
shared in the magnificent success of the party at the fall
election. He is now doing admirable and thorough-going duty in
the position to which he was elected, and whose duties he
assumed on the first of January, 1881. He was one of the
founders of the Lincoln club, among the very first to sign the
paper for the incorporation of that powerful organization, and
is now one of its directors.
Among Mr. Bailey's special tastes is that
for fine horses, which he probably inherits from his father,
who was in his day one of the most expert horse-buyers in the
city. He has never, since he was six years old, been without
the ownership of a horse, and now has three steeds for his own
use. This taste also serves the Transfer Company, whose
operations Mr. Bailey superintends, in the
purchase and care of its large stable of horses and mules. He
and his family are extremely fond of outdoor exercise on
horseback and in the carriage.
Mr. Bailey is of Protestant
Irish blood, and a member of the Third Presbyterian church of
Cincinnati, Rev. Dr. J. P. Kumler, pastor. He was
married October 8, 1866, at Catlettsburgh, Kentucky, to
Miss Virginia M. Hanzsche, daughter of a Bavarian printer
and extensive land-owner, but herself a native of Baltimore.
They have five children—two girls and three boys—Virginia
Margaret, Mary Emma, Charles
Samuel, Fergus Miller and Dwight
Kumler. They have also lost one boy, who died in infancy.
Source: 1789 - 1881 History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with
Illustrations and Biographical Sketches - Publ. L. A.
Williams & Co. - Page 450 |
THOMAS BISHOP, dairyman,
was born in England, but came to America at an early day,
and in 1845 located in Cincinnati. Here he has been
actively engaged in the dairy business, and to-day is one of
the oldest, as well as one of the most practical, dairymen
around the city. In 1849 he began business for himself
at his present place. Here he started with a few cows,
and by good management his business has increased to such an
extent that he now owns fifty-four cows, nine horses and two
milk-wagons, and employs six hands. Mr.
Bishop keeps one of the best, neatest and cleanest
dairies around the city. He has forty acres of fine
land, which he uses for pasture.
Source: 1789 - 1881 History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with
Illustrations and Biographical Sketches - Publ. L. A.
Williams & Co. - Page 519 |
LOUIS
GUSTAVE FREDERICK BOUSCAREN, consulting and principal
engineer, and ex-superintendent of the Cincinnati Southern
Railroad, is of French descent, the eldest son of Gustave
and Lise (Segond) Bouscaren of the island of Guadaloupe,
in the West Indies, where the Bouscarens have been
prosperous sugar-planters for several generations.
Here Louis was born on the twentieth of August, 1840,
the third child and first son of a family of eight children,
equally divided as to sex. His boyhood was spent on
the ancestral plantation. When arrived at suitable age
he came under the competent instruction of his mother, who
instructed him in the rudiments of learning until he was
thirteen years old. The family had by this time
removed (in 1850) from Guadaloupe to a farm in Kentucky
owned by the elder Bouscaren, about half-way between
Cincinnati and Lexington. Three years afterwards
Louis was sent for a few months to St. Xavier's college,
in this city, and then went to the land of "La Belle
France," to receive further education, in response to the
summons of Napoleon III, as a token of regard to the memory
of a paternal uncle, General Henry Bouscaren, of the
French army, who had been killed at the head of his division
at the siege of Laghouat, in Africa. He entered the
Lycee St. Louis, in Paris, one of the great government
schools, and remained there six years, engaged in classical
and general studies, and then successfully passed an
examination for admission to the Central School of Arts and
Manufactures, in the same city. He entered this
institution in 1859, and at the end of three years was
graduated with the diploma of mechanical engineer, the
seventh in rank in a class of one hundred and thirty.
He returned at once to America, coming on to Cincinnati,
and, after a little delay, caused by his then imperfect
knowledge of English, he obtained employment as draughtsman
for Messrs. Hannaford & Anderson, the well-known
architects and afterwards became assistant engineer, under
Chief Engineers T. D> Lovett and E. C. Rice,
of the Ohio & Mississippi railroad, and while there, under
Mr. Rice's direction, prepared the plans and
specifications for the large iron bridge now in use by that
road over the Great Miami river. His next engagement
was with Lane & Bodley, engine-builders and
manufacturers of machinery. Here his practical
education and genius as a designer and engineer had a better
field for exercise than with the architects, and he justly
deems this an important step in his advancement. After
two years with this house he engaged for a few months in the
preliminary survey of the southern part of the
Jeffersonville, Madison & Indianapolis railroad. He
then went with Mr. Rice, with whom he had been
associated previously, to Illinois, where he superintended
the survey and location of the St. Louis, Vandalia & Terre
Haute railroad, and as engineer built the western division,
from Greenville to St. Louis. When the road was leased
to the Pennsylvania company he went to St. Louis &
Southeastern railroad, from that city to Evansville,
Indiana, with a branch from McLeansborough to Shawneetown.
He was during these operations again in his old position as
assistant engineer to Mr. Rice, who was chief
engineer of these roads. As such Mr. Bouscaren
also took charge of the survey and construction of the
railway from Cairo to Vincennes. Completing that he
returned to Cincinnati, where he had an offer from Mr. T.
D. Lovett, then consulting engineer of the Cincinnati
Southern railroad, to make the necessary surveys and plans
for the bridges of that great highway over the Ohio and
Kentucky rivers. With the commencement of building
operations upon this road, Mr. Bouscaren accepted the
post of chief engineer in charge of construction, under
Mr. Lovett's administration. When the latter
gentleman resigned, in 1877, his place was offered by the
trustees of the road to Mr. Bouscaren, whose work had
in every way approved itself to them, and was by him
accepted. He had, meanwhile, supervised the
construction of the great bridges of the road, for which he
was first taken into its employ, and they, with other fine
structures on this line, are among the monuments of his
genius and skill. Soon after his appointment, the
duties of superintendent were added to his already onerous
responsibilities, which he carried successfully until the
road was completed, when then were properly transferred to
another, who took the superintendency solely in charge.
Mr. Bouscaren has since remained the consulting engineer
of the trustees of the road, joining to his official duties
the carrying of a general business in civil and mechanical
engineering, especially railway building, at his office at
134 Vine street. He is also consulting engineer for
the New Orleans & Northwestern railroad, now in course of
construction. His large abilities and superior general
and technical education have thus abundant opportunity for
practical application in important fields of labor. He
is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers; of
the Institute of Civil Engineers of England, the oldest of
the kind in existence; and of the French Societe des
Engenieurs Civile. Apart from these professional
associations, he has not cared to multiply his memberships,
nor take active part in politics.
Source: 1789 - 1881 History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with
Illustrations and Biographical Sketches - Publ. L. A.
Williams & Co. - Page 465 |
DR. DAVID D. BRAMBLE.
David Denman Bramble, M. D., a prominent practitioner
in Cincinnati, is a Buckeye and a Hamilton county man "to the
manor born," and is, physically and otherwise, a type of the
very best class of natives of the great State of the Ohio
valley. He was born at the village of Montgomery, in Sycamore
township, on the eleventh of December, 1839. His parents were
of good old English stock, and were among the first settlers
in the Miami Purchase.
His boyhood was spent in the pure air of the country.
As he grew larger and stronger he engaged in various pursuits
of manual labor and humble trade, attending from time to time
the rather indifferent public schools of that period, until
after he had entered upon his fourteenth year. By an
industry, economy and intelligence in business quite
remarkable in one so young, he had by this time acquired means
enough to enable him to begin a course of study in the
Farmers' college, at College Hill. The same traits served to
carry him triumphantly through an undergraduate course, and to
leave the institution with honor and the prestige of success.
He began an independent career at once as teacher of the
intermediate school in his native village, from which he was
advanced, at the expiration of about a year and a half, to the
principalship of the school. He held this post for two years
and a half more, when, at the age of twenty, he matriculated
as a student at the Ohio Medical college in Cincinnati. He had
previously, during a large part of his pedagogic service, been
reading medicine under the direction of Dr. William Jones, of
Montgomery, with whom he resided. After attendance upon two
full courses of lectures, he was graduated from the Ohio
Medical college in 1862. His public service and large practice
began at once. He was appointed house physician to the old
Commercial hospital, then itself almost in articulo mortis
and about to give way to the magnificent structure which now
occupies its site, and much more, as is elsewhere related in
this history. He served this institution for a single year,
and in 1863 opened an office pretty nearly where he now is, at
No. 227 Broadway, for the general practice of his profession.
All his offices have since been in this neighborhood on the
same street. By September, 1867, he had built the handsome
residence and office he now occupies at No. 169 Broadway, and
moved into it.
He was again, about the same time of his beginning private
practice, pressed into more public service as district
physician for the Thirteenth ward, and in the autumn of the
same year was made physician at the pest-house. The latter
post he vacated by resignation at the end of three and a half
years, presently accepting instead a much more pleasant and,
in some respects, profitable position as professor of anatomy
in the Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery, and also
treasurer of the college. In 1872 he was advanced to the
office of dean of the institution, and at the same time was
transferred to the chair of surgery. In these important
capacities he is still serving the college. For some time he
was a joint editor and proprietor of the Cincinnati Medical
News, a monthly organ of the profession of no small reputation
and utility. He has steadily maintained, withal, a large and
growing private practice, in which his success has
corresponded to the confidence reposed in his professional
abilities by those who have appointed him to the several
public positions he has held. He is a prominent and
influential member of the Cincinnati Academy of Medicine, the
Ohio State Medical society, and the American Medical
association, and is an original member of the American
Surgical association, organized in the city of New York last
year. Of this young association himself and Dr. W. W. Dawson
are the only Cincinnati members. Before one or the other of
these societies he has read numerous papers, some of which
have been published, and has engaged usefully in various
discussions upon medical topics.
Dr. Bramble has found time, in the midst of his busy
employments, to take Odd Fellowship through all its degrees,
to work entirely through the several ranks of the Knights of
Pythias, and to proceed in Masonry to and including the
thirty-second degree. He is at present master of the Kilwinning lodge No. 356, and is the third in command (second
lieutenant) in the Consistory of the Ancient, Accepted
Scottish Rite, of which Colonel Enoch T. Carson
is commander-in-chief, and Mr. W. B. Wiltse, also of
Cincinnati, is first lieutenant.
Dr. Bramble was married May
15, 1864, to Miss Celestine, oldest daughter of
John Rieck, the well-known farmer and landowner
of Sharonville, Sycamore township. They have three children,
all daughters, and all living—Emma Ellen, born
October 29, 1867; Jessie May, born March 20,
1870; and Mamie Rieck, born January 17, 1876.
Source: 1789 - 1881 History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with
Illustrations and Biographical Sketches - Publ. L. A.
Williams & Co. - Page 431
(Submitted by Sharon Wick) |
REV. GOTTLIEB
BRANDSTETTNER, pastor of the First German Evangelical
Prostestant church of Green township, was born in Rhein
Baiern, Bavaria, in 1830. He belongs to a family of
ministers. Gottlieb came alone to America and
took a course in theology, completing his studies in 1845,
after which he engaged in the ministerial work at Peppertown,
near Evansville, Indiana, and at other places. He came
here May 1, 1876, and has since taken charge of the
congregation and Sabbath-school, acting as its
superintendent. He also gives instruction, three days
in each week, to the children of his congregation who are
taking a course preparatory to confirmation. The
church building, a fine brick structure, was erected in the
year 1871, in which service and Sabbath-school have been
held ever since. A graveyard of some four acres lies
just back of the building. He was married July 24,
1857, to Miss Katharine Wittkamper, of Cincinnati,
and is the father of five children, four sons and one
daughter. One son, Henry, born in 1859, died in
1880, a most promising young man. He possessed a
natural genius for drawing, taking up the art and completing
the course almost without the aid of instruction; he,
however, spent one year in Cooper institute, New York.
He was engraver for Stillman & Co., Front and Vine
streets, Cincinnati, Ohio, and has left some beautiful
sketchings of which “A scene on the Ohio,” “Church-yard
Scene,” “Lick Run Church’’ show a master hand in the work.
He was also of great assistance to his father in his church
work, being a musician, and of great service in
Sabbath-school work. As the pride of his father’s
family he was greatly missed from that circle. Rev.
Brandstettner is exercising a great influence for good
among his people, and of which the membership of his church
feel proud.
Source: 1789 - 1881 History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with
Illustrations and Biographical Sketches - Publ. L. A.
Williams & Co. - Page 487 |
HON. SAMUEL J. BROADWELL,
who was one of the most successful attorneys of the Hamilton
County Bar, was born in Cincinnati in 1832, and was a son of
Jacob Broadwell. His father, who was a
prominent dealer in steamboat supplies on Front street in
early times, died when Mr. Broadwell was quite young,
but he had accumulated a considerable estate with which he
endowed his son. His mother being an invalid.
Samuel Lewis, became his guardian, and he was placed
under the care of Rev. Thomas J. Biggs, D. D., of
whose family he became a member, and under whose scholarly
and Christian guidance he was carefully instructed. He
was graduated from Woodward College of which Dr. Biggs
was at that time president, and, though his first
inclinations tended toward the Gospel ministry, he soon
after began the study of law in the office of Coffin &
Mitchell, and in due time was admitted to the practice
of that profession.
Judge M. B. Hagans, a fellow student in the same
office, was admitted with him, and May 1, 1857, these two
young attorneys, destined to win a high place in the
estimation of their colleagues and fellow-citizens,
established the since famous law firm of Hagans &
Broadwell. This partnership lasted until 1884 when
Mr. Broadwell withdrew from an active interest in the
business, but continued to occupy his old place in the
office till the time of his death which occurred July 11,
1893. Mr. Broadwell achieved a degree of
success in the practice of his profession which is reached
by only a very few, and as an office counselor it is
doubtful whether Cincinnati ever had his equal. He is
also a man of excellent business qualifications, and many
positions of great responsibility, requiring a thorough
knowledge of financial affairs, were entrusted to him.
He was a director of the Ohio Life & Trust Company in the
early "fifties;" and during his whole life was connected in
various ways with many institutions which have made
Cincinnati one of the great commercial centres of the West.
He was for many years, and at the time of his death, a
director of the Cincinnati, Cleveland, Chicago & St. Louis
Railroad Company, and was also director of the Cincinnati
Gas, Light & Coke Company. But all of Mr. Broadwell's
time and means were not give to business and professional
matters. During the Civil war he was a member of the
Sanitary Commission, and was very attentive to the welfare
and comfort of our soldiers. When a young man he
united with the Presbyterian Church, was a sincere Christian
and a very active church worker. He was a ruling elder
of the Second Presbyterian Church of Cincinnati, and at the
time of his death was senior member of the Session. He
was a member of the society which organized the Young Men's
Christian Association in this country, was largely
instrumental in having a branch established in this city,
and was one of its first presidents. One of the causes
especially near his heart was the Presbyterian Church
Extension Society, of which he was an officer and
conscientious helper for many years. Another of his
prominent characteristics was a desire to assist young men,
and many of the substantial business and professional men,
in and about Cincinnati to-day, owe their success in life
largely to the wise counsel and assistance received from
Mr. Broadwell when determining upon a profession or
making their initiatory engagement in business. He was
a trustee of the Cincinnati Orphan Asylum, and for many
years of Lane Seminary, but he resigned the latter of the
same time as Alexander McDonald on account of the
difficulty which arose between that institution and Prof.
Henry Preserved Smith. The severance of the
relations between Prof. Smith and the seminary
occurred a few hours previous to the death of r.
Broadwell, a meeting of the trustees having been held on
that day in Cincinnati.
Mr. Broadwell's last illness
developed in May, 1893, and, through all that science could
do was done, nothing could check the progress of the
disease, and on July 1, he was moved from Atlantic City,
whither he had been taken for change of air, to Brooklyn,
and there, on July 11, he died at the home of his
brother-in-law, John M. Nixon. His remains were
brought to Cincinnati and interred in Spring Grove Cemetery.
Mr. Broadwell was a man who made many friends, and
his friendship was of the lasting kind. His name was
always foremost in every religious and benevolent
enterprise, and running back through the history of
Cincinnati his name will frequently be found in the chapters
given to charitable institutions. He bequeathed to the
Women's Union Missionary Society $10,000 for the purchase of
lot and the erection of a building in India to be known as
the "Lily Lytle Broadwell Memorial." Mr.
Broadwell married, for his first wife, Miss Elizabeth
Haines Lytle, a sister of Gen. Lytle, of
Cincinnati, whose biography appears in this work. His
second wife as Miss Marie Haines Nixon, daughter of
John M. Nixon, of New York, who was a member of the
firm of Doremus & Nixon, one of the oldest business
houses in New York. Mr. Broadwell was a
Republican in his political views, but, though very
public-spirited, he was not a seeker of public office.
Source: History of
Cincinnati and Hamilton Co., Ohio, Past & Present - Illustrated -
Publ. Cincinnati, Ohio - S. B. Nelson & Co., Publishers - 1894
- Page 564 |
DR.
JAMES H. BUCKNER.
James Henry Buckner, M. D., is a descendant
of one of three brothers who came from England nearly half a
century prior to the Revolution, and settled, respectively, in
Virginia, New York, and Mississippi. From Thomas, born
May 13, 1728, the settler in the Old Dominion, in what is now
Caroline county, Dr. Buckner is descended in the
fourth generation. He was a very wealthy Englishman, and in
due time his descendants shared in the benefits of his
fortune. The son of Thomas Buckner, and
grandfather of the doctor, was Harry, who was born December
17, 1766, and removed to Kentucky some years after his
marriage, settling in Fayette county, on the road between
Lexington and Winchester, about twelve miles from the latter
place. He died in Kentucky in February, 1822. Another of the
sons removed to that State, and became the ancestor of the
confederate general, Simon Bolivar Buckner,
and other distinguished Kentuckians. The fourth son of
Harry Buckner, Harry M., was born before the
family left Virginia, but accompanied it to Kentucky. He was
married in the year 1827 to Miss Etheline
Elizabeth, daughter of Captain Jack Conn,
a noted man in the history of Kentucky, a hero of the War of
1812, who is accredited by many as the slayer of Tecumseh
at the battle of the Thames, a soldier and pioneer of
extraordinary bravery, integrity, and determination of
character, and a thorough gentleman of the old school. Mr.
Buckner's first business activity was as a clerk in the
store of his brother John, at Georgetown, but he
presently undertook business for himself as a tobacco
merchant at Burlington, in Boone county. He afterwards moved
to Cincinnati, and formed a partnership with Philip
Dunseth in general merchandising, which was dissolved
after the lapse of two or three years, when Mr.
Buckner returned to Burlington and recommenced business as
a tobacco manufacturer in connection with store-keeping. He
was afterwards a resident of Covington, and then removed to
the adjacent country, where he lived, but at the same time was
head of the firm of Buckner, Hall & Co., of Cincinnati,
in the wholesale grocery business, but took no active part in
its transactions. About thirty years before his death, which
occurred near the first of July, 1876, he retired from active
business and spent his last years in tranquil ease at
Edgewood, his country seat, about seven miles south of
Covington. He was in his eighty-first year when he died. His
wife is still living upon the same place, at the age of
sixty-nine, but in a hale and happy old age.
James Henry Buckner was born in
Burlington, Boone county, Kentucky, November 25, 1836. His
father removed to Covington when James was two years
old. He became a member of the public schools of that place,
and when but eight or nine years of age entered as a student
the preparatory department of Cincinnati college. He went,
however, with the family to the Edgewood farm in 1847, and
there remained until about seven years thereafter, when he
entered Centre college, at Danville, and after some further
preparation under the tutorship of Professor De Soto,
present professor of languages in that institution, he went
to the academies at Exeter, New Hampshire, and Groton,
Massachusetts, completing his preparation, and then
matriculated at Dartmouth college, where he took a special and
partial course. He was contemporary at Dartmouth with
ex-Governor Edward F. Noyes present United
States minister to France, and his roommate was Colonel
Nicholas Smith, of Shelbyville, Kentucky,
son-in-law of Horace Greeley, and minister to
Greece under the late President Johnson. Leaving
college in the spring of 1857, he returned home and began the
study of medicine with Dr. Evans, then a
prominent practitioner in Covington. He soon, however, removed
to Cincinnati, and continued his professional readings with
Dr. L. M. Lawson and Dr. W. T. Taliaferro,
partners, to the latter of whom Dr. Buckner was
afterwards son-in-law and partner. He entered the Ohio Medical
college in 1858, taking full courses of lectures and
graduating in 1861. He then formed a partnership with Dr.
Taliaferro, who had dissolved with Dr. Lawson
a few months before. In October Dr. Buckner
formed an acquaintance with Captain (afterwards
Commodore) Winslow, of the United States navy, then
of the gunboat service, but afterwards commander of the
Kearsarge, in response to whose challenge Semmes suffered the
defeat and loss of the Alabama. Winslow, in 1861, was
recruiting for the fresh water navy, and at his urgency Dr.
Buckner accepted a position as acting surgeon for the
examination of such recruits. After some service in this
capacity in Cincinnati and Cleveland, he was assigned to duty
on the gunboat Cairo, by special request of Captain Winslow,
whose vessel it was. At the fall of Fort Donelson, this was
among the first gunboats to reach Nashville and virtually
capture the place, as the rebels had abandoned it and the
Federal forces had not yet come up. Returning to Cairo and
descending the Mississippi the gun-boat was engaged in the
reduction of the rebel fort beyond Plum Point. Dr.
Buckner had meanwhile become seriously ill of one of the
chronic diseases of the service, and his wife also being sick
at home, his resignation was thus compelled, and he returned
to Cincinnati. He retained an unpleasant souvenir of the war
for a number of years in a deafness of the right ear, caused
by the near explosion of a bomb, until it was relieved by the
celebrated aurist, Dr. Politzer, of Vienna, in
the winter of 1873. His hearing has since been almost or quite
as good as ever.
During his naval service, just before Dr. Buckner was
assigned to duty in Cleveland, he was married, October 17,
1861, to Miss Jane Olivia Ramsey,
stepdaughter of his partner, Dr. Taliaferro. As
soon as his health permitted after his resignation, he
resumed business with his father-in-law, who was growing old
and had a somewhat burdensome practice upon his hands. He
continued for about a year after his return to serve the
Government as an examiner of recruits for the naval service.
The partnership with Dr. Taliaferro ceased only
with the death of the latter, in 1871. His name is still up in
the old office, at the northwest corner of Otto and Walnut
streets, which Dr. Buckner has occupied as
student and practitioner for more than twenty-one years.
Since the death of his partner, Dr. Buckner has
remained alone in the practice of his profession. In the
winter of 1862-3 he was made demonstrator of anatomy in the
Ohio Medical college, and was afterwards, in 1866-7, professor
of physiology in the Cincinnati College of Medicine and
Surgery. After the death of Dr. Taliaferro,
Dr. Buckner succeeded to his chair of ophthalmology and
otology in the same institution. About the same time he was
appointed lecturer on the staff of the Good Samaritan
hospital in Cincinnati, where he again addressed the students
of the Ohio Medical college. He resigned his several positions
in the fall of 1872, in order to take a foreign tour, during
which he visited the principal capitals of Europe and took a
special course of studies in the eye and ear at Vienna. After
a tour through Italy he returned, via England and Ireland, to
America. He then resumed his place in the hospital, and was
subsequently elected to the staff of St. Mary's hospital, in
special charge of ocular and aural diseases. In 1878 he was
elected president of the Academy of Medicine, of Cincinnati,
one of the most honorable positions to which a practitioner
can aspire. He is also a prominent member of the American
Medical association, and of the State Medical society; is
connected with the Free Masons, and with the Natural History
society of Cincinnati. He has contributed to the literature of
his profession a number of valuable articles upon diseases of
the eye, ear, and throat, upon surgery, and upon
chloroform—most of these being papers read before the State
Medical society and afterwards published.
Dr. Buckner has two children, both sons—William
Thornton Taliaferro (named from his maternal grandfather),
born April 19, 1863; and Henry Alexander, born August,
1866.
Source: 1789 - 1881 History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with
Illustrations and Biographical Sketches - Publ. L. A.
Williams & Co. - Page 438
(Submitted by Sharon Wick) |
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