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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)
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WILLIAM
BRAMWELL DAVIS, M. D. Doctor Davis'
ancestors were natives of Wales. His paternal
grandfather was a sea-faring man, and was lost, together
with his ship, during a severe gale, in mid-ocean. His
maternal grandfather, Rev. John Jones, of Cardiganshire, was
a devout minister of the Calvinistic Methodist church.
In the spring of 1818, he joined a party of neighbors, and
with his family emigrated to America. After a
tempestuous voyage of over six weeks, they landed at
Alexandria, Virginia, and were received by the citizens with
courtesy and hospitality. This was the first party of
British immigrants that landed at this port since the war
with the mother country; and so significant was the event
considered, that President Monroe and his cabinet went down
from Washington to receive and welcome them to the land of
their adoption.
As their destination was Ohio, they purchased wagons
and horses to convey their household goods across the
mountains to Pittsburgh; and the entire party, men, women
and children, followed on foot, camping out at night.
At Pittsburgh they transferred their goods to a flat boat,
and began the descent of the Ohio. It was July, and
during their long exposure on the river, the excessive heat
and a change in their food affected them unfavorably, and
many of the party were prostrate with dysentery. When
the boat reached Cincinnati, the citizens, fearing that the
sickness was contagious, were reluctant to admit the
afflicted party to either the private homes or the public
houses of that city. In their distress Nicholas
Longworth three open a house near his own home, and with the
assistance of Samuel W. Davies, afterwards may of the city,
and Mr. Wade, carried all of the sick to it, and personally
ministered to their necessities. Here Mr. Jones died.
the name of Nicholas Longworth was ever afterwards cherished
in the memory of their family, and always mentioned with the
warmest gratitude.
Among these adventurers were Mr. William Davis and Miss
Ann Jones, the father and mother of the doctor. Mr.
Davis was born in 1793, and was brought up within nine miles
of the village of Llanbadarn, Cardiganshire. Miss
Jones was born in that place in 1797, and at the time of her
family's emigration to America, was in the bloom of health
and beauty. On the voyage thither Mr. Davis first made
the acquaintance of Miss Jones and subsequently won her
affections, and the twain became one. Accustomed to
agricultural life, the young couple sought a home on a farm
in the Welsh settlement, with an Irish name," Paddy's Run,"
in Butler county, Ohio. In this country home were born
four of their children, John, Mary, Timothy, and Margaret.
John is now a leading physician in Cincinnati; Mary became
the wife of Professor William G. Williams, of the Ohio
Wesleyan University; Timothy is in the United States revenue
service, in Cincinnati; and Margaret became the wife of the
late Rev. Erwin House, of this city. after five or six
years of farm life, Mr. Davis removed his family to
Cincinnati, to engage in his business as a builder.
Here William Bramwell, the subject of this sketch, the
youngest of the family, was born July 22, 1832. All
the above-named children are still living, except Mary, who
died in 1872.
Mr. Davis was noted for truthfulness and uprightness in
all his dealings, and for a conscientious observance of the
duties that he owed to others. He lived to be about
fifty-six yeas of age, and died of apoplexy in the year
1849. Mrs. Davis was a woman of unusually strong
character, which she has transmitted to her children.
In early life she became a member of the church of her
parents, the Calvinistic Methodist; but after her removal to
Cincinnati, she joined the Methodist Episcopal church, and
in communion with this lived a devoted Christian life until
past eighty-two years of age, and died in 1880, in the
assurance of a blessed resurrection.
Dr. Davis was educated, first at Woodward college in
this city, and afterward at the Ohio Wesleyan University,
Delaware, Ohio. At the latter institution he graduated
B. A. in 1852, and M. A. in 1855. His alma mater was
then just beginning its successful career. His name
stands thirty-sixth in the triennial roll of the alumni,
which now numbers about thirteen hundred. Of this
large body Dr. Davis was president for some years, until his
professional duties prevented his attendance at college
commencement. He was prepared in the office of his
brother, John Davis, for his professional course in
medicine, and graduated M. D. at the Miami Medical college
in 1855, and at the Ohio medical college ad eundem,
1858.
Doctor Davis at once took high rank in his profession,
and his life, since that time, has been alike honorable to
himself and beneficial to the community in which he dwells.
Besides his large and successful medical practice, he has
been prominently and influentially connected with many of
the most important interests of the city. When only
twenty-three years of age, he was elected as a member of the
Cincinnati board of education, in which office he has
served, at different times, full ten years. Doctor
Davis has always felt especial interest in the public
schools of the city and, as a member of the board, has given
years of earnest thought and patient labor for their
advancement. He was an uncompromising opponent of
every form of corruption and immorality in official places.
During his last term of office in the board of education,
his fearless assaults upon the irregularities of certain
members and their corrupting influence upon the schools,
called the attention of the public to the organization of
the board and led to legislative action, which partially
removed the selection of members of the board from the
influence of ward politics.
While he was connected with the school-board he helped,
in company with Rufus King, Dr. Comegys and some others, to
organize the public library of Cincinnati; and he was
largely instrumental in having the magnificent building,
which the library now occupies, erected. For several
terms he was a member of the board of managers of the
library, and was chairman of the library committee.
At the organization of the university of Cincinnati,
Dr. Davis took great interest in the movement and was
elected a member of the first board of directors.
Previous to the war of the Rebellion, Dr. Davis'
interest in the cause of human rights led him to engage in
politics. With Rutherford B. Hayes, Judge Hoadly, Fred
Hassaurek and others, he took an active part in organizing
the Republican party in Cincinnati. In 1856 he
suffered himself to be put in nomination for the State
Legislature but the inveterate Calhoun-Yancy doctrine was
yet more potent than the youthful Republicanism, and he,
together with the whole ticket, was defeated. After
the party became well organized, he withdrew from an active
participation in its counsels, and, with the exception of
the interest which he has always taken in the educational
affairs of the city, he has devoted himself to the study and
practice of his profession.
After the battle of Shiloh, in 1862, Dr. Davis was one
of the surgeons appointed by the War department to going
command of a number of steamers to Pittsburgh Landing, and
bring the wounded to the hospitals at Cincinnati. In
this service, and subsequently in charge of one of the
hospitals, Dr. Davis rendered effective aid, not only to the
suffering, but to the great cause which all patriots had at
heart. Later on in the war he was called into active
service in the field, and through the trying summer of 184
as surgeon of colonel Harris' Cincinnati regiment, the One
Hundred and Thirty-seventh Ohio volunteer infantry.
After the war, Dr. Davis continued in the practice of
his profession until 1871. His health having failed in
consequence of labor and exposure, he went to Europe for a
year, to recuperate his strength and to visit the principal
centres of the continent. His visit was to have been
one of relaxation and pleasure, but upon the speedy and
permanent recovery of his health, he devoted his time to
study and work. He wrote much for American journals,
especially the Cincinnati Gazette. His letters
were the results of his own observations and inquiries, and
were noted for their originality and suggestiveness.
After his return to America he threw some of his
observations and reflections into the form of lectures,
which he delivered to many audiences.
In the year 1873 he was elected professor of materia
medica and therapeutics in the Miami Medical college, which
chair he still occupies. In connection with his
profession, he has been a trustee of the Cincinnati
hospital, and is a member of the Cincinnati Medical society,
of which he was president in 1877-8; of the Cincinnati
academy of medicine; of the Ohio State Medical society, and
of the American Medical association. Of all these
boards and associations he has been a working member, and
has written many papers on medical subjects for each.
An earnest student, he has not only kept abreast the
literature of his profession, but by his own discoveries and
writings he has extended the borders of medical science.
These contributions to medical literature are published
either in the volumes of the proceedings of the several
medical societies, or in medical journals. Of such
papers prepared by Dr. Davis we name the following, some of
which give the results of many years of study and
observation, and are regarded as the last words of medical
science upon the points discussed:
1. Carbolic Acid: Its Surgical and Therapeutical
Uses. A paper read before the Academy of Medicine,
June, 1869.
2. Report on vaccination. Ohio State
Medical society, June, 1870.
3. Influence of Consumption on Life Insurance.
Ohio Sate Medical society, 1875.
4. Observations on Re-vaccination.
Cincinnati Medical society, December, 1875.
5. Statistics of the Medical Profession of
Cincinnati for Twenty-five years. A valedictory
address before the Miami Medical college, March, 1876.
6. Vaccino-syphilis and Animal Vaccine.
Ohio State Medical society, June, 1876
7. The Alleged Antagonism of Opium and
belladonna. Cincinnati Medical society, January, 1879.
8. intestinal Obstruction; with reports of six
cases. Cincinnati Medical society, January, 1880.
9. Progress of Therapeutics. Ohio Medical
Society, 1881.
Such is a brief outline of the life of the subject of
this sketch. Dr. Davis is a man of fine personal
appearance, which fitly represents his symmetrical
intellectual and moral character. with strong
convictions, a perfect command of his resources, with an
absolute devotion to the truth and a fluent and vigorous
style, he exerts a commanding influence in every
deliberative body of which he may be a member.
Intolerant equally towards shams and towards frauds,, and
not infrequently thrown into antagonism with them, he
has sometimes been thought severe; but his severity is
reserved for those only whom he believes corrupt. To
all others, whether friends or opponents, his courtesy is
unfailing. In professional intercourse, in social
life, in the families of his patients, he attracts every one
by his urbanity and cheerfulness. Fond of society, of
art, of literature, of the amenities of home life, he is
never too busy to give an evening to friends, to converse,
or to innocent divertisements. He has for many years
been an active member of one of the Queen City's selectest
literary and social clubs, the "Utile cum Dulci, and
is rarely absent from its meetings. This is an
association for adults, and enrolls some of the most
cultivated people of the western Athens. But not
unmindful of the claims of his younger friends, Dr. Davis
assisted in founding, in the congregation of the Trinity
Methodist church, on Ninth street, a similar organization,
the popular "Clark institute," of which he has been
president, and which has had much to do with the growth and
prosperity of that church. Dr. Davis has for many
years been a communicant in this church, and since 1878 has
been superintendent of the Sunday-school connected with it.
Dr. Davis was married in April, 1860, to Miss Fannie
R. Clark, daughter of the late Rev. Davis W. Clark,
D. D., one of the bishops of the Methodist Episcopal
church. they have two sons and have lost one daughter.
Mrs. Davis has been a true Help-meet for him," and in
full sympathy with him in al his professional, literary and
aesthetic pursuits, and in his religious life and
associations in the church of which they are both beloved
and honored members.
Source: 1789 - 1881 History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with
Illustrations and Biographical Sketches - Publ. L. A.
Williams & Co. - Page 436 |
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GEORGE
K. DUCKWORTH, one of the best-known young business
men of Cincinnati, and a prominent Democratic politician,
was born at Lebanon, Warren county, Ohio, June 18, 1847,
oldest child and only son of Jesse Corwin and Elizabeth
(King) Duckworth. There was but one more child in
the family, a daughter, Lizzie Jane, now Mrs. J.
F. Trader, of Xenia. The Duckworth stock is
English, as also the King family, the first of whom
to emigrate to this country was Isaac, grandfather of
the subject of this sketch. He was a pioneer settler
in Monroe, Butler county, where his daughter, Elizabeth
was married to Jesse Duckworth. Mr. Duckworth's
father, George, was an old resident of Lebanon,
where a part, at least, of his family were born. His
son Jesse, when grown to manhood, became a farmer and
prominent dealer in stock, to which business, then a large
one in the Miami country, he was specially adapted, and in
which he accumulated a considerable fortune. He died
comparatively young, at the age of thirty-seven; and the
mother had died two years before, from exposure and cold,
contracted after the birth of the second child. The
father married again, and very fortunately, so far as the
cold, contracted after the birth of the second child.
The father married again, and very fortunately, so far as
the children, as well as he, were concerned. The name
of the second wife was Mrs. Clementine (Van Note)
Washington, her first husband having been the Rev.
Oswald Washington, a Methodist clergyman, who died a few
months after marriage, of cholera, in the dreadful year of
1849. He was a brother of the well-known Cincinnati
builder and contractor, George W. Washington, who was
killed in this city, in May, 1881, by falling from a coal
elevator he was building. The new Mrs. Duckworth
proved an excellent mother to her second husband's children,
and brought them up with care. She is still living
with her step-daughter, Mrs. Trader, at Xenia.
George K. Duckworth's early years were spent
altogether in Lebanon. He entered the public schools
of that place when about seven years old, and passed through
all the grades, completing the course in the high school in
1860. He then entered the dry goods store of
Messrs. Hardy & Budd, in Lebanon, as a clerk and served
about a year, and after some other clerical services he
determined to push his fortunes in a larger field, and in
1862, at the age of fifteen, he came to the Queen City.
Here he obtained a position in the great dry goods shop of
Messrs. Shillito & Co., as a salesman, and then went
rapidly through the grades of promotion, and at the end of
about three and one-half years found himself superintendent
of the entire establishment, at a salary widely removed from
his humble beginnings in the store. He served in this
capacity not far from three years. A few months before
leaving it he invested some means received by inheritance
from his father, in the business of redistilling and
rectifying, with the firm of H. H. Hamilton & Co.
Deciding in a short time to embark in trade for himself, he
formed, with Mr. P. B. Spence, the firm of
Duckworth & Spence, in the commission business, and
dealing in flour, grain and hemp. His truly remarkable
losses by fire had already begun, however. In 1870,
the house of Hamilton & Co. was completely burned out; and
the establishment of Duckworth, Kebler & Co.
(composed of Mr. Duckworth and George P. Kebler),
successors to Duckworth & Spence, in 1876, was
subsequently a prey to the fire-friend. The business
had, before the dissolution of Duckworth & Spence,
been substantially changed to the trade in wholesale
liquors, in which the new firm was carrying a heavy stock,
with light insurance. They resumed business at once,
however, in new quarters, but merely to wind up the affairs
of the firm. It was dissolved the same year of the
fire (1877), when Mr. Duckworth devoted himself
solely to the business of the old White Mills distillery,
which he had bought some years before, and had run it on his
own account. He has since confined himself solely to
this business, which has grown upon his hands until now he
has perhaps the finest distillery property in the country,
with a yearly volume of transactions exceeded by very few
other house of the kind in the city. In July, 1876, he
suffered another heavy loss, in the destruction of his
entire works by fire, kindled by a stroke although still a
young man, his means have very handsomely accumulated, and
have been largely invested in city property. He has
expended liberally, however, especially for the benefit of
the Democratic party, which has commanded his allegiance
from the beginning of his political life. He has long
been an active worker in politics, and, when the board of
city commissioners was constituted by the legislature,
Mr. Duckworth was appointed, by Police Judge Wilson,
as the single member for the five-years' term. He was
offered the presidency of the board, by vote of a majority
of the members, but declined the position.
A high compliment was paid Mr. Duckworth during
the last Presidential campaign, in the giving of his name to
a large club of the young Democrats of the city, which was a
new organization and made a conspicuous figure in the
canvass of that year. Its organization has been
retained; a beautiful club-house, of two rooms, on Seventh
street, has been fitted up for it; its membership has been
increased to more than seven hundred, and it promises to
became a very powerful factor henceforth in the politics of
southwestern Ohio.
Mr. Duckworth was joined in marriage Dec. 9, 1869, to
Miss Lucy, daughter of Henry and Lucy L. (Porter)
Bishop, and niece of ex-Governor Bishop.
They have two children - Lillian Belle, born on the
sixteenth day of June, 1872; and Willie Kebler, born
on the seventeenth day of November, 1873. The family
resides in an elegant mansion, at No. 256 Fourth street,
near the Grand hotel.
Source: 1789 - 1881 History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with
Illustrations and Biographical Sketches - Publ. L. A.
Williams & Co. - Page 467 |
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