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BIOGRAPHIES
 Source:
History of
Cincinnati and Hamilton Co., Ohio, Past & Present
- Illustrated -
Publ. Cincinnati, Ohio - S. B. Nelson & Co.,
Publishers -
1894
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MELANCTHON WADE OLIVER
was born in Brookville, Ind., Dec. 27, 1825, a son of
David and Mary (Wade) Oliver. David Oliver
was born in Marietta in 1792, a son of Robert Oliver,
who was a colonel in the Revolutionary war, and came West
with Gen. Putnam who colonized Harmar, Ohio, in 1788.
Mrs. Mary (Wade) Oliver was born in Cincinnati in
1797. Her father, David E. Wade, was a native
of New Jersey, and came to this section of the Northwest
Territory, a little later in the same year, 1788.
M. W. Oliver received his early education in the public
schools of Warren county, Ohio, and at the Woodward College,
Cincinnati. He entered Miami University in 1844, and
was graduated therefrom in 1847, after which he read law
under the preceptorship of Judge Oliver M. Spencer;
he was graduated from Harvard Law College in 1849 and was
admitted to the Bar in 1850. He then entered upon the
practice of his profession and continued therein, until his
election as Democratic candidate for a common pleas
judgeship, in which capacity he served from 1857 to 1859,
when he resigned, and resumed the practice of law. In
1861, he was renominated, and reelected to the common pleas
bench, and served the full term of five years, when he again
resumed the practice, and continued therein until 1871, when
he retired from active practice. He was a member of
the Ohio Legislature as representative from this county, one
term; was a member of the Board of Aldermen for four years;
a trustee of Miami University for a number of years; was a
member of the board of park commissioners and of the Union
Board of high schools, and president, since its
organization, of the Price Hill Incline Plane Railway
Company.
Mr. Oliver was married, June 25, 1850, to
Anna E., daughter of the late Isaac Gere, a
retired merchant of Massachusetts, and for some years a
resident of Oxford, Ohio. Three children born of this
marriage survive; they are Mrs. Rees McDuffie, Mrs.
George T. McDuffie, and Fielding W. Oliver, the
latter the treasurer of the Tudor Iron Works, of St. Louis,
Mo. Judge Oliver resides on Summit avenue,
Price Hill. The family are Presbyterians.
Source: History of Cincinnati
and Hamilton Co., Ohio, Past & Present - Illustrated - Publ.
Cincinnati, Ohio - S. B. Nelson & Co., Publishers - 1894 -
Page 518 |
Wm. Owens, M. D. |
WILLIAM OWENS, M.
D., late professor of materia medica and therapeutics
in the Pulte Medical College of Cincinnati, Ohio, was born
in Warren, Trumbull Co., Ohio, Apr. 24, 1823. His parents
were natives of this country. His early
education was of the most meager character, as he was
obliged to relinquish his studies during the winter months
on account of the distance of the school from his home, and
the prevalence of heavy snowstorms. Yet he satisfied
his cravings for knowledge by reading all the books
belonging to his father, or which could be borrowed from the
neighbors. His course of reading developed in him a
fondness for travel, and he subsequently left home in
company with an invalid army officer with whom he spent two
years in visiting Florida, the West Indies, and South
America. After this he returned to Cincinnati, and
applied himself to the cooper trade, devoting a portion of
his time to study. In the spring of 1843 he entered Woodward
College, attending the recitations during the half day,
until the spring of 1846, when an opportunity was given him
to enter a drug store as an assistant.
In May of that year the Mexican war broke out, and he
then enlisted in the First Regiment of Ohio Volunteer
Infantry, Company E, commanded by J. B. Armstrong.
During the conflict he was engaged in nearly all of the more
important battles under Gen. Taylor, as hospital
steward. Upon being mustered out of service, he
returned to Cincinnati, and resumed his former position in
the drug store, where he remained until 1849, the date of
his graduation in medicine. He was immediately
appointed demonstrator of anatomy in the Eclectic Medical
College, and retained that position during the following two
years. In the ensuing year he accepted the same
position in the Western College of Homeopathy, at Cleveland,
Ohio, and while filling it, attended a full course of
lectures upon the Homeopathic materia medica and
therapeutics. In the spring of 1852 he again returned
to Cincinnati, and there resumed his professional labors. In
the autumn of 1855 he purchased an interest in a Water Cure
establishment at Granville, Ohio, but at the expiration of
two years it proved to be a financial failure. He then
moved to Yellow Springs, Ohio, and there embarked in the
same business, at the end of eighteen months finding he had
lost all the money invested by him in the business. In
November, 1858, he returned to Cincinnati, hoping to
retrieve his wasted fortunes. In the spring of 1861,
after the lapse of two years and six months, his
circumstances were not less straitened, and, on the outbreak
of the Southern rebellion, he assisted in organizing two
companies for the war. One of infantry could not be
accepted, the other was attached to the Fifth Regiment of
Ohio Cavalry Volunteers, in which company he accepted a
commission as first lieutenant. As first lieutenant,
and subsequently as captain, his record is wholly honorable.
As acting assistant-surgeon, acting assistant-quartermaster,
and acting assistant commissary, his accounts were always,
found to be correct. At the battle of Shiloh his
company was detailed to watch the Confederate movements on
the Federal right flank; on two occasions he assisted in
cutting off railroad communications in the rear of the Rebel
army at Corinth, causing the enemy to abandon that
stronghold. Later he was assigned to look after the
sick and wounded. He took part, under Gen. Phil
Sheridan, in the pursuit of the Confederate troops to
Booneville. After the capture of Corinth, he was
detailed to the surgical charge of the sick and wounded of a
cavalry field hospital in that place, and retained his
position there until he was commissioned captain about
fifteen months later. During the battles of Iuka and
Corinth, he occupied a conspicuous position in the field.
During an expedition into North Alabama in December, 1862, a
battalion of raw recruits, known as the First Alabama
Cavalry, was found to be without a commander, and he was
ordered to assume command of this undrilled rabble. On
the termination of the campaign, Col. Sweeney issued
a special order, commending the gallantry displayed by our
subject in dislodging the command of Gen. Roddy from
a stronghold at Blue Springs, and subsequent pursuit in
which these undisciplined men captured a large number of
prisoners, among whom were several officers. He
participated in all the battles around Chattanooga, and was
with Sherman’s command in his Mar. through Georgia,
and at the capture of Atlanta. At Cherokee, Ala., Oct.
20, 1863, he commanded a cavalry charge made upon Col.
Forrest’s forces, driving them from the field in which
he narrowly escaped death in a pistol encounter with Col.
Forrest, who was shot through the thigh, and was
subsequently captured.
When the period of enlistment of his regiment had
expired, our subject was mustered out as captain, and at
once rejoined the army as acting assistant-surgeon of the
United States army, and was ordered to Louisville, to assist
in the Crittenden United States General Hospital; later was
ordered to Nashville, and took charge of Branch No. 16,
United States General Hospital, where, out of 250 beds, the
death rate had averaged from eight to ten per diem.
Under his management the death rate lessened wonderfully,
Dr. John McGirr, medical inspector, sending him a letter
personally complimenting him on the result attained.
After the close of the war Dr. Owens returned to
Cincinnati, and resumed the practice of his profession.
He assisted in founding the Pulte Medical College of
Cincinnati, occupied the chair of anatomy in that
institution two years, and subsequently was assigned to that
of materia medica and therapeutics, which he still retains.
After the close of the third term of lectures he was
appointed dean of the Faculty, which position he occupied
during the two most successful years of the college
existence. In June, 1865, he was appointed examining
surgeon for pensioners for Hamilton county, and held the
office four years. He is a member of the American
Institute of Homeopathy, of the State Homeopathic Medical
Society of Ohio, of the Cincinnati Homeopathic Medical
Society, of the Society of Natural History, consulting
physician to the Ohio Hospital for Women and Children, and
of other organizations of a scientific, literary, or social
character. He has written numerous articles for
homeopathic journals, and is now a regular contributor to
several medical journals. He is to-day one of the most
energetic and able defenders of homeopathy in the State of
Ohio, or elsewhere.
Dr. Owens was married May 12, 1853, to
Sarah E. Wilcox, of Cincinnati, by whom he has had six
children, two of whom, Harry and Gertrude,
died in infancy; the other children were: Anna, born
Sept. 20, 1854, married R. W. Ransom, assistant
editor of the Chicago Tribune; William, Jr., a
physician, born Apr. 23, 1857, married Miss Lulu
Parker, of Home City, and died May 9, 1891; Mary
E., born Dec. 23, 1859, married Samuel C. Hooker,
of London, now chief chemist Harrison’s sugar
refinery, of Philadelphia; Edith, born Dec. 12, 1867,
married B. T. Rozelle, a clerk in the “Big Four”
railroad office. The family are Unitarian in their
religious belief; politically, the Doctor is a Republican.
Source: History of
Cincinnati and Hamilton Co., Ohio, Past & Present -
Illustrated - Publ. Cincinnati, Ohio - S. B. Nelson & Co.,
Publishers - 1894 - Page 634 |
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