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BIOGRAPHIES
 Source #1:
Biographical Record of Fairfield & Perry Counties, Ohio
- Illustrated -
New York and Chicago
The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company
1902
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Calvin Essex |
CALVIN ESSEX. A
representative of the business interests of New Straitsville,
Calvin Essex is there engaged in dealing in furniture
and is also conducting an undertaking establishment.
He is likewise one of the owners of coal mine No. 37,
belonging to the Essex Coal Company, in which enterprise he
is associated with his brother, H. H. Essex, who is
acting as superintendent of the mine. A man of
resourceful business ability, our subject is successfully
carrying forward these various undertakings and in their
management displays excellent business ability.
He belongs to that class of representative American citizens
who, while promoting individual success, also advance the
general good.
Mr. Essex is a native of Noble county, Ohio, his
birth having there occurred in 1848. He is a son of
Nathan H. and Elizabeth (Morris) Essex, whose ancestry
can be traced back to England, whence representatives of the
family came to New Jersey in 1650. The parents of our
subject were both natives of Noble county, Ohio, born near
the Morgan county line. The paternal grandfather of
our subject was Hardesty Essex, who came from New
Jersey to the Buckeye state and here established the family.
Nathan H. Essex remained at home until the time of
the Civil war, when he offered his services to the
government and joined the Union army. His son
Calvin also attempted to enlist but was rejected because
of his youth. Nathan Essex was a well known,
active and enterprising citizen of Noble county and enjoyed
the high regard of a large circle of friends there. In
his family were six sons and four daughters. Of the
sons Nelson Summerbell Essex is a resident of New
Straitsville; W. S. Essex is a prominent lawyer and
citizen of Forth Worth, Texas; Rev. La Fayette
Essex is living in Nelsonville, Ohio, and is a
minister of the Christian church; H. H. Essex is
connected with our subject in the coal business;
Sherman Essex and our subject complete the
number. The daughters of the family are Mrs. C. A.
Rogers, the wife of Sylvester Rogers, of
Columbus; Elizabeth Elmira, the widow of Rev.
Thomas Cook, of Hocking county, Ohio, who was a minister
of the Bible Christian church and died June 1, 1902;
Zelda, the wife of Isaac Wolf, of Tocsin,
Indiana; and Harriet, the wife of Samuel Wolfe,
a farmer of Tocsin, Indiana.
Calvin Essex spent the days of his boyhood and
youth under the parental roof and when twenty-three years of
age came to New Straitsville. He at once secured
employment in the Troy Coal Mine as a miner and later he
hauled coal by contract. He began business on his own
account in 1878 as a grocer and baker and continued in that
line until 1898, meeting with creditable and gratifying
success. In 1879 he added undertaking, and in 1880
furniture was also added to his business. In 1898 he
established his present furniture and undertaking business,
which he has since carried on. Since that time his
patronage has steadily increased, for his fellow citizens
and people of the surrounding country realize the fact that
his prices are reasonable, his business methods honorable
and that his goods are as represented. He therefore
has prospered in his commercial pursuits and today is one of
the leading merchants of the place. In 1885 he became
connected with coal mining interests and in that year he
opened up a mine at Monday, Ohio. He was first
associated with Robert Stalter, but in 1893 this
partnership was dissolved. In 1898 he organized the
Essex Coal Company, the partners being his brothers and
sisters. Mine No. 37 was opened and operated from 1893
until 1898. In 1895 Mr. Essex suffered
considerable loss by fire in the destruction of his home and
store, all being destroyed with the exception of some of his
household goods and a part of his stock. In 1895 he
built a fine brick store and residence complete. It is
the finest business place in the town. The dimensions
of the building are one hundred and seventy-six by
twenty-two feet and at the back are three rooms each
twenty-two feet in depth. Above and at the side there
are nice rooms for residence purposes, making a pleasant and
convenient home as well as a good business block.
Mr. Essex was married in Hocking county, Ohio,
to Miss Evalyn Stalter, a daughter of William and
Elizabeth (Rose) Stalter, who were pioneer settlers of
Ohio. Unto our subject and his wife have been born the
following children: Luella, the wife of D.
B. E. Winters, of New Straitsville; Charles S.,
who is living in the same place; Mabel Elizabeth, the
wife of R. A. Duvol; Robert and
Frederick, who are living in New Straitsville; and one
who died in infancy. In his social relations Mr.
Essex is a Mason, belonging to lodge, chapter and
council. He is identified with the Independent Order
of Odd Fellows in both the subordinate branch and
encampment, in which he has passed all of the chairs.
He likewise belongs to the Junior Order of American
Mechanics, and is a valued member of the Methodist Episcopal
church, in which he has served as trustee for a number of
years. His political support is given the Democracy
for three terms he has served as a member of the city
council, filling the office from 1874 until 1878 and again
from 1899 until 1901. He has put forth every effort in
his power in his official position to promote the welfare of
the town, and at all times has been true to public trust.
In the conduct of his extensive and important business
affairs he displays excellent executive force and keen
discrimination and his prosperity is the merited reward of
his own energetic and progressive labors.
Source: A Biographical Record
of Fairfield and Perry
Counties, Ohio - Publ. New York and Chicago: The S. J.
Clarke Publishing Co - 1902 ~ Page 430 |
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JOHN E. EVANS is well known
in political circles in Perry county and is now acceptably
filling the position of county recorder, maintaining his
residence in New Lexington. He was born in Meigs
county, Ohio, Sept. 22, 1861, and is a son of William K.
Evans, a native of Wales, who, leaving the little
"rock-ribbed" land, sought a home in the new world, making
his way across the country to this state. He settled
in Pomeroy, Meigs county, where he worked in the rolling
mills as a puddler. He followed that occupation till
about 1872 and then accepted the position of night watchman
until 1877, when he retired from active labor. He died
July 3, 1883. His father was killed at the battle of
Waterloo. His wife passed away to the spirit world in
1869.
In 1879 our subject removed to Perry county, taking up
his abode here in the month of October. He was then
eighteen years of age. He located at New Straitsville,
where he became connected with mining operations and thus
continued in business until 1895, when he became weigh
master with the Sunday Creek Coal Company. Recognized
as a citizen of worth, deeply interested in the public
progress, his fellow townsmen called him to positions of
public trust, and for four years, from 1896 to 1900, he
served as clerk of the village of New Straitsville. In
the fall of 1899 he was elected county recorder and entered
upon the duties of that position the following fall.
So capably has he served that in 1901 he was re-elected and
has now entered upon his second term.
Mr. Evans has been a member
of the Republican central committee of New Straitsville and
has long taken an active part in politics, doing everything
in his power to promote the growth and insure the success of
his party. He has made a close study of the political
issues, and questions of the day and is thus enabled to
uphold his position by intelligent argument. As a
public official he is most prompt and faithful in his
discharge of his duties. His re-election to office is
an indication of his capability. He belongs to the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, holding membership in the
lodge at New Straitsville, in which he is a past grand.
He also has membership relations with the Knights of Pythias
lodge at New Lexington and is a prominent Mason, identified
with the lodge, chapter and commandery at that place.
Mr. Evans was united in marriage to Miss
Catherine J. Lloyd, a daughter of David Lloyd, of
New Straitsville, now deceased, who was a soldier of the
Fourth Virginia Infantry in the Civil war. Unto our
subject and his wife have been born four sons and two
daughters: William K., Sylvanus, David, Norman,
Mary and Beatrice. Mr. Evans and his
estimable wife have a large circle of friends in the county
and although they have but recently become residents of New
Lexington the hospitality of many of the best homes and have
extended to them.
Source: A Biographical Record of Fairfield and Perry
Counties, Ohio - Publ. New York and Chicago: The S. J.
Clarke Publishing Co - 1902 ~ Page 420 |
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GENERAL
THOMAS EWING, A. M., LL. D. was born August 7, 1829, in
Lancaster, Ohio, and was a son of Senator Thomas
Ewing, the famous lawyer and statesman, whose sketch
appears elsewhere in this work. His mother, through whom he
was related to James Gillespie Blaine,
was Maria Wills Boyle, a granddaughter of
Neal Gillespie, who emigrated from County
Donegal, Ireland, and became a man of eminence in western
Pennsylvania in the latter part of the last century. His
mother's father, Hugh Boyle, also a native of
Donegal, took active part in a political conspiracy and, in
1791, was forced to flee to America, where for forty years he
was clerk of the supreme court of Ohio for Fairfield county.
At nineteen Mr. Ewing was a private
secretary to President Taylor. In 1852 he
entered Brown University, where he was popular with faculty
and students. Those who knew him then recall his splendid
physique; his intellectual, transparent countenance; his
genial temper; his strong anti-slavery feeling, and his hatred
of injustice in every form. The warm admiration which the
president, the illustrious Dr. Wayland, showed
for him was one of the pleasant recollections of his life.
From Brown University he went to Cincinnati and entered the
law office of the Honorable Henry Stanbery, and
the Cincinnati Law School. In 1855 he began practice in
Cincinnati. Soon after he was employed by John W.
Andrews, a prominent lawyer of Columbus, to assist in
defending three actions at law in the United States Circuit
Court, for infringement of "Parker's Patent Reaction and
Percussion Water Wheel." Success in these led to his being
retained to defend over fifty other cases brought on the same
patent.
On January 18, 1856, Mr. Ewing was married to Miss
Ellen Ewing Cox, daughter of the Rev.
William Cox, of Piqua, Ohio, a minister of the
Presbyterian Church distinguished for zeal and eloquence. To
them were born five children, who are still living, namely:
William Cox, who is engaged in artistic photography in
Washington, D. C.; Maria, who is the wife of Edwin
S. Martin, of New Straitsville, Ohio; Thomas and
Hampton Denman, who are practicing law in New York city,
and Mary Beall, who lives with her mother in Yonkers,
New. York.
Though Mr. Ewing was reared a Catholic, he did
not accept the doctrine of infallibility. By mental
constitution he was unable to limit Christianity to any
denomination, but he believed in Jesus Christ as his divine
Master and Savior.
Early in 1837 he removed with his family to
Leavenworth, Kansas, where he formed a partnership with his
brother, Hugh Boyle Ewing, for the practice of law.
Later the firm included William Tecumseh
Sherman. who was married to his elder sister,
Ellen Ellan Boyle Ewing, and
Daniel McCook. In the Civil war, three members of
the firm attained the rank of brigadier general, and the
fourth became the great hero of Atlanta and the march to the
sea. During the famous struggle which resulted in the
admission of Kansas as a free state, Mr. Ewing
rendered a service to freedom of much historic interest.
When in January, 1861, Kansas was admitted under a free
constitution, Mr. Ewing„ then but thirty-one
years of age, was elected chief justice of the supreme court.
He served less than two years, but established a high
reputation as a jurist. With him "the law stood for justice
and the judge for righteousness.'' In September, 1862,
he resigned the chief-justiceship to enter the Union army and
recruited the Eleventh Regiment, Kansas Volunteer Infantry, of
which he was elected a colonel. For gallant conduct at Prairie
Grove, one of the fiercest battles of the war, he was
commissioned a brigadier general on March 13, 1863, by special
order of President Lincoln. He was assigned to
the "District of the Border'' comprising the state of Kansas
and the western portion of Missouri—a ''hornet's nest of a
district," as he called it. This command, for which his
acquaintance and influence especially fitted him, he held from
June, 1863, to February, 1864. While in command of this
district, on August 25, 1863, he issued an order known as
"Order No. 11," directing the depopulation of large portions
of four border counties of western Missouri. By the order the
loyal inhabitants were required to remove to the military
posts, the disloyal to remove out of the counties. It was a
severe measure, but the only way of surmounting the
difficulties to be overcome. These counties, after having
suffered much from Kansas Redlegs under Jennison and
other predatory leaders, whom General Ewing
suppressed with a strong hand, had become the base of
operations of about a thousand Missouri guerrillas, under
Quantrill, who incessantly raided southern Kansas.
Speaking of the issuance of the order, General Ewing,
at a reception tendered him in Kansas City in 1890, said:
"I remember when I came here, that on my trip to Independence
along a road by which I had once seen beautiful farm houses so
thickly located as to make it almost seem a great long street,
I saw, with but one exception, only the monuments which
Jennison left, blackened chimneys. But one house between
Kansas City and Independence was inhabited. About that time I
went to Nevada, which I had remembered as a pretty town.
Arriving there, I did not find a human being in the place. It
was entirely deserted—not even a Cat, dog or domestic animal
of any kind could be seen, save some cows that had taken up
their abode in the court house, which had been left in ruins,
the records being trampled beneath the hoofs of the cows.
"Every expedition I sent out to overtake the guerrillas
failed to achieve the object sought. We could not overtake
them. On every side of us were living people who not only
befriended and sympathized with the guerrillas, but furnished
them with advantageous information as to the movements of the
army or any detachment. After they had committed many
depredations and then penetrated to Lawrence, where they
murdered nearly 200 people in cold blood and burned the city,
I knew some decisive measure had to be adopted. The Kansas
people where aroused, and it seems providential interference
that stayed them from going into Missouri and at least
murdering those people they knew kept the guerrillas posted. I
believe as to General Schofield and I know as to
myself, that Order No. 11 was issued out of a spirit of mercy
to the people whose homes were in the border counties. It was
a deliberate order and my judgment has never faltered an
instant. But I confess I have suffered a great deal from the
weak and partisan construction put upon it. . When it was
issued and before it went into effect, Montgomrey
Blair made an appeal to President Lincoln to
have it revoked. In turn President Lincoln
called upon General Schofield for an
explanation— and the order went into effect. It was to me the
only means of restoring peace. Those people were told that
they must move and they did so without any show of military
interference, and I am sure were no more inconvenienced than
any of you would be today who had to change your place of
abode. All you people, who were with me, know the truth of
these statements. I remember that my own father remonstrated
with me about that order and I know his heart was right, but
he didn't know. I have been pelted by the Democratic party on
this account; and the charge that I was cruel to my fellow
beings while in a position to command is galling. Yet if I had
it all to do over again I would do it in the same way."
After General Ewing had thus removed the
spies and purveyors from "the hills of the robbers,"
Quantrill, unable to continue the vendetta, led the
guerillas south. Under General Ewing's firm
administration re-settlement of the country soon began, and
the border war, which had raged for eight years, was ended
forever. General Ewing conducted one campaign
where he displayed military ability sufficient, had the
operations been larger to give him rank as a great commander.
General Ewing was made a brevet major-general
for meritorious conduct at Pilot Knob. He resigned on February
23, 1865, at the close of the war in the West.
In the spring of 1865 he removed to the city of
Washington, where he enjoyed for six years a large and
lucrative practice. He was at different times in partnership
with his father. Senator O. H. Browning, and his
brother. General Charles Ewing. He was
the general attorney for the Central Pacific Railroad Company.
He defended Arnold, Spangler and Dr.
Mudd when on trial with Mrs. Surratt and
four others before a military commission charged with
conspiracy to assassinate President Lincoln. In the words of a
writer of authority, he "became the leading spirit of the
defense * * * and wrought the miracle of plucking from the
deadly clutches of the judge advocates the lives of every one
of the men he defended."
During this period he opposed the reconstruction policy
of the Republican party. His objections were that it would
proscribe the whites of the South and make the negroes the
rulers; that their government would have to be propped by
bayonets and must fall when the support was withdrawn; that it
would prove a vast burden on the North and destructive to the
South, and as wholly unconstitutional. He addressed the
soldiers' convention which met at Cleveland, Ohio, in
September, 1866. Of this address James G. Blaine says,
in his Twenty Years of Congress: "The only noteworthy speech
in the convention was delivered by General Thomas Ewing.
* * * * He and Mr. Browning were law partners at
the time of Mr. Johnson's accession, and both new resolved to
oppose the Republican party. General Ewing's
loss was regretted by a large number of friends. He had
inherited talent and capacity of a high order, was rapidly
rising in his profession, and seemed destined to an inviting
political career in the party to which he had belonged from
its first organization. In supporting the policy of
President Johnson he made a large sacrifice,—large
enough certainly to free his action from the slightest
suspicion of any other motive than conviction of duty."
President Johnson offered Mr. Ewing
the positions of secretary of war and attorney-general ; but
he declined both offices.
In 1870 he removed to Lancaster, with ample means
acquired in his profession, and embarked in the work of
developing the Hocking valley. He was largely instrumental in
the construction of the Ohio Central Railway. But the panic of
1873 robbed him of all pecuniary return from his efforts, and
cast upon him a vast indebtedness, which he could easily have
avoided, but which he struggled to pay during the remaining
quarter century of his life. He was a member of the
constitutional convention of Ohio in 1873-4, where his legal
attainments and admirable powers of debate gave him a leading
place. But the proposed constitution failed of adoption by the
people. In the financial discussions following the war to the
resumption of specie payments in 1879, General Ewing
was pronounced in his opposition to the various statutes
devised to enhance the value of the currency and effect the
payment of government bonds in gold. He opposed the law of
1869 which declared that bonds, the principal of which was
originally made payable in greenbacks, should be paid in coin.
In 1871 he attacked the refunding operations of the
government, and the policy of currency contraction, from which
he anticipated commercial disaster, an anticipation fulfilled
in the panic of 1873. In January, 1875, the act was passed by
congress providing for the resumption of specie payments. He
aroused the Democratic party against the resumption policy,
and for the next four years was the most conspicuous figure in
the Greenback movement. In 1875 William Allen
was elected governor of Ohio upon a platform written by
General Ewing which squarely opposed resumption. In 1876
Allen G. Thurman sought the Democratic nomination for the
presidency. Though less-pronounced in opposition to
resumption than was Governor Allen, Senator
Thurman was General Ewing's preference
for the nomination, but upon condition that the declaration of
financial policy adopted in 1875 should not be modified. When
the state convention met in Cincinnati the followers of
Senator Thurman, led by the Hon. Frank
Hurd, controlled its organization and introduced
resolutions which in effect declared for the abandonment of
opposition to the resumption policy. Minority resolutions
reaffirming the platform of 1875 were reported by Governor
William D. Morgan. At a moment when defeat seemed certain
General Ewing mounted the stand. "I rise," said
he, "not to speak for a man, but for the cause.'' By a
powerful and impassioned speech he carried the Morgan
resolutions. He himself presented the name of William
Allen, at St. Louis, as the nominee of the Ohio
Democracy. General Ewing represented the
Lancaster district in congress from 1877 to 1881, where he
advocated the remonetization of silver, and became the leader
in the successful fight to amend the resumption scheme so as
to provide that the greenbacks should be reissued instead of
being destroyed when once presented for redemption. But for
this amendment the currency, already reduced in volume, would
have been greatly contracted, to the immeasurable distress of
the industrial classes. And resumption would have been
impossible, as Secretary Sherman admitted in his interview
with the committee on finance, March 19, 1878, when the
question was put to him by Senator Allison: "In
other words you think we cannot come to and maintain specie
payments without the power to reissue?" To which Secretary
Sherman answered : "I do not think we can." On
the money question General Ewing was
unwarrantably charged with advocating inflation. His position
was, in fact, the conservative position. He sought to preserve
the greenbacks and to avert the fall in prices which forced
resumption produced. He proposed to retire the national bank
currency and fix by constitutional amendment the volume of the
greenback currency and its enlargement in proportion to the
annual percentage of increase in the population. In congress
he was also largely instrumental in stopping the employment of
Federal troops and supervisors at elections conducted under
state laws. Respecting the tariff he was a moderate
protectionist. During his last year in congress a bill was
reported unanimously from the committee en postal service
which proposed very large reduction in the appropriation for
the service in the far west. Any one familiar with the conduct
of business in congress knows how all but certainly the
unanimous report of a committee controls. General
Ewing knew that the people affected would suffer by the
proposed changes, and after a. vigorous debate he carried an
amendment continuing the usual appropriations. In closing his
speech he referred to the famous; pony-express established by
Ben Holliday before the war, between St. Joseph,
Missouri, and San Francisco, and in one of his happiest
expressions likened it to a "spider's thread swung across the
desert." In 1879, General Ewing was the
Democratic candidate for governor of Ohio, but was defeated
after a brilliant campaign which attracted the attention of1
the nation, it being recognized that success would place him
in the front rank of presidential possibilities. Intensely
democratic, he aimed to serve the whole people, and had the
courage of his convictions; and the Democracy of Ohio honored
him with a devotion such as has been enjoyed by few men. In
1881 he retired from congress and from politics.
Removing to Yonkers, New York, in 1882, he practiced
law in New York city,. He was for many years in partnership
with the Hon. Milton I. Southard, formerly of Ohio, who
had represented the Zanesville district in congress. In 1893
he organized the firm of Ewing, Whitman &
Ewing, in order to join with him his sons, Thomas
and Hampton Denman Ewing. In 1895 he was
attorney to the department of buildings of New York city. He
delivered addresses on numerous public occasions, which he
prepared with great care. In an address before the Law School
of the University of the City of New York, he favored the
abolition of the requirement of unanimity of the jury in civil
cases, and the codification of the "private law." In closing
he said:
"Gentleman, always recollect that you are American lawyers,
and owe allegiance to the people. Be loyal to your sovereign
in word and deed. The experiment of self-government has been
concluded and is a world acknowledged success. * * * Exert
your influence in perfecting the law, and in administering it
expeditiously, economically and justly. Seek to make a lawsuit
a terror to evil-doers only. Guard the liberty of the people
and that equality which is the soul of free government. Punish
abuse, oppression and corruption wherever and however they
appear in the profession or in the courts. So that the people
may forget the grievances of which poets and novelists have
bitterly and mournfully written; and Oily Gammon, and Sampson
Brass, and Jarndyce and poor little Miss Flite,
may be remembered only as myths showing the griefs of the
olden times; and so that American jurisprudence may illustrate
Sir Matthew Hale's lofty and eloquent
tribute to law: 'All things on earth do her reverence, the
least as feeling her protection, the greatest as not exempt
from her power. Her voice is the harmony of the world; her
seat in the bosom or God. "General Ewing was a
founder of the Ohio Society of New York in 1886, and its
president until 1889. He loved the people of Ohio, and hoped
to return to live in Lancaster, at or near which city lived,
with their families, his brothers,. General Hugh
Boyle and Judge Philemon Beecher
Ewing, his sister, Mrs. C. F. Steele, his eldest
son, William Cox Ewing, and elder daughter, Mrs.
Edwin S. Martin. General Ewing was
struck down by a cable car in New York on January 20, 1896. He
was taken to his apartment where he was living with his wife
and younger daughter Beall. He died on the morning of
January 21, without recovering consciousness. He was buried at
Yonkers on the Friday following. His wife and all his children
survive him. In his everyday life he was pure and unselfish.
Though full of high ambition, he was hopeful and cheerful
under adversity and disappointment. In manner he was dignified
and simple; in conversation ready and interesting, full of
humor and amiability. Always generous and approachable, he had
hosts of friends. No one appealed to him in vain. "His hand
gave help, his heart compassion." He was an affectionate son
and brother, a loving father, a devoted husband. In noting his
death the Cincinnati Enquirer said:
"Though General Thomas Ewing removed to
New York about fifteen years ago, he resided still in the warm
affections of the people of Ohio. His death will he mourned in
every community in which he ever lived. Thomas Ewing
was an ideal gentleman. Handsome in person, easy and gracious
in manner, and lofty in his ideals, he made a deep impression
on everybody he met. He was a gallant and effective soldier,
an able lawyer, a sincere statesman, and a politician who set
a high moral example in the practice of politics. He was
worthy to be the son of the eminent Thomas Ewing
of old, whose name is inseparably woven in the history of Ohio
and the administration of national affairs."
Source: A Biographical Record
of Fairfield and Perry Counties, Ohio - Publ. New York and
Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co - 1902 ~ Page 476
[The foregoing sketch is reprinted from the "Bench and Bar of
Ohio," issued in December, 1897.] |
NOTES:
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