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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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1902 BIOGRAHICAL RECORD INDEX >
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A. E FAINE. The name of Mr. Faine
is closely interwoven with the business history of New
Straitsville, where he is acting as general manager for the
W. R. Calkins Hardware & Lumber Company, having made his
home here since 1883, covering a period of almost twenty
years. Mr. Faine is a native of Lawrence county,
Ohio, and a son of J. C. and Sarah A. (Rawlins)
Faine, who also removed to New Straitsville in 1883. The
father was born in Virginia, now West Virginia, and belonged
to one of the pioneer families of that portion of the country.
On the Rawlins side the family can be traced back to an
ancestry of colonial days. One of the representatives of the
family served on the staff of General Washington in the war of
the Revolution.
A. E. Faine, of this review, came with his
parents to New Straitsville in 1883 and here continued his
education, completing his course by graduation in the high
school of this city with the class of 1892. He afterward
turned his attention to educational work and was engaged in
teaching in the grammar school department for four years. In
1896, however, he turned his attention to business interests
and entered the hardware and lumber business of W. R.
Calkins, at Hemlock, also the owner of the stores at
Corning and Crooksville. Eventually the Corning store was sold
and the stock at Crooksville was taken to New Straitsville and
the Hemlock store was closed. Mr. Calkins, as a
member of the firm of W. R. Calkins & Company, is
engaged in merchandising in Columbus. Ohio, and at New
Lexington, under the firm name of W. R. Calkins & Son.
He has a patent on a gas stove which is manufactured at
Columbus and is also engaged in the manufacture of sheet iron
ware at New Lexington. Mr. Faine is in charge of
the business at New Straitsville and is carefully controlling
the same, his enterprise and good management resulting in
bringing to him creditable success.
In 1896 Mr. Faine was united in marriage
to Miss Minnie Calkins, the eldest daughter of W.
R. Calkins, who formerly resided at New Straitsville
but is now living at New Lexington. At one time he .served as
treasurer of the county and is widely known as a prominent and
enterprising man. His business interests are extensive and
prove of benefit to the community by the promotion of
commercial activity. Unto Mr. and Mrs.
Faine have been born three children: Cecil,
Uarda and Cyril.
In his fraternal relations Mr. Faine is a
Mason, belonging to New Straitsville Lodge, No. 484, F. & A.
M., and New Lexington Chapter, No. 149, R. A. M. He has
recently established the New Straitsville Record which he is
editing and into which he entered for the sole purpose of
developing the great natural resources of the town. In this
enterprise he is associated with Hiram Campbell,
a practical business man. Mr. Faine is also the
agent for the Corning Natural Gas Company at New Straitsville
and superintends its affairs here. In politics he is a
Republican and for the past seven years has taken an active
part in Perry county politics. In business he has achieved
success through honorable effort, untiring industry and
capable management and in private life he has gained many warm
personal friends.
Source: A Biographical Record of Fairfield and Perry
Counties, Ohio - Publ. New York and Chicago: The S. J.
Clarke Publishing Co - 1902 ~ Page 456 |
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HON.
WILLIAM E. FINCK. Fortunate is a man who has
back of him an ancestry honorable and distinguished, and
happy is he if is lines of life are cast in harmony
therewith. In person, in action and in character
William E. Finck is a worthy representative of his race
and is to-day regarded as one of the capable attorneys at
law of Somerset, where his father was for many years a most
distinguished practitioner. He was born in this town
Jan. 8, 1858, being a son of Hon. William E. and Cecilia
R. (Garaghty) Finck.
In the public schools here he
gained his education and after acquiring a good preliminary
knowledge he entered the St. Louis University, of St.
Louise, Missouri, in which he was graduated with the class
of 1874. With broad general knowledge to serve as the
foundation upon which to rear the superstructure of
professional knowledge, he then took up the study of law
under the direction of his father and after a thorough and
systematic course of reading, covering two years, he was
admitted to the bar in 1876. For a quarter of a
century he has been a practitioner in Somerset and his
clientage is now of a very extensive and important
character. He at once entered upon the practice of his
chosen profession wherein he was destined to rise to an
honorable and prominent position. He began the work
for which the previous years of study had been a
preparation, becoming a member of the bar where sham
reputation and empty pretenses were of no avail in the
forensic combats. The young man, in his contest with
older and experienced men whose reputation and patronage
were already secured, found it a hard school, but it
afforded excellent training and as he measured his strength
with the best his mind was developed and his intellectual
powers; were quickened and strengthened and he acquired a
readiness in action, a fertility of resource and a courage
under stress that have been essential factors in his
successful career.
Mr. Finck has also attained distinction in
political circles. In 1896 he was nominated for
congress in the eleventh district, running against
General Charles Grosvenor, of Athens, Ohio. During
that campaign he made over two hundred speeches and
succeeded in reducing the Republican majority more than
one-half. In 1897 he was elected state senator in the
fifteenth and sixteenth districts of Ohio and changed the
Republican majority of twenty-seven hundred, given two years
before, to a Democratic majority of fourteen hundred.
He carried his county, although strongly Republican.
In 1899 he was nominated to the position of representative
against his protest and was elected, although the rest of
the county went Republican. He was made chairman of
the senate judiciary committee and proved a most active and
able working member of the house as well as the senate.
He was a recognized leader on the Democratic side of the
senate and in known in political and professional circles
throughout the state.
On the 4th of May, 1901, Hon. William E. Finck
was united in marriage to Miss Orpha E. Helser, a
daughter of A. H. Helser, of Somerset. Socially
he is identified with the Benevolent and Protective Order of
Elks in Newark, and is a member of the Catholic church.
Earnest effort, close application and the exercise of his
native talents have won him prestige as an able lawyer at a
bar which has numbered many eminent and prominent men.
Source: A Biographical Record of Fairfield and Perry
Counties, Ohio - Publ. New York and Chicago: The S. J.
Clarke Publishing Co - 1902 ~ Page 419 |
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HON.
WILLIAM E. FINCK, SR.
An enumeration of
the men who have won honor for themselves and at the same
time have honored the state to which they belonged would be
incomplete were there a failure to make prominent reference
to the Hon. William Finck, now deceased. His
career at the bar was one most commendable. He was
vigilant in his devotion to the interests of his clients,
yet he never forgot that he owed a higher allegiance to the
majesty of the law. His life was permeated by
unfailing devotion to manly principles. No man was
ever more respected or more fully enjoyed the confidence of
the people or more richly deserved the esteem in which he
was held. He was one of the great lawyers of the Ohio
bar who lives in the memory of his contemporaries encircled
with a halo of the gracious presence, charming personality,
profound legal wisdom, purity of public and private life and
the quiet dignity of an ideal follower of his chosen
calling.
William E. Finck was born in Somerset, Perry
county, Ohio, Sept. 1, 1822, a son of Anthony and Mary (Spurck)
Finck. His father came to this county at a very
early day from Pennsylvania and cast his lot with the early
pioneer settlers, entering from the government a tract of
land upon which the city of Somerset now stands. The
ancestry of the Finck family can be traced back to an
aide-de-camp of General Washington. Unto Mr.
and Mrs. Finck were born seven children: William E.,
of this review; Austin A., who was mayor of Somerset
and filled all of the township offices of Reading township
but is now deceased; Elizabeth, the wife of Hon.
Henry C. Filler, now of Columbus, Ohio, but her death
occurred in 1901 at the age of seventy-eight years;
Martha, the wife of James McCristal, a prominent
merchant of Somerset; Bernard L., who was at one time
la leading business man of Somerset, but is now deceased;
Harry, who was a business man of Peoria, Illinois, but
has also passed away; and Gertrude, the wife of
John H. Blackney, assistant postmaster of Binghamton,
New York.
William E. Finck pursued a common school
education, being largely a self-educated as well as a
self-made man, but he was endowed by nature with strong
mentality and he developed his latent talents. He read
extensively and broadly and had the ability to make what he
read his own. He became a law student in the office
and under the direction of Josiah Lovell, a prominent
pioneer attorney of this state. He began practice in
Somerset when about twenty-two years of age and soon
afterward moved to Lancaster, Ohio, and entered into
partnership with Hocking H. Hunter, the most noted
lawyer of his day in Ohio. The firm enjoyed splendid
success and after a few years Mr. Finck resigned the
practice to Mr. Hunter and returned to Somerset, his
native home, for which he had a great attachment. He
was known as a most conscientious man, ever loyal in his
devotion to those who reposed trust in him. He was
soon the acknowledged leader of the Perry county bar,
Somerset being then the county seat. The zeal with
which he devoted his energies to his profession, the careful
regard evinced for the interests of his clients, and an
assiduous and unrelaxing attention to all the details of his
cases brought him a large business and made him very
successful in its conduct. His arguments always
elicited warm commendation, not only from his associates at
the bar but also from the bench. He was a very able
writer; his briefs always showed wide research, careful
though and the best and strongest reasons which could be
urged for his contention, presented in cogent and logical
form and illustrated by a style unusually lucid and clear.
It would have been impossible for a man of Mr. Finck's
nature and ability to refrain from activity in public life.
His fellow citizens demanded his services and he was elected
state senator, filling the position for two years. He
also served for a short time as attorney general of the
state, being appointed to that office. He was only
twenty-six years of age when he became a candidate for
congress on the Whig ticket in a district having a large
Democratic majority, and although so young his popularity
and ability were such that he received a largely increased
Whig vote, failing of election by only eleven votes.
In 1860 he again became a candidate and this time was more
fortunate. In 1862 he was re-elected, and a third time
in 1870, serving altogether for six years in the council
chambers of the nation. In Blaine's "Twenty Years in
Congress" the Maine statesman mentions the fact that Mr.
Finck led the fight on the Democratic side against
Thaddeus Stevens' confiscation measure. Mr.
Finck made three speeches against the bill which were
able and convincing. Although differing from
President Lincoln on many points of political
importance, Mr. Finck became a warm personal friend
of Lincoln, who had no greater admirer in congress.
Mr. Finck believed thoroughly in the cause of the Union
and in the president's right to maintain that Union
unbroken. He was twice nominated by the Ohio
Democratic party for the position of judge of the common
pleas court in his district but invariably declined to serve
in that office. During his lifetime he was an intimate
friend and associate of such distinguished national
characters as Thomas Ewing, Allen G. Thurman, George H.
Pendleton, William S. Grosebeck and others.
The private life of Hon. William E. Finck was
honorably and happily spent. He was married to
Cecilia R. Garaghty a daughter of Michael Garaghty,
now deceased, who was at one time a resident of Lancaster
and became very prominent, being an honored pioneer and
leading business man there, actively associated with banking
interests not only in Lancaster but also in other parts of
the state. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Finck
were four in number and the eldest in the namesake of the
father. Mary E. is the widow of Frank A.
Dittoe, a prominent business man of Somerset, who died
in Columbus. Michael G. is living in Somerset,
Ohio.
At the time of the golden wedding of the parents was
celebrated, April 20, 1897, at which all the children were
present, the following communication came from the bar of
Perry county:
"To the Hon. W. E. Finck, Sr.: Upon this,
the date of your golden wedding, we, your associates of the
Perry county bar, send you our most hearty greeting and
congratulations. Being mindful of your long, useful
and honorable course as a citizen and a member of the legal
profession, we deem this a fitting and proper occasion to
express to you the admiration and esteem in which you are
held by your legal brethren and we greatly desire that your
venerable life may be extended in health and usefulness for
many years to the end that your upright life as a citizen,
your love and devotion as a husband and father, your able
advocacy at the bar, your honesty and fairness between,
citizens, your always earnest and diligent, efforts to
arrive at justice, truth and equity between parties, your
desire to aid the court and jury and guide them unbiased to
correct solutions of pending controversies, your ever
affable and courteous demeanor, may be always actually
before us, a guide and example for us to imitate and follow,
that we, too, may in the end go down in the shades of life
honored and respected by bench, bar and people. In
extending congratulations." This was signed by the
members of the Perry county bar/
Mr. Finck died at Somerset, Jan. 25, 1901, when
about seventy-nine years of age. Thus his life record
covered a long span, and throughout all the years of his
active manhood he so lived as to win the respect and
confidence of all with whom he was associated. His
legal learning, his analytical mind, the readiness with
which eh grasped the points in an argument, all combined to
make him one of the most successful and capable lawyers that
has ever practiced at the bar of this county. Nature
bestowed upon him many of her rarest gifts. He
possessed a mind of extraordinary compass and an industry
that brought forth every spark of talent with which nature
had gifted him. He was in every way a most superior
man. His widow still survives him and resides in her
beautiful home in Somerset.
Source: A Biographical Record of Fairfield and Perry
Counties, Ohio - Publ. New York and Chicago: The S. J.
Clarke Publishing Co - 1902 ~ Page 416 |
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D. H. FOSTER.
During the pioneer epoch in the history of Ohio the
Foster family of which our subject is a member was
founded in this state by his great-great-grandfather, who
came from Maryland and took up his abode in Ross county.
There the great grandfather was born and Colonel John
Foster, the grandfather, was also a native of that
county. He became very prominent and influential
citizen and left the impress of his individuality upon
public life. He served as colonel in the state militia
and was also a leader in civil life, being a member of the
state legislature. His business affairs prospered and
he became a wealthy man and leading citizen.
Joseph Foster, the father of our subject, was a
resident of Pike county and possessed considerable influence
as a leader of the Republican party. He was a man of
strong mentality and sterling worth, well fitted to become a
leader in public thought and action. His opinions
carried weight in the councils of his party and he labored
indefatigably for the adoption of the principles of
government in which he so firmly believed. He married
Amanda McMillen, a daughter of Alexander McMillen, of
Pike County, a prominent business man of his day. The
McMillen family was also from Maryland, although the
great-great- grandfather of our subject was a native of
Scotland, whence he emigrated to the new world, establishing
his home in Maryland.
Dudley Hampton Foster, the subject of this
review, is a native of Pike county, Ohio, his birth having
occurred on his father's farm there. Under the
parental roof he was reared and in the schools of the
neighborhood he acquired his preliminary education, after
which he entered the Ohio State University, at Columbus,
where he was graduated in law and arts, completing his
course in June, 1895. Well prepared for his chosen
profession by thorough and comprehensive study Mr. Foster
came to Corning in September following his graduation and
has since been engaged in practice here.
Mr. Foster is a member of the Knights of Pythias
fraternity and in the Masonic order he has attained the
Knight Templar degree. He is also a member of the
Mystic Shrine, of Columbus, and holds membership relations
with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. A
pleasant, genial manner and social disposition have made
Mr. Foster popular with a large circle of friends.
Source: A Biographical Record of Fairfield and Perry
Counties, Ohio - Publ. New York and Chicago: The S. J.
Clarke Publishing Co - 1902 ~ Page 440 |
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RANDOLPH
M. FOUNTAIN, who is engaged in the hardware,
implement and genera insurance business in Somerset, was
born in Redington, then New Reading, Perry county, on the
29th of September, 1866, and is a son of James Carson and
Jane (Mitchell) Fountain. His grandfather,
Curtis Fountain, came to this county from Pennsylvania
about 1825. His wife was also a native of the Keystone
state. The maternal grandfather of our subject was
Randolph Mitchell, who became an early settler of
Reading township, and his wife was Lydia Mitchell.
James Carson Fountain, the father of our subject, was
born in Clayton township, Perry county, in 1836 and died in
1896, at the age of sixty years. He filled the
position of justice of the peace for fourteen years and was
known as a citizen of genuine worth, devoted to the best
interests of the community. For eighteen years he was
connected with the Ohio Farmers' Insurance Company and was a
very active and public-spirited man. He gave his
political support to the Democratic party, never wavering in
his allegiance to its principles. In the family of
James C. and Jane Fountain were three sons and three
daughters: Mary A., a resident of Redington;
Lydia C., the wife of Clinton E. Love, who is in
partnership with our subject; Randolph M., of this
review; Maggie B., the wife of P. M. Bowman,
one of the owners of the mill at Somerset; Frank M.
who is acting clerk for his brother; and Carson who
is engaged in the teaching in Redington.
Randolph Mitchell Fountain, the subject of this
review, was reared upon the old homestead in Redington and
attended the schools there. He was afterward graduated
in the Capital City Commercial College, of Columbus in 1888
and then went into the hardware business, becoming a clerk
at Junction City, Perry county. Subsequently he went
to Bremen, Fairfield county, in 1892, to become manager of
the hardware store there. In 1893 he located in
Somerset and accepted the position of bookkeeper and cashier
for the firm of O. B. Ream and Company, druggists,
but after a year he accepted a clerkship in the store of
Fisher Brothers, hardware dealers of Somerset. In
1895 he bought out his employers and entered into business
under the name of R. M. Fountain. In 1896,
however, he sold this business to the Yarnell Tin &
Hardware Company and in that year bought a farm in the edge
of Somerset. Mr. Fountain then carried on
agricultural pursuits until 1900, when he sold his farm and
established a hardware and implement business as a member of
the firm of Fountain & Love, his partner being
Clinton E. Love. The new enterprise is being
successfully conducted and their patronage has already
assumed good proportions. Mr. Fountain has the
general agency of the Ohio Farmer's Insurance Company, which
position he has held for seven years. As his father
held the same position for eighteen years, the company has
been represented by the Fountain family for
twenty-five years.
Mr. Fountain was married in Junction City to
Miss Mary Florence Baird, a daughter of James T.
Baird. They now have two children, Nellie
Lucille and Frances Adelle. In political
views Mr. Fountain is an active Democrat, doing
everything in his power to promote the growth and insure the
success of his party. He is also a prominent
member of the Odd Fellows society, has served as noble grand
in his lodge and in his life exemplifies the beneficent
spirit of the fraternity. He belongs to the Methodist
Episcopal church of Redington and has served as chairman of
its board of trustees. He takes a very deep interest
in everything pertaining to the general good along material,
social and intellectual as well as moral lines, and
throughout Perry county, where he has spent his entire life,
He is widely and favorably.
Source: A Biographical Record of Fairfield and Perry
Counties, Ohio - Publ. New York and Chicago: The S. J.
Clarke Publishing Co - 1902 ~ Page 438 |
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COLONEL
JOHN W. FREE,
who was a practitioner of law
but is now living retired in New Lexington, comes of a
family honorable and distinguished. He was born in
Stewartstown, York county, Pennsylvania, August 8, 1830.
His paternal grandfather was a native of Hesse Cassel,
Germany, and he had two brothers came from the fatherland to
the new world to fight in the English army at the time of
the Revolutionary war. They were present when
Cornwallis surrendered the troops to General Washington
at Yorktown. Having formed an attachment for the new
world the grandfather of our subject determined to remain
and located in Baltimore, Maryland, while one of the
brothers took up his abode in North Carolina.
Dr. John Free, the father of our subject, was a
physician and minister of the gospel, devoting his entire
life to the work of alleviating human suffering and of
promoting the cause of Christianity. He first labored
for the temporal and spiritual welfare of his fellow men in
Pennsylvania, but afterward came to Ohio, settling in
Mansfield, this state, in 1831. There he resided until
1841. In Pennsylvania he had previously married
Miss Catherine Newman, a daughter of Joseph Newman,
of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, who afterward removed to the
Buckeye state. He owned real estate in Mansfield, in
fact was one of the founders of that town, taking a very
active and helpful part in its development and progress.
He served his country in the war of 1812, going as a guide
with General Harrison. Becoming ill, he died of
pneumonia while on the march. Years afterward, in
1840, when General Harrison was making a tour through
the state as a presidential candidate, he called upon the
daughter of his former guide, Mrs. John
Free, when in Mansfield. Andrew, General
Joseph, Jacob and Henry Newman were all uncles of
our subject.
After his marriage, Dr. Free, the father of our
subject, engaged in the practice of medicine in Mansfield.
Of broad humanitarian principles and deep human sympathy, he
gave his services freely to the poor, accepting and desiring
no compensation. His own Christian life, too, was an
inspiration and a help to those whom he met. In 1841
he removed to McCutchinville, Wyandot county, where he
engaged in practice for a time, but afterward located on a
farm in that county, there spending his remaining days.
His was a noble, upright and helpful life and the world is
certainly better by his having lived. His memory still
remains as a blessed benediction to those who knew him.
He passed away in 1871, at the age of seventy-eight years,
and his wife died in 1870, at the advanced age of
seventy-eight years.
Colonel Free, whose name introduces this review,
was one of a family of eight children: Susan is still
living in New Lexington, at about the age of eighty years;
Rosanna, also of New Lexington, is the widow of Prof.
G. A. Sickles, formerly a member of the faculty of
Heidelberg Seminary; Mrs. Catherine Hoffman is
deceased; Anna B. is the wife of J. W. Cooley,
of Wyandot county, Ohio; I. N., who was born in
Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, has for the past forty years
spent the greater part of his time in traveling over the
world; the Colonel is the sixth in order of birth; Henry
N., the next younger, is now deceased; and Colonel
William Henry Harrison Free, the eighth member of the
family, died in New Lexington, July 18, 1876, at the age of
forty years. He was engaged in merchandising in this
place when the Civil war was inaugurated and with patriotic
spirit he raised a company for three months' service.
He became its first lieutenant and on the expiration of the
term he raised another command for three years' service and
became its captain. This was known as Company D,
Thirty-first Ohio Infantry.
Colonel Free was wounded at Chickamauga while leading
his men. He was afterward made a major in the
Ninety-fifth Ohio and subsequently promoted to the rank of
lieutenant colonel in that regiment. He then returned
to New Lexington, having been elected to the state
legislature by a majority of twelve hundred while he was
lying in a hospital at Nashville because of his wounds.
He served during the winter in the assembly and then again
went to the front, continuing in the army until honorably
discharged in December, 1865. He was a brave and
efficient officer and in civil life was a man of sterling
honor and worth, who enjoyed in a high degree the confidence
and respect of his fellow men.
Colonel John W. Free, whose name introduces this
review, pursued his education in the schools of Mansfield
and in Wyandot county, displaying special aptitude in his
studies. At the age of sixteen years he began
teaching, as did all of his brothers and two sisters.
In 1856 he came to New Lexington, where he turned his
attention to merchandising, and in 1861 he, too, raised a
company, gathering together sufficient men for the command
in five days. Elected its captain, he went to the
front in command of Company A, Thirty-first Ohio Volunteer
Infantry, and in November, 1862, he was promoted to the rank
of major, continuing in that position until 1865, when he
resigned owing to the fatal illness of his wife, who died on
the 14th of April of that year, at the age of twenty-two
years. He had married prior to his enlistment, the
lady of his choice of being
Miss Catherine France, of Perry county. She left two
children, Anna and Lulu, both of whom are now
deceased. There is now a grandchild, O. F. Ott,
who is living in Washington Court House, Ohio, and who
served in the Spanish-American War, being chief bugler on
the staff of General A. H. Wilson.
After the death of his first wife, Colonel Free
was again married, his second union being with Miss Martha
A. Moroe, a daughter of Andrew and Lois Moore, of
Perry county. There is one child by this union,
Kate A., the wife of John E. Davis, by whom she
has one child, Major Free Davis, of Indianapolis,
Indiana.
Since the war Colonel Free has resided at New
Lexington. He studied law, being admitted to the bar,
and continued in the practice of his profession until 1883.
He has always declined public office, never seeking
notoriety of that character. Sine 1852 he has been a
loyal and devoted member of the Masonic fraternity, and he
also belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the
Grand Army of the Republic. He is widely known in New
Lexington, where he won an enviable reputation in early
times as a merchant and later as a member of the bar.
His military career is one most creditable, for meritorious
conduct on the field of battle won him promotion. In
matters of citizenship he is as true today to his country as
when he followed the old flag upon the southern
battlefields. As a man he possesses sterling traits of
character which have gained him popularity and friendship
and no one is more worthy of representation in this volume
than Colonel Free.
Source: A Biographical Record of Fairfield and Perry
Counties, Ohio - Publ. New York and Chicago: The S. J.
Clarke Publishing Co - 1902 ~ Page 472 |
NOTES:
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