HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY. - 821

LOUIS JOHN MILLER, mill and freight elevator manufacturer, was born May 20, 1847, in Germany, and is the second of three surviving children born to Lewis Miller by his first wife; the father and mother were both also born in Germany. The father is still living and resides in Cincinnati. The mother died in 1860, and is buried in Vine Bill Cemetery.

Our subject came to this city with his parents when but six years old, and was educated in the public schools. He served his apprenticeship at the machinist business with Messrs- Stanley & Johnson, and afterward worked for the Diamond Mill Company as foreman, going into business for himself in 1872. He was married to Barbara, daughter of Philip and Margaret Heid, natives of Germany; Mrs. Miller was born in Cincinnati. They have had born to them six children: Charles P., Louis, William, Margaret Amelia, Laura and Emma, all of whom are living. The brothers of the subject of this sketch, William V. and Christian, are still living, and reside in Cincinnati. Mr. Miller is the solo proprietor and manufacturer of the nonpareil crashing and grinding mill, for grinding all kinds of feed, roots, etc., and is also an extensive manufacturer of heavy and light freight elevators; he employs from ten to twelve men. All work is done under his personal supervision, and the success which has attended his business is a proof of the class of work turned out by him.

FRANK M. WIELAND, millwright, a member of the firm of Freeman & Weiland, machinists and millwrights, whose place of business, located at Nos. 12 and 14 Ninth street, Cincinnati, is referred to in another part of this volume, was born August 7, 1839, in Bavaria, Germany, on the Rhine, and is a son of Michael and Frances (Hammer) Weiland, both natives of Bavaria. Our subject was educated in the schools of Bavaria, and came to America from his native home in 1867, reaching New York on the 26th of Jane, that year, and came to Cincinnati August 1, 1868. Before leaving his native land he worked at the carpentering business, and also in flourmills, and continued to follow the same occupations in the United States. He worked nine years for Frederick Wolf, three years for Frederick Schultz. six years for the Ross, Mover Manufacturing Company, and several years for P. W. Reinshagen previous to going into business in connection with Mr. Freeman.

He was married, May 17, 1869, to Margaret, daughter of John and Josephine (Winstel) Thomas, both natives of Bavaria, and two children have been born to them, one of whom, Carrie Augusta, still survives. Mr. Weiland is an expert in his business in which he is ably assisted by his partner, Mr. Louis G. Freeman. and the firm enjoy the entire confidence of ail who have had dealings with them-

GEORGE: HEATLEY, tinner and hardware dealer, was born in Toronto, Canada, June 17, 1843, son of George and Mary (Verner) Heatley. His father was a native of Ireland; his mother was born March 23, 1819. The father's business was that of a tailor, and he emigrated in 1838 to Canada, where he died in 1854. His widow resides in Cincinnati- Their family consisted of the following children: Thomas, John, George, William, Anthony (deceased), and Benjamin.

George, the subject of this notice, was reared and educated in Toronto, and at the age of eleven years was bound as an apprentice to learn the tinner's trade. When a young man he became a member of the " Queen's Own " Rifles, of Toronto, and served in the Fenian Raid of 1866. On September 25, 1867, he was united in marriage, with Miss Mary, daughter of Martin Crosier, of near Scarboro, Canada, and the fruits of this marriage have been two children, Harry and Mable Pearl,

822 - HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY,

who both reside with their parents. About 1880 Mr. Heatley removed to Cincinnati, and began business at his present stand, No. 1537 Eastern avenue. Mr. Heatley is a member of the Knights of Pythias, Uniform Rank, and is also a Master Mason. He and his family are members of the Protestant Methodist Church. Politically he is a Republican.

JOHN HOYES MCGOWAN, president of the company which bears his name, was, born February 19, 1830, in Aberdeen, Scotland, and is the son of John Henderson and Amelia byes McGowan. His father came to America in 1831, and the following year sent for his wife and John, then the only living child, who arrived in New York in April, 1832. They proceeded via the Erie canal and the lakes to Detroit. in which city the Territorial Land Office was located, where they entered and took up government land in Monroe county, the patent of which, signed by Andrew Jackson, is still in the possession of Mr. McGowan. In 1835 the elder Mr- McGowan, who was a leather tanner and dresser by trade, engaged in business at Monroe, Mich. The tannery was located on the bank of the river Raisin, at the main dam, just above the mouth, but his property was entirely destroyed by the flood of the following year. Thomas McGowan, the grandfather of our subject, was also a tanner by trade and was well-to-do in Scotland. His maternal grandfather, John Hoyes, was a ship chandler, but later emigrated to Monroe county, Mich., where he engaged in farming.

In 1836 John Henderson McGowan left Monroe for Cincinnati, Ohio, and, as there were no regular means of transportation at that early date, most, of the trip was made on foot. After reaching his destination, he at once resumed his trade as journeyman. In the following year his wife and four children-John, Theodore, Catharine and Helen-all of whom are now living, came to Cincinnati, via the lakes to Cleveland, and thence via the Ohio and Erie canal to Portsmouth, Ohio. As the stage of water in the Ohio was not sufficient to permit the regular boats to run, the family were compelled to take a flatboat to the point of their destination. They arrived at Cincinnati in the latter part of October, their trip occupying a little over one month. The husband and father of this flock died in 1871, at the ago of sixty-six years. His widow, who still survives, lives with her son, John H. McGowan, and is remarkably well preserved at, the age of ninety years.

Our subject's education was limited to the meager advantages offered by the public schools of his boyhood, and that only until the age of twelve years. His first start was made at the age of twelve years, his employer being a man engaged in the nursery business, and who at the same time carried on a dairy on a small scale. His duties were to deliver milk about the city during the winter months until work could be resumed in the nursery. The place was located on what is now known as Price's Hill, a little north and west of the present incline. The compensation was $3 per month and board, which at that time was considered good wages. His employer was a friend of the McGowan family, and was looked upon by young John H. as a thoroughly conscientious man, so he allowed his wages to accumulate in his employer's hands. When entering upon the second year of employment it so happened that John H. learned that his employer was bankrupt- and was trying to dispose of his property. He immediately went and requested him to pay him the amount due, not having drawn one cent of pay during the time he was employed. He informed his employer of the report that was circulating regarding his finances, and not being able to secure the money, he informed him that he would take one of the cows as settlement. In less than five minutes his limited stock of clothing was tied up in a bandanna handkerchief, and he was on his way with the cow to his father's home, on Plum street, between Ann and Mason. His family were amazed at this procedure, and upon being questioned by his mother in regard to it, he replied that their old family friend tried to beat him out of his hard earnings, but he was determined to save what he could, so he took the cow to offset his claim. After a.

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY. - 823

few months at school he was next employed in a grocery and provision store located on the northeast corner of Catherine and Baymiller streets, the salary agreed upon being the same as he arranged with his former employer. The hours of duty at this place were from 5 A. M. until 9 P. M. It was during his employment at this place that he concluded that the tricks of the trade did not suit him, and he determined to make preparations for bettering his circumstances. At this time he commenced to make a working model of a sawmill, devoting what spare time he had to this work, and as it happened his employer found the model and called him to account. He complimented him upon the accuracy of the work, but remarked that a merchant had no time to devote to mechanics, and informed him that if he persisted in working on such things, he would dispense with his services. Shortly afterward he again found him working on the model, and took this opportunity to discharge him. He then got a situation as cook and towpath driver on the Miami canal, at a salary of $10 per month, serving in this capacity for two months, when a friend secured him a place as apprentice with George L. Hanks in his bell and brass foundry. His first experience taught him to collect his wages promptly, which he did afterward as long as he had wages to draw. During his first year's apprenticeship he was paid $2.50 per week, $2 of which he paid to his parents, retaining the balance to help educate himself. The second year he retained $1 per week, paying $2 to his parents. He attended a class in mechanical drawing, and kept this up until he was twenty years of age. Before he was twenty-one years old he was given full charge of the factory, which employed about one hundred and fifty men, and remained in the employ of that company until they sold out to Nelson Newman & Co. It was in their shops in 1851 that the first successful experimental steam fire engine in the world was built, under the supervision of Mr. McGowan, Alex. Latta and Abell Shawk being the inventors, and Mr. McGowan the designer of the pumping engine with its appliances. When this engine was tested it was found, in a few seconds over four minutes from the time the match was applied to the fuel, water was flowing from the nozzle at the end of three hundred feet of hose, Having viewed this, Mr. McGowan at once foresaw the revolution which the application of steam would make in fire machinery, and he advised his employers to change their business. which they did as soon as possible. Later the firm of Nelson Newman & Co. sold out to Moss & Bicker, who afterward dissolved. Mr. McGowan was also connected with this company, as they were manufacturing under patents upon which he received a royalty. He was later superintendent for Winchell & Bro., and finally for Charles C. Winchell & Co., but continued to control his own patents, which were advertised as the John H. McGowan Pumps and Machinery. In 1862 Mr. McGowan formed a partnership with his brother, T. J. McGowan, who is now in charge of the branch house of the company at Richmond, Va. This partnership was dissolved in 1870, and Mr. McGowan continued the business alone until 1881, when the present company was incorporated. The concern has always manufactured chiefly Mr. McGowan's inventions, which extend to all kinds of pumping and plug tobacco manufacturing machinery. As early as 1852 he received a medal from the Ohio Mechanics' Institute for the best force and lift pumps. In 1855 they built the machinery fur pumping the foundation and for cutting the timber for what is now Fort Jackson, near New Orleans, La., and during the war built extensively for the government. The whole civilized world has looked upon Cincinnati, Ohio, as the cradle of steam fire apparatus, and it is unquestionably one of the greatest centers of pumping machinery in the world, which is largely due to the ingenuity and business energy of John H. McGowan.

Mr. McGowan is truly a self made man, due to his own perseverance and integrity, and no employer of labor has ever treated his men with more consideration and fairness. No better proof of this is needed when it can be said that during his whole business career he ,has not failed to remember his employes with a substantial

824 - HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY,

present at the close of each year. He always manages to keep his business upon a sound financial basis. During his lone term of business, although he passed through some of the most severe panics in the history of our country, he never had his paper go to protest. The business pays a large annual dividend, and is steadily growing. Four tinges within the last ten years has it outgrown its quarters. The territory over which they operate includes the entire world, consequently Mr. McGowan can truly say that, the sun never sets on his machinery. In 1868 Mr. McGowan made an extended tour of Europe, visiting, among other places, the island of Iona. He has also traveled all through Canada, In the winter of 1885-86, accompanied by his son, Robert B., he traveled through Mexico and along the Pacific coast of the United States and British Columbia, accomplishing the feat of visiting the Yosemite Valley in the dead of winter. Mr. McGowan was married June 27, 1855, to Miss Mary Ellen, daughter of James Green, of Cincinnati, who formerly lived in Virginia, his native State, but being opposed to slavery, liberated his own slaves and came north. Mr. and Mrs. McGowan have had born to them eleven children, seven of whom are living: Mrs. Clara Reiter, Mrs. Florence Mittelstaedt, Robert Bruce, Mary Ellen, Bertha Eleanor, Ida Martha, and John Harry. Robert Bruce is engaged in business with his father, and is vice-president of the company. The deceased members of the family are John Webster, Nelly Cora, William Wallace, and George Albert, who was engaged in business with his father, but met, his death August 18, 1880, by drowning, while on a visit to other members of the family who were summering at Lake Chautauqua. He was in his twenty-first year, a splendid specimen of manhood, and the loss was a very sad one. When the news reached his father he was nearly overcome. and even yet is deeply torched when he recalls the loss of his eldest son. Mr. McGowan and family worship at the Methodist Episcopal Church and reside at Pleasant Ridge, Ohio. He is a member of the Caledonian Society of Cincinnati, was formerly a Whig in his political views and is now a Republican.

WALTER LAIDLAW, vice-president and general manager of the Laidlaw-Dunn Gordon Company, manufacturers of steam pumping and hydraulic machinery, and brother of the president of that company, was born in Galashiels, Selkirkshire, Scotland, March 21, 1847. He received his early education in the public schools of his native country, and at the age of fifteen years commenced an apprenticeship to the machinist's trade in Innerleithen, Scotland. He finished his apprenticeship at the age of twenty, and soon afterward entered the employ of Caird & Co., ship-builders, Greenock, Scotland, where he worked about two years building marine engines. Bong desirous of gaining a larger experience, he went to London, and entered the employ of the old and well-known engineering firm of Robert Moreland & Son, and after being there a short time accepted a position in the English Lighthouse Department, where for a few years he was chiefly employed in the superintendence and construction of work around the English coast. erecting lighthouses, electric light plants and gas works in connection with the lighthouses. He assisted Prof. Tyndall in a long series of experiments on fog signals for the protection of the shipping trade around the British coasts, which experiments resulted in the adoption of the Steam Siren, presented to the department by the United States government. He erected the first dynamo electric machines used for lighthouse illumination, at the Lizard lighthouses in 1877, together with the other machinery at that station, and had charge of the station for about two years when he was promoted to the position of engineer in charge of experiments at, Trinity House, Tower Hill, London. the headquarters of the English Lighthouse Department, which position he held for about two years. After serving ten years in the Lighthouse Department. he resigned his position to come to this country, arriving in Ma_y, 1881, and shortly afterward entered the employ of the John H. McGowan Co., as a machinist, but, soon after was promoted to draughtsman. A few months later he accepted the position of draughtsman with the Lane & Bodley Co., in whose employ he remained about two years,

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY. - 825

when he accepted a position to make the plans for the new and extensive works of Procter & Gamble, at Ivorydale, the result of this work being the production of one of the finest and most complete plants in this country, and it will be a lasting monument of his skill as a constructing engineer. When the works of Procter & Gamble were nearly completed, he, with his brother Robert Laidlaw, and John W. Dunn, organized the Laidlaw & Dunn Company, now the Laidlaw-Dunn-Gordon Company, a concern well known for its prosperity and rapid growth.

Mr. Laidlaw was married June 18, 1878, to Miss Jane Ewart. of Stobo, Scotland, and by this union he has one child. Robert Euman Laidlaw. Mr. and Mrs. Laidlaw are members of the Bond Hill Presbyterian Church. He is a Royal Arch Mason; vice president of the Ohio Mechanics Institute; chairman of the Industrial and Art Schools, and was formerly instructor of this department. He is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and a member of the Engineers' Club of Cincinnati. In his political views he is a Republican. He has been twice mayor of Bond hill, president of the board of health, president of the school board, and member of council.

ROBERT LAIDLAW, president of the Laidlaw-Dunn-Gordon Company, manufacturers of steams pumping machinery, was born in Innerleithen, thirty miles south of Edinburgh, Peebleshire, Scotland, :March 22, 1849, and is a son of Robert and Janet (Euman) Laidlaw, both of whom are still living in their native country. Of their children, the following survive: Walter; Robert; Elizabeth, now Mrs. James Campbell. of Scotland; Isabella, now Mrs. William Russell, of Scotland; Helen, now Mrs. William Beveredge, of Scotland. and Henry, who is a traveling salesman for the above named company.

Our subject received his education in his native country, but left school at the age of eleven years to work in a woolen-mill, and afterward with his father who was in that line of business. At the age of twenty-two he was general manager of a large woolen-mill. but in 1875, haying decided to seek his fortune in the New World, he emigrated to the United States, locating in Cincinnati, where he found employment in the office of John H. McGowan as shipping clerk. after one year being admitted as a partner. When the John H. McGowan Company was incorporated in 1881, he became secretary and treasurer of the new company. In 1887 he organized the present company of winch he has since been president. One very conclusive proof of the prosperity of this company is the fact that the number of their employes has increased from ten men in 1887 to over three hundred in 1893. Their machinery is fully abreast of the progress of invention, and is of the best material and workmanship. The territory over which they operate, and into which they are daily shipping their machinery, includes the whole world. Many large shipments having been made to Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, and all parts of Great Britain.

Mr. Laidlaw was married December 29, 1871 to Miss Bessie. daughter of Joseph and Margaret (Paton) McDougall. all natives of Edinburgh. He and his wife are members of the First Presbyterian Church of Walnut Hills, of which he is an elder. Re is also interested in the Calvary Presbyterian Church. which was built and equipped by Thomas McDougall. He is a director of the Young Men's Christian Association. and was a member of the committee who built the present excellent structure. He is treasurer of the John D, Coffman Mission, and of the City Evangelization of the Presbytery of Cincinnati. In 1892 the Ohio Mechanics' Institute appointed hire a member of the World's Fair Committee, and in the same year he was appointed by the Chamber of Commerce a member of the smoke committee. He has taken an active interest in the Republican party, and is a member of the Lincoln Club; but close attention to business, to which may be largely attributed his high degree of success, has prevented him from accepting any political honors from his party.

826 - HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY.

JOHN WESLEY DUNN, secretary and treasurer of the Laidlaw & Dunn Manufacturing Company, was born in Lockland. Ohio, March 23, 1854, and is the son of Elnathan and Nancy (Friend) Dunn. Charles Howard Friend was born in Virginia, July 5, 1789, and died in Lockland, Ohio, January 23, 1808. His wife, Elizabeth Scratch, was born in Gosfield, Canada, July 25, 1793, and died in Lockland, Ohio, July 7, 1853. They were married in her native place May 31, 1809. and had nine children, of whom Nancy was the eighth. She was born in Beavertown, Penn., November 15, 1221, and died in Lockland, Jane 25. 1892. Elnathan was born in Lockland, Ohio, flay 17, 1815, and died September 7, 1870. Elnathan Dunn and Mary Friend were married September 6, 1838, and the issue of this marriage was children as follows: Andrew H., of Springfield, Ohio; George F., in Detroit. Mich. ; Silas S.; John Wesley; Sarah E. (Mrs. Alexander Wigle) and Emeline A. L.

Our subject was educated in the public schools of his native town, and then for twelve years was employed in a paper mill. In 1882 he engaged with the John H. McGowan Company as traveling salesman, he also having some stock in the company, and in 1587, in joint action with Robert Laidlaw, organized the present company, Mr. Dunn being secretary and treasurer. Mr- Dunn was married October 14, 1880, to Miss Fannie, daughter of G- G. and Mary (Bachelor) Palmer, of Lockland. They have live children: Mary, Harry A., Elsie, Robert, and Bessie. Mr. and Mrs. Dunn are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Lockland, in which town they reside. He is a 32° Mason; a Republican in his political views, and has served two terms as president of the Lockland board of education.

SANFORD S. HOLBROOK, lumber dealer, was born in Windham county, Vermont, February 4, 1829, the youngest son of Freeman and Sylva (Smith) Holbrook. His father, who was also a native of Vermont was born May 8, 1785, and died July 29, 1843, in the fifty-eighth year of his age. He was a farmer and live stock denier. which occupation he followed successfully during his residence in Vermont. In the summer of 1829 he removed with his family to Waterborough, N. Y., where he engaged in the manufacture and sale of lumber, for a time in partnership, and then on his own resources, until within about two years of his death. His wife, Sylva, was also a native of Vermont, born August 14, 1786, and, in the faith of the Baptist Church, died March 20, 1870. at the home of her son, Sanford S., in Columbia. She attained a much greater age than her husband, being in her eighty-fourth year at the time of her decease, having outlived him twenty-seven years. They were the parents of ten children, five of whom died in infancy. Those who grew to maturity were: Clesta, born October 9, 1808, died January 7, 1860; Laura Ann F.. born October 20, 1818, died January 1, 1848; Galutia F.. born March 10, 1822, died September 24, 1841; Wales F., born February 7, 1827, resides in New York, and Sanford S., the subject of this sketch.

Sanford S. Holbrook received his literary education in the schools of Poland, N. V., and his business education in Jamestown, same State. At the early age of fourteen he went to clerking in a general store, where he remained a number of years. In 1852, at the age of 23, being imbued with the laudable ambition of achieving something higher in life, he turned his face westward, finally landing in the glorious land of California, whither so many young men were bending their steps at that time. After working successfully for four years in the gold mines, he gathered together his savings, and returned to Jamestown. In December 1856, he bought an interest in a sawmill and valuable timber lands in Forest, county, Penn., where, with two others, he entered into the manufacture of lumber, the title of the firm being Allen, Morris & Holbrook. Sometime afterward Morris sold his interest, to Allen and Grandin, and the firm did business until 1864, when Mr. Holbrook purchased the equal shares of Dascum Allen, and Allen & Grandin, and one year later he sold his entire interests in this Pennsylvania property. In the fall of 1866 he came to Cincinnati, and in 1867 engaged in the lumber business. In a short time

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY. - 827

thereafter. in the same year, T. D. Collins was admitted to a full partnership, and this firm also purchased the mill and timber lands formerly owned by Allen, Morris & Holbrook. They continued to conduct these enterprises in Cincinnati and Pennsylvania until 1879, when Mr. Holbrook sold the mills and lands to Mr. Collins. Mr. Holbrook, however, continued to sell lumber at Columbia until 1885, when he abandoned that and gave his attention to cultivating a fine farm in Spencer township, which he had purchased in 1866 and which he still owns. In 1890 he bought his present mill on Eastern avenue, which was erected about 1880 by James Mack. It is a well-equipped circular-saw mill, having a capacity of six million feet per year. Mr. Holbrook manufactures, principally, oak and poplar lumber, and gives employment to from twenty. six to thirty men. Mr. Holbrook was married December 23, 1868, to Florence E., daughter of Samuel Phillips, of Cincinnati, and the union has been blessed with four children: Wales H., Walter Leroy, Sylva Grace, and Freeman C., all of whom reside with their parents. Samuel Phillips, the father of Mrs. Holbrook, removed to Cincinnati about 1860, and engaged in the lumber trade with his brother, Asa Phillips. Some three years later he died.

Mr. Holbrook is a member of the Masonic Order; politically, he is a Republican. He is the artificer of his own fortune, his success in life having been achieved by industry. economy and frugal dealing, and a strict adherence to the principles of the golden rule. Socially, he is a gentleman highly respected by all who know him. He has always given his means and influence to everything tending to build up the community in which he has so long resided.

HENRY THOMAS OGDEN. superintendent of the printing; department of the Robert Clarke Company, was born March 31, 1824, near Augusta. Bracken Co., Ky.. a son of Henry Ogden and Lucy C. (Metcalfe) Ogden, by birth of Maryland and Virginia, respectively.

Our subject received his education at Lexington, Ky., and here at an early age began to learn the printing business in the office of Finnell &, Zimmermann, publishers of a semi-weekly newspaper known as the Observer and Reporter, one of the early publications of that commonwealth. In 1841-42 he was engaged as a compositor in Louisville and Cincinnati, and in 1843 was associated with Basil Cruikshank in the publication, at Maysville. Ky., of a Democratic campaign sheet, The Spirit of '44. In 1845-46 he was variously employed in Missouri, and in June of the latter year, at the beginning of the Mexican war, he enlisted in the First Regiment of Missouri Volunteers, during this service being promoted to a lieutenancy. In 1848 he returned to Cincinnati, and engaged in the printing business with that veteran printer of Cincinnati. Ephraim Morgan: for some years he operated a printing office of his own, and was for a time identified with the Elm Street Printing Company. In 1868 he accepted the superintendency of the printing department of the Robert Clarke Company, in which capacity he has since been employed. For nearly thirty years Henry T. Ogden has been a most earnest and active advocate of temperance, giving freely of his means and devoting much of his time to advancing the interests of that cause. Up to 1883, he was a zealous Democrat. but in that year renounced his allegiance to that party. becoming identified with the Prohibition party. He has been tendered various nominations by the Labor and Prohibition parties, having been upon the ticket of the former for mayor of Cincinnati, and member of Congress from the Second District, and upon the latter for member of Congress and lieutenant-governor of the State. In November, 1850, Mr. Ogden was married in Cincinnati to Nancy. daughter of Britton and Susan Ross, who were among the pioneers of the city. Of the children born of this marriage three survive, viz.: Harry Martin Ogden, of the Cincinnati Enguirer, William Britton Ogden, a merchant of Milford, Ky., and Mrs. Lutie Ogden Tingly, wife of Edward P. Tingly, bookkeeper for the Citizens National Bank of Cincinnati.

828 - HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY.

Both of Mr. Ogden's sons have been actively identified with the Labor party, the latter having, in 1892, been its candidate for Congress from Campbell county, Kentucky.

JOHN OMWAKE, treasurer of The United States Printing Company, and manager of the playing-card branch of their business, factories on Eggleston avenue and Fifth, Sixth and Lock streets, was born in Pennsylvania in 1855, a son of Henry and Eveline (Beaver) Omwake, both of American nationality and residents of Pennsylvania.

John Omwake was educated in the public schools of Pennsylvania. In 1889 he was married to Carrie A, Brough, daughter of Governor John Brough and Caroline A. (Nelson) Brough, all of American ancestry. One daughter, Evelyn Brough Omwake, blessed this union. Mrs. Omwake died in the summer of 1893. Mr. Omwake is a member of the Presbyterian Church, and is a Republican in his political views.

JAMES E. MOONEY, president of the American Oak Leather Company, and the Cincinnati Coffin Company, was born in Shelby county. Indiana, May 4, 1882. son of Edmund and Mary (Nicholson) Mooney, of North of Ireland ancestry on the paternal side. His father was born in Fayette county, Penn., and in his youth he migrated to Kentucky where he served an apprenticeship to the tanner's trade. His wife, Mary (Nicholson), a lady of Welsh descent., was born in Culpeper county, Va-, and soon after their marriage, in 1818, they removed to the wilderness of Indiana. locating near the present site of Waldron, Shelby county. About 1838 they located in Shelbyville. where the education of our subject was begun, and continued for live nears in the seminary there, when it. was interrupted by the last- removal of the family to Edinburgh. Johnson Co., same State, where it was resumed and continued about two years with such facilities as the schools of the vicinity afforded, The sharp struggle for the comforts of life, at that time in a new and undeveloped country, rendered it necessary that the children by their services should become healthful contributors to the family welfare, at as early an age as possible: hence, in this case the young man's studies were continued in the shop, store, office and factory, as time and opportunity permitted. About the age of twelve he became an assistant in the sale of leather, harness and saddlery manufactured by his father and older brothers. and in keeping the accounts, also as an apprentice in the harness department, for a year or more. His preference for a commercial career receiving consideration, he became clerk in a neighboring general store, the proprietor of which was a well-trained methodical merchant of high character and sound business principles, which largely contributed to the development and proper direction of such abilities as nature endowed him with. In 1849, soon after the first, railroad in Indiana (the Madison & Indianapolis) was completed, he secured employment in the first exclusively wholesale store established in the latter city; and, notwithstanding his youth, he advanced in position, being; detailed for lengthy collection winter tours on horseback, the only available means of communication through the western portion of the State., then a comparative wilderness. From 1851 to 1853 he held the responsible position of accountant and cashier with an important pork packing establishment at Madison, Indiana. In the autumn of 1853, with his first employer as non-resident partner, and with savings from a salary then small compared with the present day for similar services, as his contribution to the capital, he established a general store at Edinburgh, Indiana. The firm had a prosperous career of five years. At, the beginning of 1858, he returned to the leather business destined to form a large portion of his future notable career, by purchasing his father's interest, in the tannery establishment, and with his elder brother forming the firm of W. W. & J. E. Money, which soon after built an extensive tannery at Columbus, Indiana. The firm continued fifteen years, and on his retiring from it he was succeeded by his nephews. Later in the same year (1858) be established the

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY. - 829

firm of Mooney & Company at Indianapolis, as wholesale leather dealers, in which his interest continued for about thirty years. he making that city his house a portion of the time. In 1866, he organized a successful leather arid jobbing business at Louisville, Ky., from which he retired five years later to give attention to the large leather manufacturing interest which he had in the meantime organized there; he continued the chief stockholder, and exclusive officer of the Ohio Falls Oak Leather Company, which has recently greatly enlarged its works. His first investment in this city was recognized through a subscription to the capital stock of the Mount Adams & Eden Park Inclined Railway Company, organized in 1872. Previous to that time, during his occasional visits to the city, he had observed that the trend of improvement and population was to the west and northwest, into Mill creek valley, while the territory north and northeast, magnified in its extent and natural beauty, was, on account of its inaccessibility by cheap and quick transit facilities, comparatively neglected. He there readily responded to the solicitations of a friend to become interested in the proposed enterprise, not expecting to give it personal attention. The intervention of the panic of 1873, however, changed these calculations, and it became necessary that he should give it much personal attention during several years, and largely increase his investment in fully developing and carrying the system to a practical success, safely reached in the spring of 1880. His frequent visits to the city, during the period covered by the development of the railroad enterprise, led, in 1876, to an investment in the Cincinnati Coffin Company, then a new and comparatively weak corporation which has since greatly enlarged its business and capital, and now furnishes employment to several hundred operatives, In 1880, he organized, and has continued the chief stockholder and executive officer in, the American Oak Leather Company of Cincinnati, and during that year its extensive works were constructed on two and one-half blocks bounded by clean and Dalton avenues, and Kenner and Flint streets, Notwithstanding omits disastrous experience with two destructive floods and the destruction of its works twice by fire, the company has achieved success, and furnished employment to over five hundred men. The products are sold through its branches located in Boston, Chicago, St. Louis, and No. 144 Main street, Cincinnati.

The career of such a mail as Mr. Mooney exemplifies the possibility of our progressive country, aids to build up its industries, and serves as a useful lesson to the rising generation. To succeed was to apply ambition of a worthy kind, perseverance, and all the honorable qualities which go to make up the really first-class business man. While giving close attention to his private business, he has not been unmindful of public interests, and he has come to be regarded by his fellow citizens as eminently public-spirited and helpful. He has brought to bear on every important interest. which he has directed or assisted, a broad-minded and comprehensive influence which has marked him as one of the progressive men of his time,

JULIUS ENGELKE, a native of Germany, born in the Province of Hannover. August 9, 1834. was the youngest of four sons born to Henry and Henrietta (Koch) Engelhe. They were natives of Herzberg, a manufacturing town situated at. the. foot of the Hartz Mountains, where the father for many years followed the vocation of gunsmith, until his death, which occurred in June, 1834; here, also, the mother died in June, 1842. Of our subject's brothers, Frederick (the eldest) is at present one of the leading bakers of Cincinnati, located on Central avenue; Charles died in Germany, and William is a prominent farmer near Ghent, Kentucky.

Our subject received a good education in the common schools of his native town, and when fourteen years of age was apprenticed to his uncle in Herzberg, to learn the trade of harness making. Here he remained five years, at the end of which time he came to this country, arriving in Cincinnati just forty years ago. Here he began working at his trade, and continued until March, 1863, when he began the harness business for himself on Vine street, near Fifteenth, remaining at this loca-

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tion twenty years. He then removed to Main street, continuing in the same business until in August, 1891, when he removed to the southeast corner of Sixth and plain streets, where the Engelke Saddlery' Company is at present located. On October 17, 1857, he was married to Charlotte Ehrhardt, a native of Germany, by whom he had twelve children, five Of whom are living: Frederick, at present foreman in his father's factory; Augusta, who resides with her parents; Henrietta, the wife of Henry Morrison, residing on Mt. Auburn; Minnie, also living at home, and William, bookkeeper in his father's Office. Mr. Engelke is a consistent member of the Protestant Lutheran Church; politically, he is a Republican, and at present is register of elections. He hay been a member of the German Turners Society for thirty-five years and is now its president; was one of the founders of the Turners' Building Association, and has for twenty years been One of its officers. In 1858 he became a member of the I. O. O. F., and in 1885 united with the Masonic fraternity. In 1873 he was elected a member of the common council of Cincinnati, and served with credit till 1881; was a member of the " Old lively twos " fire company from 1855 until 1862, In 1864 he enlisted in the One Hundred and Sixty-filth O. V. I., in the one-hundred day service, under Col. Bolander, and served until the close of the war. For a number Of years Mr. Engelke has been identified with the financial interests Of the city, and he is at present a director of the Atlas National Bank. In 1883 he visited his boyhood home in Germany, and traveled many thousand miles viewing the wonders of the Old World. The Engelke Saddlery CO- has grown from small proportions to be an immense concern, and one of the most prosperous in the city.

JOHN PHILLIP THOMPSON, proprietor of the Hilltop Carriage Company, located at Nos. 635 and 637 Gilbert avenue, No. 645 Gilbert avenue, was born at Pontefract, Yorkshire, England, and is the younger of two living children who were born, to James and Catherine (Saul) Thompson, both natives of England.

The father, who was a hotel keeper, died in 1856; the mother died in 1858. A sister, Mary, wife of Henry Marcum Cooke. resides in St. Louis,

Our subject was educated in the public schools of Yorkshire., and after leaving school went to sea as cabin boy for about one year, He then served seven years at the carriage-making business in York, after which he went to London and for about two years worked tit carriage ornamenting. In 1867 he came, to the United States, arriving in New York, where he joined the United States navy, in which he served five years as ship painter. After being honorably discharged from the navy he went to St. Louis, where be remained about six months, removing from there to Cincinnati. He worked for James Kidney a short tune, afterward, until 1891, was foreman for J. W. Goselin, and in that year entered into partnership with T. J. Orr, whose interest in the business he purchased in 1892. Mr. Thompson was married July 7, 1874, to Annie J., daughter of George and Catherine (Mintchin) Kidney, and to then have been born three children, two of whom, George and Arthur, are yet living. Our subject is a member of the I. O. O. F. and the Knights of Workmen; the family attend the Episcopal Church. Mr. Thompson is recognized as one of the most expert carriage painters in the city. He gives his personal attention to the business, and the quality of the carriages manufactured being of a superior grade, he has succeeded in building up an extensive and rapidly increasing business.

HENRY JOHNSON REEDY, president of the H. J. Reedy Elevator Company, was born in County Tipperary. Ireland, March 22, 1842. His parents carrie to this country during his early childhood, and at the age of twelve years, Henry started out to earn his livelihood, becoming the " devil " in the printing Office Of the Cincinnati Enquirer. He abandoned this employment, however, to learn the trade of carpenter, in which he was engaged, after learning his trade, until his twentieth year, when be established a small factory for the building of hand-power elevators, inventing and patenting the various devices which entered their construction. He conceived the

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY. - 831

idea of a valve for the operation of hydraulic elevators, which he patented, then entered into the manufacture of these elevators on an extensive scale. He next invented and patented a safety device to enter into the construction of steam elevators, the manufacture of which be then added to the business. His latest invention, known as the Climax Steam Passenger Elevator, combines the greatest safety, the smoothest operation, and the highest rate of speed thus far obtainable in elevator construction, and embodying the best features of his own inventions, and a number of valuable devices invented and patented by other experts in the same line of work, and purchased by him. The company is now incorporated under the laws of the State of Ohio.

Mr. Reedy is a Republican, and has held but one office, that of member of the board of aldermen, to which he was returned by a handsome majority from that historic Democratic stronghold, the Fourth Ward. Mr. Reedy introduced the original motion for the building of new City Hall. He has been twice married, his first wife being Mary, daughter of Ennison Shea, a wholesale grocer of Newport. Of the children born of this marriage, four survive. The eldest. Daniel V. Reedy, completed his education at the Notre Dame University, South Bend, Indiana, in 1800, and is now associated with the H. J. Reedy Company; the remaining children are Bertha, Charles and Henry J., Jr. Mrs. Mary (.Shea) Reedy died in 1878, and in 1884 Mr. Reedy married Miss Josephine Burke, daughter of Christopher Burke, of Cincinnati. The living issue of this marriage are: Howard, Henrietta, Laura and Jeannette. The family resides on Harper avenue, Norwood: they are members of St. Xavier's Church.

MICHAEL ANGELO McGUIRE, trunk manufacturer and dealer, was born near Thurles, Ireland, on September 29, 1839. His parents, who were also natives of Ireland, as were their ancestors for many generations, came to this country in 1844, and located at once on Walnut Hills, Cincinnati, where they conducted a dairy.

Our subject received but little schooling, and at twelve years of age was indentured to learn the trunk-manufacturing business with Hise & Williams, remaining with them five years. He was employed in various trunk-making establishments in Cincinnati until the breaking out of the war. On April 25, 1861, he enlisted for three months in the Tenth O. V. I., and re-enlisted in the same regiment June 10, 1861, for three years or during the war. In August. 1862, he was, upon the recommendation of Col. Wm. H. Lytle, promoted, receiving a commission to recruit a company in Cincinnati, which he did, the company so recruited being Company B, assigned to the One Hundred and Eighth O. V. I., of which he was commissioned second lieutenant, and afterward became first lieutenant, then captain. Capt. McGuire was wounded four times during his service, the last time at the battle of Resaca, Ga.. in 1864. When this last wound had partially healed he resumed duty; but the wound proving obstinate, and breaking open no less than five times, he was in November, 1864, compelled to resign. After leaving the service. he was commissioned as brevet major " for gallant and meritorious service at the battle of Resaca." Capt. McGuire has been three times reported dead. In September, 1861, the newspaper accounts of the battle of Carnifex Ferry, Va., contained his name as among the killed, and in 1864 be was named in the official report as one of the dead upon the field of battle at Resaca. In November, 1885, while duck hunting on the Tennessee river near Chattanooga, the boat containing' himself, two companions and a colored boy was overturned. Capt. McGuire, who was the only one of the party who could swim, saved one of his companions, J. L. Shannon, who had been his comrade in the Tenth O. V. I.; the other succeeded in gaining shore, and the colored boy was swept down the stream clinging to the overturned boat.. Capt. McGuire, divesting himself of some of his clothing, succeeded in reaching the boy, and after a protracted struggle effected a landing several miles below, after nightfall, in a thoroughly prostrated condition. Meantime his companions, unable to find any trace of him,

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gave him up for lost, and searched for him the following day. The news of his supposed drowning in an heroic attempt to save another after having saved one life was telegraphed to the press of the country, and thus conveyed to his home. In company with the colored boy, he had found his way to the cabin of a negro family, and there he fell asleep and remained over night.

Capt. McGuire, though deprived of schooling advantages in his youth, has been self-taught to great advantage. He speaks French fluently, and is as conversant with the German language as he is with his own. After the war he embarked in the trunk-manufacturing business, in which he has since been engaged, and he is now the leading custom trunk-manufacturer in the city. He has been frequently urged to become a candidate on his party (Republican) ticket, but has always declined to accept a nomination for political office. He was married July 5, 1865, to Camilla L., daughter of Charles Vogel, an old resident and druggist of Cincinnati, and seven children born of this marriage survive: Horace G. and Camilla, both graduates of Hughes High School, the latter also of the Normal School; Edmund B., Lily, Rosa, Ida and Ella. The family reside on Kirby avenue, Cumminsville. They are members of the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Cumminsville.

BENEDICT HENRY BRUNSWICK, a stockholder and one of the directors of the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company, was born in Cincinnati, February 18, 1860. His father, John Moses Brunswick, was born in Bremgarten, Canton Argau, Switzerland, in 1819, coming to this country when a boy. From the humble employment of an errand boy in New York he rose by dint of indefatigable industry, pluck and enterprise to become the founder of the greatest manufacturing establishment of its kind in the world. The billiard table manufacturing business of this immense concern, which now has great factories in Cincinnati, Chicago, New York, St. Louis and San Francisco, and branch offices and salesrooms in all of the large cities of the United States, was started in Cincinnati, John Moses Brunswick making the first table with his own hands in an upper room of a small house on Main street. He was a public-spirited citizen; served in the State Legislature; as a member of the board of aldermen of Cincinnati, and was sought as candidate for numerous offices within the gift of the people, including that of mayor. He died July 25, 1886. Four daughters and one son born of his marriage survive. The daughters are Hannah, wife of M. Marks, of Cincinnati; Eleanora, wife of M. Bensinger, president of the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company, with headquarters at Chicago; Clara, wife of A. Reis, manager of the Bensinger Cigar Company, of Cincinnati; Eliza, wife of I. S. Deutsch, manager and stockholder of the George W. McAlpin Company, of Cincinnati.

The son, whose name introduces this sketch, attended the public schools and Woodward High School, Cincinnati. He was employed for one year with Reis Bros. & Company, and then became associated with the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company, with which he is still connected. He was married May 24, 1888, to Belle, daughter of Simon Rothschild, of the firm of S. Rothschild & Brother, of New York. Mrs. B. H. Brunswick died October 27, 1893. One child born of this marriage, Jerome M. Brunswick, survives.

WILLIAM HOWE BALDRIDGE, secretary of the Cincinnati Church and School Furniture Company, southeast corner of Fifth and Sycamore streets, Cincinnati, and a popular resident of Norwood Heights, was born at Hamilton, Ohio, March 7, 1867, a son of John Wood and Mary Jane (King) Baldridge, natives of Four Mile Creek, Ohio, and Allegheny, Penn., respectively, and of English and Irish origin. The father began his business career as a druggist at Hamilton; in 1869 he removed to Pittsburgh, Penn., and six years later came to Newport, Ky. There he lived two years, and then moved to Covington, his present residence. He is vice-president of the City Hall Bank of Cincinnati, in which his son, Robert King, is clerk.

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY. - 833

The subject of this sketch was educated at the public schools, Chickering Institute, Cincinnati, and at Butler University, Irvington, Indiana, which he left, just before graduating, to accept a business position as secretary and treasurer of the company with which he has since been connected, and which does an extensive jobbing and retail business. On December 23, 1891, he married Fannie, daughter of A. O. Russell, of Norwood, and they are the parents of one child: John Lakin. While at college, Mr. Baldridge took an active interest in athletics, and was a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. In politics he is a Democrat.

WILLIAM V. PECK:, late of Baldridge and Peck, constituting the Cincinnati Church and School Furniture Company, now manager of the Cincinnati Church Sealing Company, was born at Portsmouth, Ohio, March 9, 1859, son of William V. and Harriet E. (McCollister) Peck, natives of Ohio, and of English and Scotch origin. His father, who was a physician, and served in the army under a special call, died at New Richmond, Ohio, in 1877, at the age of forty-two; his widow still survives. and also their family of nine children: William V. ; Mary A., wife of J. C. Willenbrink, of New Richmond, Ohio; Helen W., wife of John H. Smith, of New York; Maggie S.; Lewis D., of the Snow Flake Laundry, Cincinnati; Paul Summer; Charles Catlin; Ralph; and John Hugh. The family moved to New Richmond, Ohio, in 1861, and there the father died. Our subject attended the public schools of that town, and completed his education at Parker Academy. He began his business career as assistant storekeeper at Kenton Furnace, Kentucky, which position he filled nine months, and was there assistant manager a year and a half. In 1881 he came to Cincinnati, and was in the employ of the Excelsior School Furniture Company six years; afterward junior member of Baldridge & Reis for seven years, and then became general manager of the Cincinnati Church Seating Company. On June 20, 1884, Mr. Peck married Lizzie Stephenson, of Cincinnati, and they are the parents of one child: William V. Mr. Peck is a member of the Royal Arcanum, and a Republican in politics.

WILLIAM A. BENNETT, senior member of the firm of Bennett & Witte, wholesale dealers in poplar lumber, was born in Dover, Mason Co., Ky., January 8, 1854. His father, George W. Bennett, a farmer by occupation, and a native of Vermont, born of English descent, in 1844 located in Mason county, Ky., where he married Matilda Nichols, a resident and native of that county, whose family were Virginians by birth.

The subject of this sketch was the sole issue of this marriage. His early education was acquired in the public schools of Dover, and completed at the Kentucky University. In 1872, he entered the employ of C. W. & L. G. Boyd, leading lumber dealers of Cincinnati, with whom he remained until January, 1884, when be formed the partnership above mentioned with Charles H. Witte, who had been connected with Messrs. Boyd as bookkeeper. The firm transacts an extensive business in the sale of poplar lumber, in which they deal exclusively, buying their lumber in logs in Kentucky and Tennessee, having it sawed at the nearest point to the place of purchase as practicable, and selling throughout the territory bounded by the Alleghany Mountains and the Mississippi river. Mr. Bennett was married December 19, 1879. to Miss Alice E., daughter of J. N. Henry, of New Vienna, Ohio. and two children blessed the union: George W., who died in 1887, and Julia A. The family reside on Chase street., North Side, and attend the Central Christian Church.

ANTHONY VAN AGTHOVEN, barrel manufacturer, was born in Holland in 1822, and came to America in 1848, landing at New Orleans with the intention of taking up his residence in St. Louis, but., being advised to come to Cincinnati, did so, and has made this city his home ever since. He has been engaged in his business for over forty years, formerly where the Southern Railroad Station now stands, but for the past, sixteen years at No. 187 Commerce street., where his main business is now

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located. Our subject was married, in 1854, to Nellie Dow, also a native of Holland, and they have had born to them seven children, four of whom are still living. Mr. Van Agthoven is an expert at his business, and ranks high among our most enter. prising business men.

GEORGE HENSHAW, senior member of the firm G. Henshaw & Sons, extensive manufacturers of furniture, Cincinnati, was born in London, England, July 17, 1805. His education he obtained at one of the boarding schools in the suburbs of his native city, until he was fifteen years old, at which age he was apprenticed to the cabinet-making trade with a prominent manufacturer of London, with whom he thoroughly learned the art of making all kinds of furniture. At the age of twenty-one he married, and started in business for himself in that city, soon establishing a reputation as a first-class business man, and a manufacturer of elegant and substantial goods. In 1843 he sailed with his family for the United States, and located in Edwards county, Ill., intending to follow farming. Unaccustomed to that kind of life, however, he soon found his way to Cincinnati, where a large field for his energy and enterprise awaited him. In this city he commenced the manufacture of furniture, which at that date was nearly all made by hand. His former experience was brought into requisition, and his business grew rapidly, while he himself grew no less rapidly in favor with the public for his excellent personal traits and qualities and business capabilities. Upon the invention of machinery, and the application of steam in the manufacture of furniture, he was among the first to adopt the innovations, and in succeeding years he kept abreast of all such inventions and methods as he deemed an acquisition in the development of his industry. It was not long before he had a large manufacturing establishment, with which was connected an extensive store and salesroom. In this, his chosen vocation, his life was chiefly spent, laboring zealously in behalf of his interests, which was rewarded with great success in a financial point of view, but none the less than by the honorable name and position he acquired among his fellow-citizens; and his name and character will be engraved in the memory of many who knew him as a man of great personal worth, probity of character, and of noble and generous impulses. His career forms an important part in the industrial history of Cincinnati. In 1873 he retired from active business, and spent in a quiet way the remainder of his days at his home on College Hill, a beautiful suburb of Cincinnati, where he died at the age of seventy-seven, leaving a widow, four sons and three daughters. Since then, on October 16, 1883, the wife and partner of his life for fifty-five years entered into her rest. Two of the sons, Edward and George, both men of high character and business standing, continue the business left by their worthy father.

JOHN WILHELM GOLDKAMP, contractor and builder, senior member of the firm of Goldkamp & Son, Madison avenue, Walnut Hills, was born in Osnabruck, Hanover, Germany, May 12, 1835, and is the only surviving one of two children born to J. Frederick and Maria E. (Stoppelkamp) Goldkamp, Mary, the sister, having died in 1858. The father of our subject was born January 17, 1803, and died at Minster, Ohio, in 1862. The mother was born April 17, 1802, died in 1873, and is buried in Calvary Cemetery, Cincinnati; both parents were natives of Hanover, Germany.

Our subject came to the United States with his parents when seventeen years of age, arriving in New Orleans in September, 1852, and Cincinnati January 5, 1853. He had received but a limited education in the common schools of Osnabruck, Hanover, but later on attended night school in Cincinnati. At different periods after his arrival in this country he worked at the cabinet-making business, in railroad car shops, on the Miami canal, and other business. He embarked in the contracting and building business on his own account at East Walnut Hills in 1865. Mr. Goldkamp was married in June, 1857, to Louise Frederiecke (Knemuller), who was born in Prussia, March 2, 1837, and their union has been blessed with twelve children: Anna M. (wife of B. Woste), born March 4, 1858; Louis G., born April 24, 1860, at

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY. - 835

present residing at Hyde Park, this city, and is a partner in his father's business; Louise A. M., born December 21, 1862, died in 1892, was the wife of Frederick Keifel; Amelie C. M., widow of George Schaefer, of Brooklyn, N. Y., was born August 4, 1865; Rosa M., born January 20, 1868, wife of Joseph Ronnebaum, of Cincinnati; Fred. E. William, born January 9, 1870, died in infancy; Carolina J., born January 4, 1871; August J., born April 3, 1873; Albert B., born March 3, 1875: Wilhelmina F., born April 23, 1877; Mary W., born August 15, 1879, died in 1881, and Emilia, born December 16, 1881.

The firm of Goldkamp & Son is among the largest and best known of Cincinnati's contractors and builders. Their business is one of the most extensive in the city, giving employment to some forty or fifty men, and doing a business of more than one hundred thousand dollars a year. Some of the notable buildings erected by them are the Lunatic Asylum at Carthage, the Cincinnati Exposition building, St. Francis de Sales School building, and Sisters of Notre Dame School building, East Walnut Hills. Mr. Goldkamp was for a number of years a trustee of St. Francis de Sales Church, of which he has been treasurer. He is a member of the German Pioneer Society; politically he is a Democrat.

FRANK HELLER, builder and contractor, office and place of business No. 647 Gilbert avenue, residence on Fairview avenue, Walnut Hills. This prominent business man was born in the Province of Alsace, and is the second eldest in a family of five children born to Charles and Madeline (Diss) Heller, both of whom were also natives of Alsace. He was educated in the schools of his native home, and after leaving school worked at the trade of file cutting for about two years, when he was enlisted in the French army, and served during the Franco-Prussian war. He was made a prisoner at New Brissoe, and taken to Germany, where he was kept a prisoner for five months. After being released he returned to his home, and in 1872 immigrated to the United States, arriving in Cincinnati July 19 of that year. He went to work at the carpenter business with his uncle, F. J. Diss, at Avondale, in 1876 going into business for himself, and by his strict integrity, good business qualifications, and constant study of the wants of his patrons, he has made an enviable reputation and gained a trade that is rapidly increasing.

Mr. Heller was married, May 3, 1876, to Mary, daughter of Peter and Elizabeth Lessel, natives of Bavaria, and to them were born four children: Charles, George, Frank and Elsie. The father of our subject died January 9, 1861; the mother died May 26, 1893. The other members of the family are Alphonse, Elenore, Caroline, and George, all of whom are living, and reside in their native home, the Province of Alsace.

ANTHONY STOEHR, senior member of the firm of A. Stoehr & Co., stair builders and wood manufacturers, was born in the southern part of Germany, February 5, 1847, and is the second eldest of a family of six children born to Raymond and Mary (Keminich) Stoehr.

Our subject came to the United States in June, 1867, and after residing some nine months in Cambridge City, Ind., removed to Cincinnati, where he has ever since remained. Up to the year 1873, he worked at the cabinet-making business, and ever since that time has been engaged at stair building. In 1883 he went into business for himself at No. 99 East Eighth street, and removed to his present place of business in 1889. Our subject was married, January 2, 1872, to Julia Rothan, daughter of Joseph and Barbara Rothan, natives of Alsace, and three children have been born to them, as follows: John A., born in 1876; Joseph R., born in 1879, and Julia Augusta, born in 1878. The firm manufactures everything in the line of stair building, and constantly employs from fifteen to twenty men. The career of a business house is the rule and standard by which the public test its general worth. Where the progress of a firm has been uniformly and steadily increasing, under able and efficient management, it necessarily imparts confidence to its patrons, as

836 - HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY.

in the case of the above, who, by making a constant study of how to please, and by turning out good work, has made an enviable reputation and gained a trade that is rapidly increasing. Mr. Stoehr is a member of the German Young Pioneer Society of Cincinnati.

FRANCIS S. ROHAN, stair builder, Charles street., was born in Cincinnati, in May, 1852, and is the youngest of two children born to David and Mary Ann (Stonebraker)^. Rohan. The father of our subject was born in Cork, Ireland, in 1809, and in 1818, when only nine years old, came to the United States with his parents, who settled in Somerset, Perry Co., Ohio. He came to Cincinnati in 1831, and in 1840 engaged in general building, but later on gave his attention entirely to stair building, his place of business being situated on the southwest corner of Fifth and Race Streets, where the Glenn building now stands, afterward on Jackson street, between Canal and Twelfth streets, and still later at No. 372 Elm street. He retired from business in 1878, and was succeeded by his son, Frank S., the subject of our sketch. He died December 9, 1887, and is buried in St. Joseph's Cemetery, Price Hill. The mother of our subject was born in Frederick, Md., and was some eight years the junior of her husband. She was the daughter of Francis and Nancy (Greenwell) Stonebraker; she died in February, 1854, and is buried in the old St. Peter's Cemetery. The brother, Archibald Hamilton, died December 8, 1878, and is also buried in St. Peter's Cemetery. In February, 1858, David Rohan married, for his second wife, Mary Bardsley, a native of Stockport. England, and to this union were born three children: John and Thomas, both dead, and David, still living. The second wife died July 3, 1872. The grandfather of our subject, who was a native of Ireland, died in 1849, having attained the good old age of one hundred and four years; when he was one hundred years old he walked from Wheeling to Cincinnati, refusing to ride on a railway train.

Our subject was married, in August, 1875, to Clara, daughter of David and Mary Jane (Freel) Trovinger, and to them have been born six children: Frank W., born September 11, 1877; Olive E., born February 23, 1882; Louisa Ethel, born June 30, 1884; Arthur Leo, born February 19, 1886; Willard Sylvester, born September 10, 1887, and Lawrence Trovinger, born June 9, 1890. Mr. Rohan received his education in the public schools of Cincinnati. He is a member of the National Union and also of the Catholic Young Men's Institute. Mr. Rohan is an active, progressive business man, and has built up a reputation by his high ability, keen intelligence, and unswerving integrity.

CHARLES MARTINDILL, carpenter and builder, whose business is situated at No. 1514 Eastern avenue, and who resides at No. 44 Tusculum avenue, was born in Vinton county, Ohio, and is the second youngest of six surviving children born to David and Margaret (Murphy) Martindill, of German and Irish nationality, the remaining members of the family being Sophia Jane, wife of John Miller, of Vinton county; Harriet Maria, wife of William West, of Ottawa county, Mo. ; Joseph Austin, residing in Cincinnati; Arthur M., residing in Hamilton, Ohio, and Narcissus, wife of Lafayette Hawkins, of Athens county, Ohio.

Our subject was educated in the public schools of Cincinnati, and ever since the time of his leaving school has worked at the carpenter business. He was married October 19, 1879, to Nancy Ellen, daughter of Samuel B. and Sarah Ann (Myers) Coffinbargar. She died April 2, 1886; their union was blessed with two children, who survive: Nora Ellen and Ennie May. Mr. Martindill is a practical mechanic, thoroughly posted in all the branches of the carpenter business, and although only a little over a year in business for himself, has, by his strict integrity and constant effort to please his patrons, made an enviable reputation and gained a constantly increasing trade. The father of our subject was also a carpenter and builder, and died in Vinton county in 1889. His mother, who still survives, resides with her youngest daughter in Athens county, Ohio. Mr. Martindill is a member in good standing of Spencer Lodge No. 347, I. O. O. F., and politically is a Republican.

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JOHN FEARNLEY, carpenter and builder, a member of the firm of Sievers & Fearnley, contracting wreckers, office and yards situated at the corner of Eighth and Harriet .Streets, was born in Indianapolis, Ind., April 12, 1835, a son of John and Ann Duke Fearnley. He received such education as was obtainable in the schools of that date, and after leaving school learned the carpenter business, which he followed in Indianapolis until his removal to Cincinnati in December, 1869. Since his arrival in this city he has been engaged in the carpenter business, together with manufacturing of different kinds, and of late years has been engaged in the wrecking and removal of old buildings. He was married October 31, 1860 to Caroline, daughter of Royal and Lucia (Huntington) Mayhew, and their union has been blessed with six children, all of whom survive, as follows: Harry S.; Hattie M., a teacher in the public schools of Cincinnati; Blanche E.; Mary; Sarah. and Lawrence. Politically, Mr. Fearnley is a Democrat; he is a member of the I. O. O. F., and he and his family attend the Presbyterian Church.

The parents of our subject were of English and Irish extraction. His father was a butcher by profession. They both passed away in Indianapolis, the father October 31, 1844, and the mother December 16, 1861. They had born to them five children, three of whom still survive, viz, : Priscilla, widow of the late Jacob Smith, residing in Olympia, Oregon; John, our subject, and Mary, widow of the late Stanton J. Batchelor, residing in Pittsburgh.

EDWARD A. WOERZ, wood turner, was born in Cincinnati, September 16, 1859, and is the eldest son of Ignaz and Elizabeth (Knoff) Woerz, natives of Germany, who carne to this country about the year 1850. Ignaz Woerz, the father of our subject, was engaged in wood turning up to the time of his death, in 1891, when our subject, Edward A.. succeeded him in business. Mrs. Elizabeth Woerz. the mother of our subject, is still living, as are also three sisters and one brother, who all reside in Cincinnati. Our subject was married in 1887 to Nellie Bonnell, daughter of Stephen and Bridget Bonnell, and they have had born to them three children, all of whom are living. Mr. Woerz is an active, experienced business man, and furnishes employment to a number of men in his factory, doing all kinds of wood turning for building and other purposes. His factory is situated at the corner of Hunt and Abigail streets.

ARTHUR T. BLENNERHASSETT, wood turner, whose place of business is situated at No. 208 West Pearl street, corner of Plum, was born March 29, 1823, in County Kerry, Ireland, and is the second eldest of eight surviving children who blessed the union of Thomas A. and Susan (Hill) Blennerhassett. He was educated in the common schools of Ireland, receiving only a limited education, such as was afforded by the schools of that day. On the 14th of April, 1852, be left Ireland for the United States, reaching New York on the 26th of May after a very stormy and eventful passage. He remained in New York but a few weeks proceeding thence to Castleton, Rutland Co., Vt.. where he worked for one year at the agricultural implement business; in March, 1853. he removed to Cincinnati, and worked at carpenter work for about a year. In 1854 he was employed by Squire Johns, when his business was situated where the gas house now stands, and worked for him about eighteen months. He afterward engaged with the Royer N. heel Company, and remained in their employ for twenty-eight years, doing all their carriage wood-work business, and has been doing business on his own account for about five years.

Mr. Blennerhassett was married in 1856 to Euphenia, daughter of James and Susan (Slater) Murray, and two children were born to them, Thomas and Susan. The mother of these died, and our subject married, for his second wife, Susan, a sister of the first wife; this union has been blessed by three children., James, Mary and Charles. The parents of our subject were both natives of County Kerry, Ireland, where the father engaged in farming; be lived to the age of eighty-five years; the another attained the age of ninety-Live years before her decease. Mr. Blennerhassett

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was present at the death of his great-grandfather and great-grandmother, who lived to the ripe old ages of one hundred and four and ninety-eight years, respectively. Our subject and family are active members of the Methodist Church, and he is a Republican in his political views.

CHARLES H. WITTY, junior member of the firm of Bennett & Witte, was born at Cincinnati, March 14, 1862, son of Charles and Mary (Borcherding) Witte, natives of Germany who came to Cincinnati in 1846. His father was a builder by trade,. and died in 1882, at the age of fifty-four years. His family numbered seven children, six of whom are living; the two sons are E. R. C., secretary of the William Miller Range and Furnace Company, and Charles H. The last named graduated at Woodward High School, and attended the University of Cincinnati one year. He was bookkeeper for C. W. & S. G. Bond four years, and formed his present partnership with Mr. Bennett in 1884. On September 1, 1887, he married Louise Vosmer, daughter of August and Louise (Henke) Vosmer, natives of Germany, and now residents of Cincinnati, where Mr. Vosmer is president of the Central Furniture Association. Mr. and Mrs. Witte are the parents of two children: Raymond Charles and Russell Bennett. They are members of the Second German Methodist Church, and in politics Mr. Witte is a Republican.

Cincinnati as a Carpet Market-One of America's Largest Distributors of Carpets and Floor Coverings. Near the center of the country's population, in the heart of one of the continent's richest valleys, and, relatively to her peerless tributary mercantile territory, equipped, as the terminus of fifteen different railroad systems, with magnificent railway connections and also with superb canal, river and steamboat facilities, Cincinnati, the "Queen City of the West," towers aloft among the metropolitan commercial cities of the country as one of the largest and foremost distributors of carpetings and all kindred floor coverings upon the American continent. Her annual output in this line reaches far into the millions. Perhaps in no, one other branch of her commerce has she made such gigantic strides of progress in recent years, as in the province of a wholesale jobber of carpetry. Controlling, as she does, through her immediate mill connections, a great part and in many instances the entire output of some of the best and most prominent carpet, rug and oil cloth mills of the country. and directly importing, through her foreign and eastern agencies, hundreds upon hundreds of Oriental carpets, and cargoes upon cargoes of China and Japan straw mattings of every known brand, she proffers directly to the carpet merchants of the South, the West and the entire Southwest, at actual mill and import figures, anything and everything in the way of domestic and foreign wholesale carpeting in unexcelled cosmopolitan variety and assortment of makes, designs and qualities, from the humblest and most inexpensive to the most popular, the finest and the most, costly. The duplicate stocks carried in her carpet warehouses are something enormous. The carloads upon carloads of carpetings that come rolling into her marts from month to month, and particularly during the spring and fall, are one of the wonders of her railroad and transfer circles.

One house alone in this city is noted as the second largest handler in the world of the renowned Tapestry Brussels of the famed Alexander Smith Mills, the greatest Tapestry Brussels mill in the world. Well has the carpet merchant of the South and West come to appreciate that " Westward the star of Empire has taken its coarse " in the American carpet world, and in the light of the substantial advantages presented here at home. he no longer looks to the far distant East as his Mecca for values. The Western jobber has become the monarch of the field once usurped by the jobber of the East, and before his triumphant onward march some of the oldest and most famous carpet houses of Boston, New York and Philadelphia have been compelled to suspend or discontinue the wholesale business. In the battle royal that has waged between the West and the East, no city in this broad Union has taken a more conspicuous and honorable part than has Cincinnati; no city has contributed

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more to the ultimate triumph of the Western jobber, and wherever this commercial conflict has been the hardest and longest, there, in the front of the fray, has been found the white plume of her progress. Guaranteeing actual mill prices that meet any and all competition, she offers to her carpet merchant visitor the closest figures obtainable; presenting, in her highly equipped and thoroughly metropolitan sampling room, stocks unsurpassed in magnitude and quality, she meets his every want; assuring to every southern and western point shorter hauls, prompt shipments and quicker deliveries, she saves him a clean gain of both time and freight; and above and beyond all, as one grand co-operative nearby warehouse for all her tributary territory, carrying the year round whatever the carpet merchant may at any time want, she offers him unequalled opportunities for prompt, accurate and dependable duplicating, obviates his unnecessary heavy buying, and thereby economizes for him his capital, expense, insurance and rent, the most vital elements of his business life. These paramount facts, these priceless advantages, the younger, the newer, the greater Cincinnati has brought clearly into the noon-day light of the western and southern carpet merchant's vision, and great. has been her reward and practically unlimited is her field and her future as a wholesale carpet center. Wherever her steamers ply, wherever her locomotives speed, are found the representatives of her carpet interests. Fearing no rival and defying competition from any quarter, every day sees her becoming a stronger and a stronger factor in the American carpet world; sees her achieving new conquests in the territory already hers, and sees her broadening, extending and unifying that territory. wherever a carpet is made, bought or sold, the names of her wholesale carpet houses are known, and wherever they are known they are synonyms of aggressive progress and spotless integrity. Where a decade ago she stood an infant in the carpet world, she to-day stands a reigning sovereign, and one of the greatest and most highly capitalized industries of the country, the manufacture of carpets, looks to her and depends upon her as the certain dispenser of one of the largest shares of its product. Well may Cincinnati, and well she does, stand by in pride as her wholesale carpet interests say to the country, and in particular to every city, town and hamlet in the entire South, West and Southwest: " We stand by our goods, we stand by our prices, we stand by our character."

LOWRY & GOEBEL, Importers. Wholesale Jobbers and Retailers of Carpets: Founded July, 1881, at No. 118 W. Sixth street, Cincinnati, Ohio; founders, William Lowry (deceased), Justus Goebel; present firm, Justus Goebel. Robert J. Bonser, Arthur Goebel. So rapid has been the growth and rise of the firm whose name is our caption that it could not, if it would, forget the "day of small things," the day when it was but a stripling in the business world of Cincinnati, not to mention the entire country. Thirteen years ago, in one small store room and basement at No. 118 W. Sixth street, it opened its doors to the public and unfurled its banner to the mercantile air. Of its founders, the one, advanced in years, had seen service, acquired experience and achieved a reputation as a merchant; the other, almost twenty years his junior, schooled in the school of necessity, and by nature endowed with the genius of unrest, was eager to work and to strive, and ambitious to rise. The elder admired the younger, and drew him unto himself; the younger looked up to and followed the elder as his exemplar as a merchant and a man. They linked their fortunes, joined their unites, and the house of Lowry & Goebel was born. From that day to this, the business code of the house has been " work," its policy has been "liberality," its history has been "progress," its reward has been " success."

Small indeed was its beginning, but its champions had in them the faith and courage of their cause. Before the opening day, advertising contracts were secured with seven leading English and German dailies, and an uninterrupted conservative and judicious use of the Press has been an abiding characteristic. The initial stock consisted of seventy-nine rolls of ingrain, forty-three rolls of tapestries,

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seventeen rolls of body Brussels, and a proportionately small aggregate of rugs, oil cloths, mattings and curtains. The original invoice book of this stock, the first ledger in the hand of Mr. Lowry, and the day book in that of Mr. Goebel, are to-day cherished as precious mementoes of earlier days. The first patron is still a patron and a warm friend, and the recurring seasons see his return and bear him say in pride that he bought the first carpet, a tapestry, this house sold, and that a better never was bought. Under the impetus of an indefatigable industry the business grew apace, stocks had to be increased, and more spacious quarters became a necessity. March, 1883, saw the removal to the present location, No. 167 Elm street. where three floors were taken and occupied. Though the firm were the first pioneers in a business sense upon this thoroughfare, its patrons followed it and brought with them their friends; and here, under the inspiration of the same characteristic tireless energy and ceaseless effort to please, fortune was kind and trade grew with an accelerated rapidity. In their implicit mutual confidence, in their common determination to succeed at the cost of every toil, vigilance and self-sacrifice, both partners saw but brightness in the future, and but waited for the morrow, hand in hand, to court further success; but fate unfortunately had decreed otherwise, and in November of the same year (1883), Mr. Lowry, after a brief and apparently trifling illness, died, leaving to his younger copartner a business full of promise, but at once full of countless cares and grave responsibilities. All too soon had passed away the elder of these two more than partners-but withal not so soon but that he had left upon the younger the indelible impress of his sterling manhood. Unfavorable were the judgments of some in regard to the prospects of the house under the guidance of the remaining partner-but superficially had they observed and little did they know of the sterner stuff that within him lay. Smooth-faced and youthful looking at the early age of twenty-five, Justus Goebel, a stranger and unknown for the first time, stepped into the marts and mills of the American carpet world as a merchant to buy his stock. Mill owners and proprietors gray in the service placed their hand upon his shoulder, smiled, and told him he looked young. All were kind, some were more than kind. Such men as the elder Higgins, Walter Law, Joseph Wild, and William Judge, saw something more than usual in this young merchant aspirant.; they admired him, they saw the grit in his clear gray eve, they took him by the hand, they encouraged him. Cognizant of the weight of the burden that rested upon him, he applied himself to his business with redoubled energy. By nature endowed with a hardy constitution, and a trained athlete in youth, he drew deeper than ever upon his physical endurance, and unswervingly devoted to the achievement of success every possible hour of the day and night and every available force of body and mind. Sole helmsman of his bark, he set every sail and breasted the storm, and bravely the bark sailed on into the haven of a greater and a swifter prosperity than could have been anticipated even in the brightest moments of the most sanguine expectation. From season to season, from year to year, the business grew and multiplied, new features were added, new store rooms and warehouses, a wholesale cut carpet department, and a wholesale jobbing department, with its quota of travelers, until in July, 1889, Robert J. Bonser, who had already achieved the reputation of being Cincinnati's prince of successful salesmen, severed other mercantile associations, became the associate of Mr. Goebel, devoted himself to the general management of the house, and especially to the development of the wholesale department, and by the herculean work of himself and his corps of travelers upon the road brought the house into national repute as one of the country's foremost wholesale carpet houses.

Two years later, is July, 1891, the present youngest member of the firm, Arthur Goebel, who strikingly resembles his brother, became a copartner, and under his general supervision the retail department of the house, in particular, has enjoyed an unprecedented prosperity. With its final accession the firm seems in its union of

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qualifications complete, and presents a personnel remarkably strong and difficult to duplicate. Though every man is yet young and far this side the prime of life, there is a combination of experience, vigor and intellect seldom found united in one establishment a union highly auspicious of a future as brilliant as has been the remarkably brief but wondrously successful past. The house is to-day one of the greatest importers of China and Japan straw mattings in the West, handling many times more than all others in Cincinnati combined; it is one of the most extensive jobbers of oil cloths, linoleums, cocoa mattings, rugs and curtains west of New York; it is the second largest handler in the world of the celebrated Smith tapestry Brussels; and its ingrain carpet business, twice that of all other houses in this city combined, and representing controlling outputs of several of the country's best mills, constitutes one of the, strongest ingrain accounts in America. Its freight account, which consists of nought but carpetry and drapery, is the second heaviest merchant freight account in the State of Ohio. It to-day occupies sixteen floors at Nos. 165, 167 and 169 Elm street, and six great floors at its Second street warehouses. Its sample rooms for the exhibition of wholesale carpetings are in the acme of perfection with which in a twinkling they show ranges upon ranges of goods, the equal of anything on the continent. Its travelers, numbering front twelve to fourteen, more than are traveled by any other house between Philadelphia and Chicago, and more than any two other Cincinnati carpet houses travel, penetrate every corner of Cincinnati's commercial territory, and, unexcelled in fabrics and invulnerable in price, they go beyond and are ready to meet competition from any point of the compass. Its agencies for the sale of carpetings by sample dot the map of the entire South and West, and reach a grand total of over two thousand. Its annual business exceeds a million and a half. Froth the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the Gulf to the Lakes, it is known as Cincinnati's representative carpet house. Its career is unparalleled in the annals of the American carpet world in the last quarter of a century.

WILLIAM LOWRY, deceased carpet merchant, Cincinnati, Ohio, former residence Covington, Ky., was born in Quincy, Ill., February 28, 1843, son of Joseph A. and Jane (Campbell) Lowry, natives of the North of Ireland. The parents came to America in 1836, were married in Philadelphia in 1838, and migrated at once to Adams county, Ill. The father was a farmer by occupation, and died in 1862; the mother died in 1881, leaving a family of eight children.

William Lowry received his education in the public schools of Quincy, Ill. Owing to the failure of his father's health, he was compelled to leave school at the age of fourteen, from which date he supported himself, and assisted in maintaining his mother and her family. At the age of fifteen he removed to Lexington, Ky., where he entered the carpet store of his maternal uncle, William Campbell. Here he rose rapidly to the position of salesman, and at the age of twenty-one took charge of a carpet store in Peoria. Ill. At the end of the first year, being offered a partnership with his uncle. William Campbell, he returned to Lexington, Ky., and was in the carpet business there until 1870. While here he made his first trip East to purchase goods for their trade. He soon became recognized as one of the most expert buyers in the West, and as a man of superior business qualifications. His health failing, he went to the country and engaged in raising Shorthorn cattle, but, returned to the carpet business in 1877, accepting a position with The John Shillito Company, where he remained until 1879, and where he. first knew his future partner, Justus Goebel, as a stock boy. He then took charge of the carpet department at Alms & Doepke's. In the fall of 1880 he returned to the Shillito Company, and took charge of the wholesale carpet department. In July, 1881, with Justus Goebel, as above stated, he began the carpet business at No. 118 W. Sixth street. Their accommodations soon proving inadequate they in March, 1883, removed to No. 167 Elm street, where, with his business, to which he gave his every power, upon the threshold of a magnificent career, he took sick and retired to his home in Covington

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where, after a short illness, he passed away November 14, 1883, Cincinnati losing in his death one of her most enterprising business men, and the community deprived of one of its best citizens. In personal appearance Mr. Lowry was of medium height, having a rather heavily framed figure; of lofty expansive brow and dark hair; of well rounded mobile features, heavily bearded face, and dark sparkling eyes. Well-read, genial in temperament, calm and affable in address, giving the impression of much reserve force, he was the typical active merchant. He was married to Miss Margaret, daughter of William H. and Elizabeth (Leslie) McCabe, and to this union were born six children, four of whom are living: Margaret, married to George Beers, a professor of Yale Law School; Elizabeth, residing with her mother; William, who bears a strong likeness to his father, and is connected with the house of Lowry & Goebel. and John, a student. Mr. Lowry was a Presbyterian in religion, and in politics a Democrat.

JUSTUS GOEBEL, the present senior member of the firm of Lowry & Goebel, was born on a farm in Luzerne county, Penn., July 21, 1858, He is the second of four children born to William and Augusta Goebel, natives of Goettingen, Germany. In 1853 his parents came to the United States, and located in Pennsylvania. The father was a carpenter by occupation, and in 1866 migrated west, settling in Covington, Ky., where he became connected with the Kentucky Central railroad shops. After about three years he embarked in the hotel business in Covington, continuing this line until his death, which occurred in October, 1877. He was a man of strong character and much practical benevolence, and his wide popularity redounded ill after years in no small degree to the benefit of his children. The mother, a woman of most lovable and noble character, died in July, 1880. Their children were as follows: William, residing in Covington, a prominent attorney with the most remunerative practice in northern Kentucky, one of the most conspicuous figures in her late Constitutional Convention, and the present State Senator from the Covington District; Justus; Minnie; and Arthur, junior member of the firm.

Our subject attended the public schools of Covington, and assisted in the hotel business until the death of his father. Subsequently he was employed by Culbertson & Company, of Covington, as a sawyer in one of their mills for one year and a half. Then, after undergoing many discouragements, he was offered the position of stock-keeper in the carpet department, of The John Shillito Company, Cincinnati, at a salary of four dollars a week. He accepted it; at the end of two months he was made a salesman, and his salary doubled. Here it was he first, met William Lowry, and in January, 1879, following him, he engaged with the Alms & Doepke Company, remaining with them about one year. Shortly after the death of his mother he entered the employ of T. M. Snowden & Company, East Fourth street, Cincinnati, as one of their salesmen. Next, in July, 1881, came the formation of the partnership with William Lowry, and the launching of their Own small enterprise that was to become the great representative wholesale and retail carpet house of the present. The life, the work, the character of Justus Goebel, are found in the history of the house of Lowry & Goebel from that day to this. Its cares have been his toils, its progress has been his success. Mr. Goebel was married in August, 1886, to Miss Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Reynolds (deceased) and Elizabeth Reynolds, of Cincinnati. Mr. Reynolds was the proprietor of The Stone Lake Ice Company, one of the most extensive ice plants in Cincinnati. Mr. Goebel is at present a director in the company, and its president. Three children have blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Goebel: William Arthur, aged six years; Lillie, aged four years, and Justus, aged two years. In appearance Mr. Goebel is of medium stature and of wiry, athletic frame. Smooth-faced and with deep, keen gray eyes, he wears in repose the cast of thought and rugged strength, but in personal contact kindles into inviting smiles and genial affability. With the calm conservatism of responsibility, he yet appears in many ways even younger than he is. In 1890 he was a

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director of the Mercantile Library, being at the time the youngest man ever elected to the Office. The same year he became a Mason, has taken the thirty-second degree Of that Order, and is a member of Willis Chapter and Trinity Commandery. In religion he is a Methodist; politically he is liberally inclined.

ROBERT J. BONSER, of the firm of Lowry & Goebel, was born in London, Canada, March 5, 1863, the eldest of four children born to Edward E. and Sarah (Potter) Bonser. The mother, a daughter of Col. Robert Potter, of the English army, was born in the West Indies, while her father was fulfilling his military duties there. The father of our subject came to the United States and in the spring of 1861 settled in Cincinnati, where he followed the vocation of painter and paper hanger. He remained here until 1872, when he established himself in the wall-paper business in Lafayette, Indiana, soon after becoming a member of the firm of Ward & Company, and upon the dissolution of this partnership, returned to Cincinnati in 1877; removed to Topeka, Kans., in 1884-; to Tacoma, Wash., in 1888, and recently settled again in Cincinnati, where he at present resides.

Our subject received his education in the public schools of Cincinnati. In 1879 he entered the employ of C. R. Mabley as a salesman in the collar and cuff department, from which he was soon transferred to the men's wearing department, and then to the men's clothing department, where he remained nine years, and by his inherent merit and exceptionally effective work made himself its foremost salesman, and finally its manager. Already the remarkable qualifications with which nature had endowed hint had appeared in forcible manifestation. He was a born salesman, and peerless and unrivalled, he was acknowledged to be the prime minister of the salesman's art in the mercantile world Of Cincinnati. Wherever the abilities of salesmanship were appreciated, he was known and sought after. On July 6, 1889, he permanently associated himself with Mr. Justus Goebel, and purchased a partnership interest in the wholesale and retail carpet business of Lowry & Goebel. Though he had never handled a carpet, and though he had but a fortnight to educate himself in the mysteries Of his newly-chosen vocation, his genius did not forsake him, and he donned his armor, took the road the same month, and achieved instant success, From that day he has been a gladiator in the active field. The marvellous progress the house has made is in no small measure due to the force of his character and the might of his work. Powerful in frame, leonine in appearance, magnetic in presence, and with piercing dark eyes, he is to-day the acknowledged monarch of American carpet road men. Mr. Bonser was married March 5, 1884, to Miss Ella, daughter of Philip and Mary Metzger, of Cincinnati, and to this union have been born two children; Horace, aged seven, and Isabella, aged five years. He has been a member of the Knights of Pythias eight years, became a Mason in 1890, has taken the thirty-second degree of that Order, and belongs to the Willis Chapter and Trinity Commandery. In religion he is a Presbyterian, in politics a Republican,

ARTHUR GOEBEL, of the firm of Lowry & Goebel, was born March 22, 1863. at Carbondale, Luzerne CO., Penn., in an humble cabin, son of William and Augusta Goebel. With his parents he removed at the age of three years to Covington, Ky. Here he received a primary-school education, and generally stood at or near the head of his classes. In 1875 he entered the Hughes High School in Cincinnati, from which, preeminent as a writer, he graduated with high honor, and with the rank of second in scholarship, in 1882. He then entered the Academic Department of Yale University, New Haven, Conn. While at Yale, he was a member of his class crew, a member of the Phi Beta Kappa scholarship fraternity, and was the only man in his class of 153 men who was a successful competitive writer for participation in every public college oratorical contest during the entire course of four years. In 1886 he was graduated from Yale with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, with high honors as a scholar, and standing in the front rank of the university as a writer, a debater and a,

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speaker. He then matriculated in the Law Department of the University of Virginia, Virginia, where he took the degree of International and Commercial Law in one year, Overwork broke down his health, and he was compelled to abandon his career as a student. At the direction of his physicians he went west, "roughed it." four years, and traveled afoot and on horseback through the Rocky Mountains, the Coast range, the Sierras and the Cordilleras, spending most of his time in Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona, and acquiring, during this period, interests in ruining property and in coal and timber lands. In July, 1891, with restored health, he returned, at the solicitation of his brother, to Cincinnati, and bought a proprietary interest in the business of Lowry & Goebel. He is the head of the retail department, is the director and author of the firm's advertising, and has in charge the general management of the house. Unmarried and residing in the city near his place of business, he is at his post of duty early and late; an aggressive and persistent worker by nature and acquisition, there is nothing in the routine that is too trifling to receive his supervision and, if need be, his personal attention; thoroughly acquainted with every branch of the business and appreciative of its demands, there are few, if any, of its aspects that escape the penetrating vision of his vigilant observation, and the efficient touch of his comprehensive and progressive direction. The honor, integrity and trustworthiness Of the house-its character-are his highest daily care and the keenest ambition of his business life. Tall and erect, lithe and athletic in figure, direct and candid in speech, decisive, energetic and determined in action, frank in expression, dignified in demeanor and courtly in address, a reader and a student, and with the resultant equipment of his travels and his education at his spontaneous command, he typifies the gentleman, scholar, and successful young merchant, and constitutes a fit complement Of the young but strong triumvirate within whose hands rest the destinies of Lowry & Goebel, the representative wholesale and retail carpet house of Cincinnati, and one of her foremost mercantile institutions.

LEWIS VOIGHT was born in Cincinnati January 7, 1836. His parents, Henry and Margaret (Helmuth) Voight, were natives of Hanover, and in 1833 came to this city, where the former established a transfer and drayage business, which he conducted until his death in 1838. In 1840 his widow married Christopher Stager; both are now deceased.

Lewis Voight attended the public schools until thirteen years of age, when he entered the employ of Irwin & Foster, steamboat agents, attending night school during this period. He was next employed by P. W. Strader, in the Little Miami railroad ticket office, under Major Tillotson, and was then transferred to the charge, as conductor, of the large omnibus known as the "Ben Franklin," In 1852 he began to learn the trade of paper-hanging, and in 1855 became a journeyman. In 1860 he established the Senate Exchange, on Main street,, near Court, and was doing a good business when the Civil war broke out. He sold out, and in June, 1861, enlisted as captain of Company H, Twenty-third Kentucky Volunteer Infantry, and was mustered out in December, 1862, having been compelled to resign on account of rheumatism contracted from exposure during the battle of Perryville. After the battle Of Murfreesboro Capt. Voight's resignation was accepted. During this campaign he was provost marshal at Scottsville and Glasgow, Ky. Returning to Cincinnati in January, 1863, he bought out the paper store of George W. Reed, located on Central avenue, between Longworth and Sixth streets. In 1865 he moved into the Hart building, on the northwest corner of Longworth and Central avenue, and there remained until 1891, when he removed to his present location, Fosdick building, No. 57 West Fourth street. In 1881 he established a wholesale department and warehouse on Seventh street, west of Central avenue. In 1887 he removed his wholesale department to Nos. 258 and 260 West Fourth street, and again removed that branch of his business to the new building erected by the company, Nos. 90,

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92, 94 and 96 John street, below Fourth. In 1879 Mr. Voight took his eldest son, William, into the business, and in 1887 the second son, Elmer C., became identified therewith. The former is now manager of the wholesale, and the latter of the retail, department. In 1890 the Lewis Voight & Sons Company was incorporated under the laws of the State of Ohio, a third son, Lewis, Jr., being one of the company. The concern does the largest jobbing business in the West, is the second largest jobbing house of its kind in the United States, and was the first jobbing house of its kind in Ohio.

Mr. Voight has been an active worker in the Republican party, and was one of the organizers of the Lincoln Club, of which he has been a director and vice-president. He was for six years a member of council; for two years one of the board of aldermen, and for two years a member of the Ohio Legislature. The office has invariably in his case sought the man. When nominated and elected to council be was in New Orleans, and when elected to the board of aldermen, in New York. He is a 32 Mason, a Knight Templar, and a member of the I. O. O. F. Mr. Voight was married, April 28, 1857, to Susannah, daughter of Michael Friedel, a vinegar manufacturer of Cincinnati. Besides the sons named above, there is one child, Florence Gertrude. The family reside at the northwest corner of Kemper lane and Windsor street, Walnut Hills. The eldest son, William, is married to Carrie, youngest daughter of John H. Sandmann, a former partner of the late Herman Lachman; Mr. and Mrs. William Voight have one child, Edith.

JOHN G. FRITSCH, president and treasurer of the Francis Fritsch Manufacturing Company, was born in Cincinnati July 7, 1860, son of Francis and Clara (Roessler) Fritsch, natives, respectively, of Alsace and Bavaria. His father came to America in 1847, and located at New Orleans, where he remained one year, and then worked his way up the river. Upon his arrival at Cincinnati be worked at his trade, that of machinist, for Reynolds, Kite & Tatem (predecessors of the Lane & Bodley Company), two years, and then, in partnership with several others, started a shop at Vine and Mary streets. It passed through several changes of proprietorship, but Mr. Fritsch finally, in 1884, became sole owner. In 1883, having become cramped for room, the present site was purchased from the Dallas, Marsh and Harwood estates. It fronts 100 feet on McMicken street, 190 feet on Stark street, and 200 feet on Dunlap street. The plant is devoted to general foundry and machine work. Brewing machinery receives special attention, and some of the largest breweries in the country have been equipped by this establishment. Mr. Fritsch died October 17, 1884. The management of his estate devolved upon his son, John G., but the expansion of the business was such as to render incorporation desirable, and in 1889 the present company was organized, with John G. Fritsch, president, Otto C. Arens, secretary, and John Brauer, superintendent.

Francis and Clara (Roessler) Fritsch were the parents of five children: Anna, John G., Emma, Frank H., and Joseph L. Frank H. is a draughtsman. and mechanical engineer. Joseph L, graduated at St. Xavier College in 1893. John G. received a public-school education, served a three-years' apprenticeship as machinist, served as bookkeeper in his father's establishment from 1876 to 1884, and since that date, as previously stated, has directed the business. On January 29, 1890, he married. Dora, daughter of Henry Roeck, of Cincinnati. He is a member of the Catholic Church, the B. P. O. E., the Board of Trade, the Republican party, and various social clubs.

JOHN HASKFL GRAY, assistant superintendent at factory of The Cincinnati Dessicating Company, at Gilead Station, Hamilton Co., Ohio, is an old Cincinnati boy. He was born at Marietta, Ohio. March 7, 1856, and removed to Covington, Ky., with his parents at the age of five years. His mother dying one year later, his father and family removed to Cincinnati, where he received his education in the public schools, attending same as far as the A Grade Intermediate school, on Bay-

846 - HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY.

miller street. When not quite fifteen years of age he went to Boston, Mass., and was in the employ of his brother-in-law (Arthur H. Bailey) in the canned goods business, remaining there nearly five years, when he returned to Cincinnati, Ohio, the home of his childhood, On October 26, 1880, he was married to Miss Nellie Johnson, of Ironton, Ohio, at his parents' residence, No. 357 West Seventh street, Cincinnati, by Rev. Mr. Fitch, pastor of the Seventh Congregational Church. For several years he was connected with The Cincinnati Freight Weighing and Inspection Bureau, as weigher and freight inspector under Mr. H. Coupe, and later under Mr. J. A. Gance. He was also deputy city weigher under Mr. William Broadwell and Mr. Harry H. Maddux: For three years previous to his accepting his present position he was in the local cor accountant's office of the C. C. C. & St. L. railway under Mr. J. A. Rothier, when he resigned in 1892 to accept his present position. Mr. Gray has never been discharged from any position, can refer with pride to any of his past employers, and bears a good reputation for honesty, integrity and sobriety. He resides with his family at No. 916 York street, Newport, Ky., and is a member of the First Baptist Church of that city. His family consists of himself and wife and two bright boys, Atherton Lyon, born November 29, 1883, at No. 98 Broadway, Cincinnati, and Frank William, born July 28, 1887, in Lombardy building, Cincinnati. Both are attending the public schools of Newport, Ky. His first child, Harry Walter, was born June 30, 1882, and died August 3, 1882, aged five weeks; he has buried in Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati.

Mr. Gray is a Republican, but never took any active part in politics. He is a son of William Ide Gray, who died in Tullahoma, Tenn., March 7, 1893, of pneumonia, aged seventy-nine years, five months and twenty-five days, and who was well known to the older members of the Seventh Street and Vine Street Congregational Churches of Cincinnati, of which he was a devout member. The following copies of two notices of the death of William Ide Gray speak for themselves. From the Tullahoma Semi-weekly Guardian, Tullahoma, Tenn., March 8, 1893: "Death of W. I. Gray. Mr. W. I. Gray died at his residence in this city at 5 A. M., Tuesday, March 7, 1893, aged seventy-nine years, five months and twenty-five days. He was born in Rhode Island and came west at twenty-five years of age, and started the Marietta (Ohio) Chair Works, to-day the largest in the country. He had led a very active life up to the last, though in ill health for many months. He united with the church at fifteen years of age, and had been an active worker ever since. he leaves a widow, three sons and a daughter. The funeral services, conducted by Revs. L. B. Cheney and J. C. Putnam, took place at the Presbyterian church at 3:30 P. M. yesterday, after which the remains were forwarded to Cincinnati in charge of his son John for burial in Spring Grove Cemetery, which will occur at 4 P. M. this evening, in the presence of his old friends and relatives. Mr. Gray had been a resident here only a few years, but was greatly esteemed as an upright citizen and a conscientious, Christian gentleman, and left the impress of his life and example for good."

From the Christian Observer, Louisville, Ky., Wednesday, March 29,1893: " W. I. Gray, a life and example worthy of notice. William I. Gray, who was an elder in the Tullahoma (Tennessee) Church, died March 7, 1893. in his eightieth year. He was born at Little Compton, R. I., September 15, 1813. He came of the old Puritan stock of which he was never ashamed. At the age of fifteen he was received into the communion of the Congregational Church. He came west at twenty-five. For many years he was an active worker and officer in the old Seventh Street Congregational Church of Cincinnati. In 1885 he removed to Tullahoma, Tenn., and soon thereafter he was elected an elder in the Tullahoma Church. Through a long life he was a faithful and hopeful worker in the church. He did not get too old to attend the night service, prayer meetings and Sunday-school. He lost only two Sundays from the Sunday-school the last two years of his life, when he was confined to his bed. At the time he was stricken he was teacher of the Bible

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY. - 847

class. He was always fond of children, and of course they were no less fond of him. When the church was opened for service `Old Brother Gray' was present, walking quietly up and down the aisles, showing strangers and visitors to seats and furnishing them with hymn books. He loved the Church, he loved God's people, he loved to serve. His wife told me that she had never known him to have a doubt, and they lived together nearly thirty years. Why no doubts? Because he was regularly using the means of grace and serving. This left neither time nor place for doubt. He worshiped God in his own house, was interested in the Church; in the Sunday-school, in the home missions and in foreign missions. That which I wish to emphasize is this: be was faithful, even down to old age, in his attendance upon all the services of the sanctuary. Ordinarily he was there to greet the pastor, to receive the children, to welcome strangers. He was quite feeble during the last five years of his life. For several years he and his wife lived alone, but when she was too feeble to go to church be did not find it necessary to stay at home with her. If the night was dark and stormy he would pull his cap close over his ears, take his lantern and march off to the services, several blocks distant, and not a very good walk. Can one wonder that he was free from doubt, and that when the end came he said, ' I am ready.' He had faults, of course, but they are buried and will be forgotten, whereas his virtues will live. He was a man of faith, and by it he being dead yet speaketh. A wife, three sons and a daughter survive him, but these ' sorrow not as those who have no hope.' His remains will be taken to Cincinnati for interment." [L. B. Cheney.

John Haskell Gray, the subject of this sketch, is a descendant of the old Puritan stock, and is proud of his ancestry, which be can trace back eight generations, as the following record, mostly copied from his grandfather Gray's Bible, will show. Joseph Church and Col. Benjamin Church (the great Indian warrior) were brothers; no record of birth or death. Joseph Church, 2nd, was son of Joseph Church, 1st; no record of birth or death. Caleb Church (son of Joseph Church, 2nd); no record of birth or death. Capt. Ebenezer (son of Caleb), born January 25, 1725, and Hannah Wood, his wife, born 1734; they were married March 7, 1754. Ebenezer died February 10, 1825, aged one hundred years and four days; his wife died February 3, 1815, aged eighty-four years. Their children were Mary, born December 30, 1754; Joseph, born February 25, 1757; Elizabeth, born May 30, 1761; Joseph, born February 27, 1764; Hannah, born July 18, 1766; Nathaniel, born February 12, 1769; Abagail, born September 30, 1771 ; Sarah, born March 28, 1774; William, born November 24, 1776, An article in the Newport Mercury, of Newport, B. I., February, 1825, says: "Captain Ebenezer Church, of Little Compton, R. L, was on February 5, 1825, one hundred years old, and then in good health, never been confined to his house by sickness but one week, and that in childhood. Mowed his farm eighty-five years in succession, and is now able to mount his horse from the ground. In his ninety-ninth year he caught a mess of bass four miles from his house, and in the last year be went out in a boat and caught a mess of fish. He has a number of children, nearly one hundred grandchildren and some great-grandchildren. He is a descendant of Col. Benjamin Church, the great Indian warrior. Capt. Church sustained through life the character of temperance, regularity and unimpeached integrity."

The children of Samuel Gray and Deborah, his wife, were: Hannah, Faller, John, Simeon, Lydia, Elizabeth, Samuel, Thomas, Jonathan, Joshua L., Nathaniel, Loring and Benjamin. John Gray was born March 20, 1756; Elizabeth Church, his wife, was born May 30, 1761. Their children were: Simeon, born March 3, 1785; Church, born April 13, 1787, married to Sallie Ide on April 5, 1812; Hannah, born March 2, 1788, married to Wright Wilber; Deborah, born September 26, 1791, married Christopher Brown; John, born November 11, 1793; Lydia, born March 19, 1796, married John Shorey; Eliza, born July 22, 1798, married Christopher Brown;

848 - HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY.

Sally. born October 8, 1799; Amasa, born January 8, 1801, married (twice) to Mary and Phoebe Irish; Mariah, born April 27, 1803, married George Bailey; Ira, born June 14, 1805, married Harriet Sukill. Elizabeth Church Gray died May 30, 1847, aged eighty-six years.

Jonathan Ide, born July 4, 1760, married Sarah Ide,, who was born November 25, 1765. Their children were Elpalet and Ezra. William Ide, born April 11, 1765, married Sarah Ide (her second husband). Their children were: Sally Ide, Sally Ide, William and Betsy Ide. Nathaniel Ide, Jr., born August 28, 1774 married Sarah Ide (her third husband), and their child was Betsey Ida. Sarah Ide married three men by the name of Ide, none of whom were related to each other. William Ide died January 22, 1803, aged thirty-seven years, nine months and eleven days. Jonathan Ide at his death was thirty years, four months and sixteen days old. Nathaniel Ide was fifty-three years and twenty-six hays old when he died. Sarah Ide died December 17, 1819, aged fifty-four years and twenty-two days. Church Gray, born April l3, 1787. and his wife, Sally Idle, born October 15, 1794, were married April 5, 1812. Their children were: William Ide Gray, born September 15, 1813, who married Philena Bert Barnaby and Jennie Cunningham; Sally Ann, born November 26, 1814, married to J. W. Stanley, of Marietta, Ohio: Church Gray, Jr., born June 26, 1816, married to Ann Emily Allyn, of Seekonk, Mass. ; Samuel Gray. born February 18, 1818, married to Angeline Moore, of New Orleans, La.; Alvah Gray, born February 4, 1820, who married Elizabeth Bromley and Josephine Perry; Eliza Gray, born October 17, 1821, died August 30, 1829; Abby Maria Gray, born May 20, 1824, married Oliver Chaffee, of Seekonk, Mass.; John Gray, born December 7, 1828, married Mrs. Sarah C. Shepherd, of California; Henry Walter Gray, born July 23, 1832, died March 15, 1834.

William Idle Gray and Philena Bert Barnaby were married at Dighton, Mass., September 5, 1838. Their children were: Annie Church, born September 5, 1839, at Fearing, Ohio, died August 17, 1840, aged eleven months and eighteen days; Henry Walter, born September 23, 1846, at Coolville, Ohio; Ellen Elma, born April 10,1850, married Arthur H. Bailey, of Boston, Mass., died February 9,1874, aged twenty-three years, ten months and one day; John Haskell, born- March 7, 1856, at Marietta, Ohio, married Nellie Johnson, October 26, 1880. Philena Bert Gray died October 10, 1862, at Covington, Ky., aged forty-four years, nine months and two days. William Ide Gray and Jennie Cunningham (his second wife) were married at Cincinnati, Ohio, October 5, 1863. Their children were: Florence Edna, born July 10, 1865, at, Cincinnati, Ohio, married Frank C. Haymaker, of Clarksburg, W. Va., December 28, 1886; Horace Cunningham, born March 1, 1867, at Purdy. Tenn., married Allie Wade, of Murfreesboro, Tenn. John Haskell Gray, born March 7, 1856, and Nellie Johnson, born July 22, 1859, were married at No. 357 West Seventh street, Cincinnati, by Rev. Mr. Fitch, on October 26, 1880. Their children were: Harry Walter, born June 30, 1882, at No. 98 Broadway, Cincinnati, died August 3, 1882; Altherton Lyon, born November 28, 1883; Frank William born July 28, 1887, in the Lombardy building.

JOSEPH R. BROWN, general commission merchant, at No. 34 Walnut street, was born in Cincinnati, July 24, 1838, and is a son of Charles L. and Annie M. (Bacon) Brown, natives of New Jersey and of English origin. He is a grandson of John and Lavina (Roberts) Brown, the latter of Welsh ancestry. His great-grandfather Brown was an officer in the English army, but at the outbreak of the American Revolution joined the colonists, for which he was disowned by his family. His grandfather was a contractor arid builder of bridges, canals, roads, turnpikes, etc. His father followed the same business. On coming to Cincinnati the latter was accompanied by the grandmother of our subject, and her three brothers, Thomas, Robert and Dr. Joseph Roberts. Charles L. Brown died in 1847, at the age of thirty-three years. His wife survived him until May 15, 1890, when she passed

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY. - 849

away at the age of seventy-four years. The family consisted of five children, four of whom are living: Joseph R,. ; Maria S., who was first. married to Edward L. Tozier, and after his decease to M. J. Louderback; Martha A., married Charles M. Story, who, together with Charles A. Brown, the youngest surviving child, is associated in business with Joseph R.

Our subject was educated in the public schools of Cincinnati, and also attended the public schools of Peoria, Ill., for a short time, completing his education in Gundry's Commercial College, Cincinnati. He then engaged as shipping clerk for the firm of Conkling & Bacon, where he remained one year, after which he went to Peoria, Ill., and engaged as a clerk in the grocery business. One year later, however, the junior member of Conkling & Bacon went to Peoria, and induced him to again enter their employ, and be remained until the dissolution of the firm in 1861. He then embarked in the commission business under the title of J. R. Brown & Company, and two years later entered into partnership with F. Jelke, forming the firm of brown & Jelke, which existed nine years. His next partner was H. Morgenthan, the style of the firm being Morgenthan & Brown, fish and general commission merchants. Three years later, in 1883, the business of the firm was dissolved, Mr. Morgenthan taking for his part their fish trade, and Mr. Brown with his brother, Charles A., the commission part, forming the firm of J. R. Brown & Company, which still exists. In August, 1892, Mr. Brown was made president of the Swift Powder & Cartridge Company, of Tallapoosa, Ga., where he spent the following winter constructing their mills, which are the finest of the kind in the United States.

Mr. Brown was married, May 17, 1866, to Miss Mary A., daughter of George George, of Cincinnati, now of Wyoming, Ohio. The issue of this marriage is three children, two of whom are living: Edna G. and Luella M.. graduates of the Wyoming High School in the classes of '93 and '94, respectively. Mr. Brown's family are members of Wayne Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church, of Wyoming, where they reside. He is a thirty-second degree Mason, and member of the Knights Templar and Mystic Shrine. He is a Republican in his political views. In 1872 be was made director of the Chamber of Commerce, two years later was made second vice-president, a year later vice-president, and in 1891 was acting president of that institution, although many of his colleagues, including the candidate for vice-president, were defeated. This is the highest; honor which the commercial world of Cincinnati can bestow.

WILLIAM S. MERRELL AND His SUCCESSORS. The business of manufacturing chemical and pharmaceutical preparations now conducted by the William S. Merrell Chemical Company was founded by William S. Merrell, A.M., M.D.. in 1830, and its uninterrupted growth and success, through three generations, attest its established character, the value of its products, and the integrity of its methods. The efforts of the company are directed more to the perfection of all medicines for physicians' use than to the introduction of new remedies, and their investigations, conducted by and under the supervision of Charles G. Merrell, S.B., of the third generation of the active directors of this historic business, have special reference to this important and much neglected line of work.

William S. Merrell. the original founder of this enterprise, was born at New Durham, Greene Co., N. Y.. January 8, 1798, three years after the removal of his parents to that locality from New Hartford, Conn. In 1801 the family removed to Oneida county, N. Y., and there he received his primary education in the country schools. He pursued his studies at the preparatory school of Hamilton College, and at the age of sixteen came to Cincinnati to be adopted by his uncle, Major William Stanley, after whom he was named, one of the earliest merchants here. He made the long and lonely journey on horseback, a considerable undertaking for one so young, but one from which his resolute spirit did not shrink. Three months after his arrival his life plans were suddenly changed by the death of Major Stanley.

850 - HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY.

He made another horseback journey back to his old home in Oneida county, and after completing his preparatory studies was graduated from Hamilton College in 1824, in the same class with many others who have attained national prominence. Chemistry had always possessed an irresistible charm for him, and upon his graduation he returned to Cincinnati and opened a preparatory school, making a specialty of chemistry and allied sciences. It is a matter of historical moment that he was undoubtedly the first educated chemist who had located west of the Alleghany Mountains. A year later he went to Augusta, Ky., and became principal of a then popular seminary. The liberality of his theological views did not accord well with the timid orthodoxy of that old town in that day and the friction which was engendered impelled him after three years to resign the position. Going to Tuscumbia, Ala., he became president of a female college at, that place, but his devotion to chemistry, loading him into the pathway to success which he pursued with such distinguished honor, brought him back to Cincinnati, where in 1830 he opened a drug store at the corner of Chestnut street and Western row (now Central avenue). Thence he subsequently removed to Court and Pluto streets, where he prosecuted his celebrated investigations in Indigenous Materia Medica, and in 1847 discovered and introduced podophyllin, the well-known substitute for calomel, which at this time probably enters into more physicians' combinations than any other drug.

During this period his brother, A. S. Merrell, became a partner in his enterprise. In 1852 the concern was removed to the northeast corner of Pearl and Vine streets. In 1858 the Messrs. Merrell bought the large building at No. 110 West Third street, two doors from the "Burnet House." There the business was continued until 1875 with some changes in management, and always with increasing success, notwithstanding the fact that the establishment was burned out four times during the six years from 1866 to 1872. In 1875 the enterprise was removed to-No. 5 West Fifth street, where it was located until 1881. William S. Merrell died September 4, 1880. He was president of the Eclectic Medical College, and a member of the American Pharmaceutical Association. After the death of his father, George Merrell, who had long been a partner in the concern and the active manager of the business, purchased the interest of his father's estate, and, having acquired the interest of his uncle, organized the William S. Merrell Chemical Company, of which George Merrell is president, J. B. Hargrave secretary, and Charles . Merrell is vice-president and superintendent, and among the stockholders of which are included some of Cincinnati's wealthiest and most prominent business men. In 1881 the familiar buildings at. Sixth street and Eggleston avenue were erected and occupied by the company until the completion of the