To be a public man of note renders such an one an object of interest to the public, to say nothing of the gratification in that fact to the public man himself.  One such, a fellow-townsman in Cincinnati, we seldom failed to look upon as we passed him on the street from his personal attractions and general reputations as a man.  He was rather short in stature but a full-chested erect, plumply-built and very handsome man, with dark smiling eyes, a noble, massive head adorned with a wealth of dark luxuriant hair: life seemed to go pleasant with him.  We never heard the sound of his voice: but once, just before the civil war, were simultaneously in each other’s eyes.  We had met and passed on a side street, each of us alone; then we turned to gaze upon (844) him at the same moment he had turned to gaze on us.  The reader has had a like experience and appreciates the mutual mortification of the moment.  Which of us felt the meanest is an unsolved problem.  When on our late tour over Ohio we were in the Tom CORWIN mansion, at Lebanon, Judge SAGE, whose home it is, and who was with us, said with pride and enhancing the attractions

of the mansion, “In the room over us GEORGE H. PENDLETON passes several days when he was an infant.”  This was the full-rounded man we met as above described.  His fellow-townsman called him “Gentleman George” from his suave manners and courtly ways.  Then he was “well fixed” for pleasant contemplation possessing, as reputed, ample means, the best social relations, the best Virginia blood  the revolutionary war coursing through his veins and as the mother of his children one of the most beautiful, sweetly-mannered of women, and of the blonde order, a daughter of Francis Scott Key, author of the never-to-be-forgotten ode, “The Star-Spangled Banner.”  Her tragic death in Central Park, a few years ago, thrown from her carriage, is remembered with a pang.

GEORGE HUNT PENDLETON was born in Cincinnati 25th July, 1825, and educated to the law.  He was elected as a Democrat to Congress in 1856, serving till 1865, where he was on the Committees on Military Affairs and Ways and Means.

“In 1860, at the time of the division of the Democratic party at the Charleston Convention, Mr. PENDLETON warmly supported Mr. Douglas.  On sectional questions he was moderate and conservative.  If dissolution was inevitable, he preferred it should be a peaceful one; if war was to be waged, he warned Congress to ‘prepare to wage it to the last extremity:’ and accordingly voted for all measures required to enable the government to maintain its honor and dignity.”

He was on the ticket for the Vice-President, in 1864; was unsuccessful on the Democratic ticket for Governor of Ohio in 1869 against R. B. HAYES.  In 1878 was elected U. S. Senator, and became Chairman of the Committee on Civil Service Reform.  In 1885 he was appointed by President CLEVELAND  U. S. Minister to Germany.

He died of apoplexy in Brussels, Nov. 24, 1889.  He remains lie buried in Spring Gove.  He was regarded as “the very pink of honor; performed many generous deeds; had antagonists, but no enemies.”

Columbus GEORGE WARD NICHOLS, small in person but great in will, was born in Fremont, Mr. Desert, on the coast of Maine, in 1837, and died in Cincinnati in 1855.  He traveled in Europe, making his headquarters in Paris.  His tastes were for the fine arts, and he learned to draw and paint.  In the war period he was aid both to Fremont and to Sherman, on his march to the sea.  Then he came to Cincinnati, where he was for a time engaged in drawing and painting.  His life there is a part of the history of the city.  His father’s house had been a musical home, and love of music was his master passion.  He became the originator and organizer of the May Musical Festivals, the Opera Festivals, and the College of Music, founded in 1879, and “was its president, and placed the  (845) college where envy could not reach it.”  The important educational influences of such work and the honorable reputation it has given the city, it is not to be lightly measured.  he was author of “The Story of the Great March to the Sea;” “Art Education Applied to Industry,” and “Pottery: How it is Made.”

CHARLES W. WEST, whose great benefaction for an Art Museum in Cincinnati is a lasting memorial of beauty and pleasure, was born in Montgomery county, Pa.  In 1810 worked on a farm, until he was twenty-one years of age, and at thirty-one established himself in Cincinnati as a merchant and had great success.

In September, 1880, he offered to contribute $150,000 toward the erection of an art museum building, provided that an equal amount was raised by subscription: on the condition being fulfilled he gave twice as much as he had promised.  The building was begun in 1882 and finished in 1885; but Mr. WEST did not live to see it finished, he dying the year before aged seventy-four years.  His portrait in the museum is in seeming that of a genial gentleman, full of sociality and good fellowship, which indeed were his characteristics.  His offer came as a grand surprise.  On the opening of the Exposition of 1880, its President, Hon. Melville E. INGALLS, the famed railroad manager, read a letter later termed the “famous letter,” from Mr. WEST making his magnificent offer.  When the Exposition closed “in glory” having been a great success financially and artistically, Mr. INGALLS gave a public dinner to his friends, whereupon fifty-three gentlemen obligated themselves to increase the fund for the Art Museum $1,000 each, in all $53,000.  This assured success.

STANLEY MATTHEWS was born in Cincinnati, July 21, 1824, the son of a college professor.  He graduated at Kenyon, where he was a classmate of R. B. HAYES, and lifelong friend.  He adopted the profession of the law and at one time edited an anti-slavery newspaper, the Cincinnati Herald.  He became

 judge of the Court of Common Pleas, held other officers, entered the army as Lieut. Columbus of the 23d Ohio, W.S. ROSECRANS being its Colonel, and R. B. HAYES, Major; remained in the army until April, 1863, when he was elected by the Republicans judge of the Superior Court of Cincinnati; soon resigned and engaged in a large and lucrative he rendered efficient service to the claims of Mr. HAYES.  In 1877 he succeeded John SHERMAN in the Senate.  In 1881 he was appointed associate justice of the United States Supreme Court.  he died March 21, 1889, leaving the reputation of being a great lawyer and a most lovable man.  In person he was tall, manly and approachable to everybody.  “If he had lived,” said Senator PAYNE, “he would have been the foremost jurist in the land.”  Another said, “Few stronger men have been born: he embodied extraordinary powers,” and with him, “Religion was a worship and not a show.”

WILLIAM S. GROESBECK was born July 24, 1815, in New York city; was educated to the law and came to Cincinnati.  In 1851 was a member of the State Constitutional Convention; in 1852 one of the commission (846)

and now having become known of all men and to many nations he is giving its Art Museum the benefit of his great experience, while snowing up for his  patriarchal years.