Rudolph RHEMBOLDT, of Springdale, formerly an enterprising business
man of Cincinnati, was born in Baden, Germany, December 27, 1827. His
father
was a brewer and gave him a good education in this business, he having
attended the colleges of Carlsruhe and Freiburg, Germany. In 1818 he
emigrated
to America and began in the brewer's business as teamster for KAUFFMAN,
where he remained for three years. He made a visit to Europe but
returned
in 1851 after a short stay, and went into the commission business on
Fourth
street, and soon after into the brewer's business again as one of the
partners
of GLASS & BRAUER. In 1854 he married a daughter of Mr. KAUFFMAN,
and
in 1856 went into the firm of ERCHENLAUB & KAUFFMAN, on Vine
street,
which business he conducted with success until 1877, when he retired
from
active life and settled on his farm.
William P. BRUCE, of Glendale, Springfield township, was born in
Fleming
county, Kentucky, December 7, 1832. When eighteen years of age he
formed
a partnership with a Mr. CHAPPELL in the merchandise business, and
later
a Mr. McINTYRE was admitted, and the firm continued thus until 1865,
when
Mr. BRUCE, in the firm of CHAPPELL, BRUCE & McINTYRE, came to
Cincinnati
and located at 44 West Fourth street, where they kept a wholesale dry
goods
store. In 1873 Mr. BRUCE went into the real estate business at 73 West
Third street, but in 1875 removed to Glendale, where he operated until
1876 with Mr. McINTYRE in the general merchandise trade, and since that
time with his son, under the name of W. P. BRUCE & Son. Mr. BRUCE's
grandfather came from Scotland and settled in Virginia, but removed to
Kentucky, where his father (William P.'s), was born. The family of
BRUCES
is a large one, and includes some of the oldest prominent citizens of
that
State. The grandfather was high sheriff of his county, and his numerous
descendants are well and favorably known.
Major James N. CALDWELL, of Carthage, was born in Franklin, Warren
county,
Ohio, November 17, 1817. His father, Samuel CALDWELL, was a master
builder
in Philadelphia, from which place he moved to Cincinnati in 1794, and
settled
at North Bend. He afterwards kept a dry goods store in Cincinnati; but
moved to Franklin in 1808, where he died in 1848. He was a prominent
man,
holding the offices of judge of the common pleas court, was a member of
the legislature, also a State senator. J. N. CALDWELL received a good,
liberal education at the college of Hanover, Indiana. Was a cadet at
the
West Point academy from 1836 to 1840, graduating at that time and
promoted
to brevet second lieutenancy, and from there served in the Florida war
-- 1840 as second lieutenant, and on frontier duty from 1841 to 1845;
then
in the recruiting service, one year after which he was placed at
different
posts in Texas, and promoted to the positions of first lieutenant and
then
to that of captain. In 1861 he entered the service as commander of the
barracks at Key West, Florida, and was promoted to major of infantry
February
27, 1862, his corps operating principally in Tennessee and Kentucky.
December
31, 1862, for gallantry and meritorious services at Murfreesborough,
Tennessee,
was promoted to brevet lieutenant colonelcy. In 1863, on account of ill
health and disability, he retired from the service, and was for one
year
-- 1866-7 -- member of the executive board of candidates for promotion
in the army at Louisville, Kentucky. January 1, 1866, per special order
No. 198, A. G. O., he was detailed as professor of military science at
Louisville, Kentucky, and at his own request relieved in 1869, since
which
time he has lived on his farm at Carthage.
John P. DECKER, the able and efficient superintendent of the
Cincinnati
infirmary at Hartwell, was born in Mt.
Auburn, July 18, 1841. His parents were of Germanic birth, the father
being born near Strasburgh and his mother near Mentz. When nineteen
years
of age the father came to America and in 1853 died in Cincinnati. John
was raised a farmer near Hartwell, and experienced the usual hardships
common to orphans (his parents were both dead when he was thirteen
years
of age), beginning life empty-handed and without friends. But he was
sturdy,
honest, reliable, and in the main successful. In the beginning of the
war
he, was in the South, and in order to escape joined the Confederate
army,
where he remained about twenty-four hours, and on making his way to St.
Louis entered the army under General FREMONT. He also served in the Red
River expedition and afterwards was with SHERMAN in his raid to the
sea.
In 1865 he was mustered out and went to work as a farmer at the
infirmary.
In 1871 he held the position as captain of the guard under Ira WOOD for
five years at the workhouse. In 1876 he was appointed as lieutenant of
the police force of the Twenty-fifth ward, and in 1877 as
superintendent
of the city infirmary. In 1878 he was legislated out by the O'Conor
legislature,
and until 1880 was United States store-keeper, appointed by Amor SMITH,
collector of the First district, at the end of which time he was
reappointed
to the position of superintendent of the infirmary. His amiable wife,
formerly
Miss Elizabeth SMITH, of Cincinnati, matron of the infirmary, is a
woman
well fitted for the position she holds, having worked in and filled all
the minor posts of the institution previous to her promotion. The
infirmary
now furnishes a home for five hundred and sixty persons.
George W. BACON, grocer, of Glendale, Springfield township. He was
initiated
into his business as clerk for Aaron A. COLTER & Co., Sixth and
Race
streets, Cincinnati, and afterwards for five years with Abner L.
FRAZIER
& Co., No. 44 Walnut street, in the same city. Thus, with eight
years'
experience in all, he came to Glendale and formed a partnership with
McCORMICK,
which was continued up to January, 1880, when Mr. BACON began business
for himself. He was born in Carthage, Ohio, in 1852; received a good
common
school education in his own village, and in the high schools of
Cincinnati.
He was married to Amanda M. LANGDON, daughter of William LANGDON, in
October,
1879. Her parents were old settlers of the county.
Joseph SAMPSON, bricklayer and plasterer in Lockland, in which
business
and town he has been for the past twenty-two years. His father, James
SAMPSON,
was an old settler of the county, being eighty four years of age when
he
died in 1878. In 1854 Mr. SAMPSON was married to Miss Jane DOTEY, of
Carthage,
at which place he lived a short time, but since then in Lockland where
he has followed his business and in which he has been very successful.
He is at present engaged in building a large cotton factory. One son,
Albert,
the oldest, is married and lives at Cleveland, and is a telegraph
operator
on the Short Line. His son John is in business with his father. Mr.
SAMPSON
is not only comfortably located in the town, but owns considerable
property
in the country.
Captain Charles ROSS, of Carthage, Springfield township, the well
known
steamboat captain and pilot, was born in 1806 in Warren county,
Pennsylvania,
where his parents (Scotch descent) had removed from New Jersey in 1800.
In 1810 the family removed to Columbia, Hamilton county, and from there
to Cincinnati in 1815. When twelve years of age he went to New Orleans,
going on a barge down and walking part of the way back. After this he
took
several trips down and back in steamboats. In 1825 he commenced
piloting
steamboats to and from Cincinnati and New Orleans, and, when the river
was too low, running keel-boats and flat-boats. Between the years 1825
and 1852 he commanded not less than thirty steamers of different
classes,
and during all that time never met with any serious accident. In
BUCHANAN's
administration he was appointed supervising inspector of steamboats,
with
headquarters at St. Louis. During the war he helped to get up
regiments,
and volunteered to help the Cincinnati surgeons to the fight at Fort
Donelson,
and brought back a boat-load of sick and wounded to Cincinnati. His
boat
plied between all the important places on the Mississippi and the Yazoo
rivers, sometimes carrying troops, at other times bringing off sick and
wounded. He did efficient service for Admiral PORTER, and also
transported
Colonel GARFIELD's regiment from the Big Sandy to the south. He was at
Lexington, Kentucky, during the MORGAN raids, and was at the siege of
Vicksburgh;
at this place he had an operation performed on his lip, to remove an
epithelia
or lip cancer, cutting off the whole of the lower lip. It would take a
volume to recount all the romantic incidents connected with the
captain's
history during the war; suffice it to say he performed gallant service
until he resigned, June 11, 1864. He has travelled with many
distinguished
men, such as Andrew JACKSON, General SCOTT, General McCOMB, General
HARRISON,
General Samuel HOUSTON, Colonel David CROCKETT, Colonel Thomas BENTON,
Zachary TAYLOR, PRENTISS, and a host of others. He has now two sons and
three daughters grown up, twelve grandchildren and three
great-grand-children.
His wife is dead.
Nathan W. HICKOX, of Glendale, came with his father from the
battle-grounds
of Wyoming in 1836 to Ohio, when but seventeen years of age. His father
was a farmer, and was born near Litchfield, Connecticut, in 1793. In
1816
he married Miss Laura WALLER, and in 1862 he died. Mr. HICKOX,
carpenter
and builder, learned his trade in 1847, and followed the business in
Cincinnati
until 1852, since which time he has built many houses in the town in
which
he lives. Mr. HICKOX has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal
church
for forty years, is one of the deacons, and is also superintendent of
the
Sabbaths-school. He has been married twice, his last wife being Miss
Ann
DRAKE, of Butler county. He built himself a nice residence in 1869.
Major James HUSTON, jr., farmer and teacher, the oldest of twelve
children,
was born of Irish parentage, November 20, 1819, in Cumberland county,
Pennsylvania.
The parents, Paul and Mary (CARRUTHERS) HUSTON, moved to Hamilton
county
in 1823, where they lived seven years; and thence to Logan county,
Ohio.
James HUSTON received a good frontier education in the schools of that
day, and received a careful training at home. In 1837 he came to
Hamilton
county and found work on a farm, and in 1838 taught school one year in
Warren county. In 1840 he went to New Orleans but returned to Ohio via
Lebanon, Tennessee, where he taught school for six months and in 1841,
resumed work in the schoolroom in Hamilton county, where he remained in
that profession until 1850, when he went to California, by way of
Panama,
and where he remained digging in the mines until 1852. When he returned
he came to Hamilton, and again taught school. At the breaking out of
the
war he entered the service as captain of company I, in the One Hundred
and Thirty-eighth Ohio volunteer infantry. In 1861, he was elected
member
of the Ohio legislature and reelected in 1863. In 1870 he was appointed
assistant in the county treasurer's office, and, since 1865, has
devoted
himself to farming in Sycamore township. He is a member of the Masonic
fraternity.
Lloyd Smethurst BROWN (deceased, of Reading) a retired merchant and
capitalist of Sycamore township, was born October 24, 1822, in New
York.
His father was a shoemaker, and at an early date settled in Columbia,
Hamilton
county, Ohio. From here the family removed to Cairo, Illinois, and from
there to Vevay, Indiana, thence to Evansville, Indiana, where the
father
died, in 1819, and the mother in 1822. They left an orphan. Mr. BROWN
went
to live with his uncle, Lloyd SMETHURST, near Montgomery, Hamilton
county,
Ohio. He learned tinsmithing, and, after two years spent at his trade,
entered a store in Montgomery, where he remained until 1840, and
embarked
in business for himself in the same place, and, with the exception of
one
year in Cincinnati, remained in Montgomery until 1846, when he moved to
Lockland, where he bought an interest in the Turnpike company
(Cincinnati
and Xenia), and was elected its secretary and treasurer, and has been
devoted
to the settling of estates and to the insurance business. In 1875 he
was
elected to the Ohio legislature, and became an honored and useful
member
of that body. On October 1, 1840, he married Margaret A. WEAVER, a
native
of Virginia. In 1879, after living a prominent member of society, he
died.
Wesley SMIZER, M.D., was born in Clermont county, Ohio, February 28,
1828. He was the youngest son of seven children. His father, Phillip
SMIZER,
was a farmer, engaging extensively in agricultural pursuits in
Maryland.
He was an early settler in Clermont county, and died there in 1839. His
mother, Mary CARMON, was a native of Ohio, and died there in 1870.
Wesley
SMIZER, although raised a farmer, received a liberal education, and in
1849 began the study of medicine, under Henry SMIZER, of Waynesville,
Ohio,
graduating, after a period of study of three years, in 1852. He first
practiced
in Paducah, Kentucky, but his health failing, at the end of eight
months
he was obliged to return to Waynesville, where he remained for three
years.
He attended a course of lectures at the Cincinnati Eclectic college,
and
graduated from that institution in 1856, and immediately afterwards
went
to Sharonville, where he has practiced his profession ever since, and
has
been successful in securing a large practice. He was married to
Elizabeth
HOOK, a native of Hamilton county, in 1858. Her father, William HOOK,
was
a prominent resident, and a successful farmer of that place.
H. I. KESSLING, of Reading, was a native of Germany, born in
Hanover,
of that country, in 1821. He came to Cincinnati in 1849. His father was
a good scholar and prominent man, being the mayor of the district court
in Furstenan. Mr. KESSLING is a well-known baker of Cincinnati, where
he
operated on the corner of Clinton and Linn. Streets in that business
for
over twenty years, and still carries on that enterprise in the person
of
his son, who is a young man of some ability and fitness for the
business.
Mr. KESSLING came to Redding in 1866, and bought some valuable
property,
intending to start a coal and lumber yard; but the advent of the Short
Line railroad changed his intentions, and he has since kept a
wine-room.
Daniel LAWRENCE, one of the most prominent men of Reading, was a
native
of New Jersey, born in that State April 7, 1809. His father, Jonathan,
was a farmer, and had served a regular apprenticeship, and afterwards
carried
on the business in a successful and scientific manner. His grandfather,
whose name also was Jonathan, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war.
He
was born in 1757. Jonathan, jr., was born in 1776, and removed to Ohio
in 1817. Mr. LAWRENCE served an apprenticeship in the tanning business,
and worked in Deer Creek, on the old Hunt tan-yard, for four years. In
1836 he came to Reading and followed his business until 1869, when he
sold
out, having during that time made considerable money. He is now
enjoying
a retired life. In 1840 he was married to Laura FOSTER, daughter of
Judge
FOSTER, with whom he lived twenty-five years. In 1866 he married Mrs.
WOODRUFF,
nee
CORTLEWAN, granddaughter of Abram VOORHEES, and by her has two children
living. Mr. and Mrs. LAWRENCE are comfortably fixed in cosy quarters,
and
are highly cultivated people.
Harvey VOORHEES, who lives on the same farm his father, Garret
VOORHEES,
moved upon in 1794, was born on this place, near Reading, August 22,
1819.
His grandfather, Abram VOORHEES, was born in Somerset county, New
Jersey,
September 16, 1733, and emigrated to Hamilton county about the year
1793.
Garret, his son, born June 9, 1763; moved from New Jersey to Hamilton
county
in 1791, coming down the river in a flat-boat, and landed at the fort
in
Columbia, and from there the family, after the war closed, settled upon
section thirty-three, in a station-house -- Garret moving to where
Harvey
now lives in 1794. Garret VOORHEES died December 14, 1861. The family
experienced
a series of hardships common to the settlers of Indian times. Harvey
VOORHEES
was never married.
Jacob VOORHEES, the well-known justice of the peace in Reading, is a
grandson of Abram VOORHEES, the early pioneer, who settled on section
thirty-three,
Sycamore township, about the year 1794. Jacob VOORHEES, sr., father of
the subject of our sketch, was a public spirited citizen, and was a
colonel
at one time in the army. His son, Jacob VOORHEES, was born and reared
in
Cincinnati, where he learned and followed the trade of carriage-making
until about the year 1855, when he came to Reading, and has since that
time lived a public life, filling the various offices of assessor,
justice
of the peace, etc., for several years. Mr. VOORHEES is a prominent man
and a highly esteemed citizen of his town and township.
John COOPER, of Sycamore township, was born in Mill Creek in 1820.
In
1832 his father moved to Reading, and in 1853 moved to the farm upon
which
he now lives. In 1847 he married Miss OLIVER, who is now dead. His
grandfather
came to Cincinnati in 1793, following in the wake of WAYNE's army. He
was
also a spy in the Revolutionary war. His son Thomas, father of John, by
his third wife, married Hannah STORRS, sister of Judge STORRS, about
the
year 1811, and by her had ten children. He was a prominent man in his
time,
having been a surveyor of the county; also served as county
commissioner
for fourteen years. In 1831 he purchased three hundred acres of ground
near Reading, part of which John now owns. Mr. COOPER is and ever has
been
a public spirited-citizen of his county. He has filled positions of
trust
on the board of public works and has been identified as a leader of
public
improvements in general. The Cincinnati & Xenia turnpike is largely
owned and controlled by him, and under his management it has been a
successful,
paying road.
Peter JACOB, of Reading, came from France. Was a stone-cutter by
trade,
and is the oldest saloonist in Reading, having been in that business in
that place for thirty-five years, and in which he has made considerable
money. He served one term as mayor of the town, and has been sixteen
years
member of the village council, and has also filled the office of street
commissioner. He had a son -- now dead -- who served in the war, and
was
also marshal of the town. Mr. JACOB owns some valuable property in the
town of Reading.
